She is a blogger, a brand new mom, and an ambassador to Africa. She came into each of those things in somewhat indirect ways, but they are each direct outgrowths of the family values she and her husband decided to embrace when they got married. They were both committed to serving others, especially children and moms. She became the Community Manager of SwankyMoms.com, after the site was bought by a social media company from the Canadian woman who started it 6 1/2 years ago. She  has been a mother for only a few days as of this writing, but before that and along with it, she and her husband have sponsored two orphaned Kenyan boys, Charles and Kieran, for several years.

Her service with and for the people of Africa didn’t start with a big, direct plunge, either. The family of the man she married was involved with Christian Ministries in Africa, a small, Kenyan-based relief organization, for 20 years before she got involved, and he introduced her to it when they started dating. Though she could see the great need and spirit of the people, she was initially overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do. She had a full-time job and very little time, for one thing. But she was determined to help, so she and her hubby found something they could do: sponsor a child for $35 a month. Then, one day when she had a dentist appointment, she decided to ask him to help. He donated 20 toothbrushes. And it grew from there.

Today, she is responsible for helping to raise support and awareness for CMIA, which runs three orphanages, seven pre-primary schools, one academy, one clinic/lab, and various feeding stations, Bible training centers, and churches in Nairobi, Kenya. She also helps put together 5-10 teams a year of American teens carrying supplies to Kenya and Nairobi. The challenges that she’s faced along the way have galvanized and, in many ways, directed her efforts. The extensive governmental corruption and unequal distribution of power in Africa, for instance, make shipping supplies and money there very risky, and have necessitated the team trips. But those trips, some of which she and her husband have participated in themselves, have been gratifying not only because of the help they deliver to the people of Kenya, but also because of the effect they have on the participating teens, who go to Africa thinking they’ll help others, but in fact come back having done not only that, but having their eyes opened as well and their spirits touched.

2 Steps to Making a Difference in the World

So, she advises others who want to make a difference in the world but don’t have much to spare or don’t know where to start, to do these two simple things:

1. Define what you’re passionate about. “As moms, our time gets divided up alot. It’s best to define what things make you cry, cut out unessentials, and be okay with that,” she says.
2. Learn the ability to “say no in order to say yes.” It’s difficult but ultimately more gratifying.

Angela Ishmael, a mom making a difference in many ways, started out simply with a desire to help, a desire that has grown into actual, effective, direct action. Get to know her better on Twitter.

Who are moms that you know you are making a big difference in the lives of others? What are they doing and why do they inspire you?

ONE.org’s current “F Word” campaign puts a spin on the traditional definition by calling “famine” the new F Word. Why? Think about it. More people pay attention to hollywood breakups than they do to the fact that 30,000 African children have died of starvation. We’re not talking one or two kids, which still wouldn’t be OK. We’re talking 30,000, folks! And, what’s worse? The famine in the horn of Africa is threatening many more lives to the tune of 13 million people. Obscene!

Via ONE.org, “Growth in agriculture is twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors.”

When government and non-government organizations join forces, they can make a tremendous positive impact in supporting foreign countries and in this case, helping fight famine.

On a trip this summer to Kenya, I visited an Irish potato farm…

and a dairy farm (where Karen from Chookooloonks.com milked a cow for the very first time)…

I saw the inspiring work of USAID and Land O’Lakes at work in rural Kenya. Locals, with these organizations’ assistance, were leading the agricultural growth in an effort to fight famine and provide sustainable ways to feed their people.

But these programs are at risk. Per ONE.org:

In Africa and beyond, the US government is investing in local agriculture, safety nets, risk management, and other programs so that this type of tragedy becomes history. But this fall, Congress threatens to cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that sustainably help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger. This, coupled with increased peace and security can help ensure famine never happens again.

5 Ways You Can Help Fight Famine

You may feel very far away from places like Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia—places at high risk for famine. But, you don’t have to travel any further than the walls of your own home to make a difference. Here are 5 ways you can help right from where you’re at:

1. Find out the facts and what you can do to help. http://usaid.gov/fwd/action.html
2. Text your support. http://one.org/us/actnow/do-more.html
3. Sign this petition to raise your voice to congress in support of foreign aid: http://one.org/us/actnow/
4. Write your congressman/woman: http://www.one.org/c/us/about/844/
5. Share your knowledge via Twitter, Facebook, email, and your blogs.

Take Part in Blog Action Day

1. On social media: Follow  discuss  and share on Twitter via the #BAD11 hashtag  or our Facebook Page .
2. Write your own blog: Write a blog, use the #BAD11 tag , register your blog with us and promote it via Twitter and Facebook using the #BAD11 tag.
3. Read and comment: Read other people’s Blog Action Day blogs and have a conversation with them by leaving them a comment.

How do global issues impact you? What can you do from your own corner of the world to make a difference for those suffering in other countries? How can you help fight the global famine crisis?

I wasn’t prepared to see some of the suffering I witnessed on my recent trip to Kenya with ONE.org, which will always remind a part of me. Likewise, I wasn’t prepared to see the ways in which the Kenyan people are overcoming their suffering, which will forever change me.

I didn’t snap a pic of the child I saw who was suffering from Malaria. I didn’t capture images of the people I saw who had HIV. I didn’t take pictures of the people who were potentially dying of tuberculosis, or the kids who would never receive an education, or who were living and starving in poverty. Their beautiful faces are a part of my memory, but not something I felt was OK to share. It felt too personal and I felt like I would be invading their privacy and exploiting their suffering.

