Photo right: Donna MacDonald, taking a break from her work in Mississippi.

 

Exhausting. Draining. Moving. Helpless. Empowered. Dignity. A gift.

These are words that psychotherapist Donna MacDonald uses to describe her three weeks as a Red Cross volunteer following Hurricane Katrina.

Donna and her husband moved from the Boston area to Bonita Springs, Florida, for a well-earned retirement. But she had an intuition that her experience in psychotherapy and community mental health could be useful in new and surprising ways, so she qualified as a disaster mental health worker for the Red Cross.

Donna concentrated on her part-time psychotherapy practice for some time before she received the call to serve. Once Katrina hit, Donna’s local Red Cross chapter asked her to go to Laurel, Mississippi. Although Laurel is 90 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, it was devastated by more than 60 tornados caused by the hurricane.

Donna’s volunteer group brought food and water supplies and bunked in sleeping bags at a Methodist church, where local volunteers took care of them by feeding them and doing their laundry. "Women from the church left us notes addressed to our Red Cross angels,” said Donna.

Disaster mental health involves helping screen and support people through trauma. “Only about 10% of my work was actually mental health,” says Donna, “the rest was meeting basic needs for emergency assistance. I was also intervening with local volunteers, who were facing things they had never faced before.”

Photo left: Teacher Eve Sher with students at Fairfield Woods Middle School in Fairfield, Connecticut, who are corresponding with African village children.

"The letters are here! The letters are here!" exclaimed excited middle school students.

This fall, with the help of global-minded teacher Eve Sher, Women’s Perspective brought letters, books and school supplies from Fairfield Woods Middle School to school students in Kisumu, Kenya. We returned to the US with letters and photos from Africa children, who were delighted with the new relationship.

This exchange is part of WP's project to connect women and children in the U.S. with their counterparts in African villages. (See photo of women correspondents.) The initiative hopes to foster ongoing personal relationships in which participants realize their hopes for a peek into each others’ worlds. To participate, please email us.

Author: Susyn Reeve
Publisher: Red Wheel

If we don’t - each and every one of us - choose peace and happiness for our own lives, who will?

Peace - and how to get it - is crucial just now, and likely to remain so. Yet, in spite of these turbulent, anxious times, anyone can choose to experience lasting peace and happiness every day.

Susyn Reeve began Choose Peace & Happiness as a result of a workshop she developed and taught for Mount Sinai-NYU Health, a large medical center in New York City, in the aftermath of September 11. Then she formed a virtual Peace & Happiness group of people who read the material and shared their experiences and responses via email.

Based on Mahatma Gandhi’s eternal philosophy, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” Choose Peace & Happiness offers readers weekly practices, ideas, and suggestions for how they can become happier and more peaceful as individuals and in groups. It helps readers change their thinking and actions to bring about inner peace, as well as find happiness within and without, for themselves and the communities they live in.

Choose Peace & Happiness is a year-long journey with 52 topics, which include “Be Grateful,” “Use the Creative Power of Your Word,” and “Live Abundantly.” Each topic forms a chapter with seven days of readings, techniques, and activities. On Day 7, readers write their reflections on the week in their personal journals. Reeve gently helps readers let go of old habits and new fears to break through resistance into an ever-deepening experience of peace and happiness.

We are deeply grateful to those who fulfill our wish list by contributing time, talent and funding to Women's Perspective. Thank you very much!

Currently we are seeking volunteers to help us with several "divine assignments" -

• Volunteers to organize an evening event on March 9, 2006 in Fairfield, CT with Jean Shinoda Bolen, including a dinner and talk.
• Introductions to foundations that fund capacity building and operating expenses.
• Volunteers with fundraising experience (proposal writing and event planning).
• We always need airline frequent flyer miles.

If you can help, please call 203-336-2238 or email us.

To learn about other ways you can help Women's Perspective fulfill its mission to help women connect their financial lives with their deepest values, see our recent solicitation letter.

December 31, 2005, marks the end of a temporary window to take advantage of special federal tax incentives for charitable giving, which were enacted following Hurricane Katrina.

Please discuss the impact of these temporary tax provisions with your tax advisor:

Normally, an individual cannot take a deduction for charitable contributions that exceed 50% of the individual's contribution base (generally, the individual's adjusted gross income). This limit will not apply to qualified cash contributions made to charitable organizations during the period August 28 through December 31, 2005. During that period, the general limitation on itemized deductions will also not apply to qualified charitable contributions.

A basic membership of $30 per year will help us develop workshops and create bold new ways of educating women to become financially confident while maintaining their integrity. We need you to support this effort. Whether or not you become a member, you will still receive our email newsletter.