Instead, as I look back through my images, I focus on the hope of Africa, or the overcoming of the suffering, which Kenya had in spades. I focus on a people who are so tightly woven as communities that they spent hours taking care of each other in their most dire circumstances.

I think of the woman who watches over three women a month in her village who are suffering from TB and ensures their recovery. I think of Amani A Ju, a business center and artisan market for women, offering refugees training and opportunities so they can provide a living for their families. I think of the beautiful teacher we saw instructing her students in the middle of the slums, giving the children there a chance for a better life. I think of the potato farming community, tightly knit and working together to provide Kenya with healthy food choices. I think of the district manager for the dairy farm we visited, who leads women in her region, helping them run thriving businesses as well as provide fellow Kenyans with more options for nutrition. And I think of the many leaders and business people on the other end of the socio-economic spectrum who are dedicating their lives to helping their people overcome their suffering—government officials, top leaders in business, doctors, and even people in the entertainment industry.

It would be naive to say that there weren’t examples in Kenya where a lack of community resulted in suffering. We heard of conflict. We learned of tribal disputes. We discussed corruption. But what I witnessed was evidence that when a community pulls together and takes care of its own with a focus on bettering the lives of those around them, that the world can move from a place of suffering to a place of overcoming suffering.

What the people of Kenya taught me was to reach out a little more, hold back a little less, be more vulnerable, greet people with a song (literally), laugh and dance and smile often, and be a force for good in others’ lives by asking yourself: How are you building community and helping others to overcome their suffering? But don’t stop there. Also ask yourself: How are you letting others in to help you overcome your suffering.

In Kenya, people talk openly about the children they lost, about their neighbors who are sick, about people who are starving. They know of each other’s needs and they help meet them.

In the U.S., sometimes it feels that our high value on independence leaves us feeling as if we should do everything, well, independently. But following the example of the Kenyans and finding strength in community by not only reaching out to those around us, but letting others serve us as well would go a long way in helping us live in a world full of the overcoming of suffering.

What will you do today to help relieve others’ suffering? In turn, what will you do to let others help you?

Breathing for me gets a little more difficult when I think of her.

Then I think of the school children I saw a few days later. Full of life. Laughing. Innocent. Eager to learn. And I smile at the signs of hope!

While this positive thought doesn’t entirely replace my sadness for all the desperate situations I experienced in Kenya, I try and focus on what these school children represent—hope, health, happiness and the possibility of a long lifetime of hugs for children in Africa.

Since returning from Kenya two weeks ago, I’ve been asked these two questions a lot:

1. Why am I raising awareness to help people in sub-Saharan Africa instead of focusing all of my efforts on helping people in the United States?
2. What is the benefit of spending my time, effort and energy on the US government’s investment in helping the Kenyan people?

I’m not going to lie. I’m struggling with the fact that anyone even broaches those topics. I could write an entire post on how the US benefits from assisting developing countries, but why? Aren’t we a global family? Shouldn’t foreign aid be about helping our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world instead of focusing on how we, here in the US, are going to be more economically stable or safe? Isn’t it about people with means helping those who can’t help themselves?

Why Helping Sub-Saharan Africa is Urgent

In our imperfect world, we often place hierarchy on people and things. But in a perfect world, in my opinion, every human being holds equal weight and is worthwhile and therefore, worth helping.

To me, whether I am helping my own child, the neighbor next door, a child in my community who is in need of diapers, or a child hoping to breathe another breath in Kenya, it is all the same. The only difference in my mind is that in some parts of the world, people seem to need more help and some needs are more life threatening. It shouldn’t be about where the person is from. It should be about whoever needs help the most and what needs are most urgent.

Here are some facts about urgent global needs from ONE’s website:

• An estimated 12,000 people die every day from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Two-thirds of these people are living in sub-Saharan Africa.
• In the world’s poorest countries, mothers risk their lives giving birth and millions of children die each year from treatable, preventable causes like diarrhea.
• Of the 67.5 million children out of school around the world, 95 percent live in developing countries.
• Across the world, 884 million people do not have access to clean water and 2.6 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation.

The Benefits of Helping Kenya

Why do we feel the need to justify why we give, how we give, or to whom we give? A soul is a soul.

I hear global funding and volunteerism talked about in the same sentence as return on investment as if the African child whose life is forever altered by aid is a product, a campaign, or a number. But, she is not any of those. She’s a child, someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, someone’s future wife, someone’s future mother… or maybe the baby I hugged at the hospital two weeks ago or the one who hopefully is running around playing today instead of struggling to breathe. She could be a leader in her community. She could change the world if only she had her basic needs taken care of, starting with the opportunity to live to see adulthood.

Ways to Help

My recommendation for people who have something to give — whether it’s their voice, their time, their resources, their creative ideas, their leadership, their hands, their energy, etc. — is to find ways to balance your giving efforts. It’s not about judging whether watching your sister’s kids or giving to your local food bank is more valuable as signing a petition to help decrease the infant mortality rate in Kenya. It’s about doing what you can, where you can, with the talents you have. Here’s some ideas:

• At home: Hug your children or call a family member you haven’t talked to in a while and say “I love you!”
• In your neighborhood: Identify someone in need, and meet that need (e.g., take in a meal, include someone in your group, smile at someone who’s lonely).
• In your community: Volunteer, raise awareness, make a difference for a need that you’d like to champion.
• Abroad: Sign a petition, write your congressman/woman, and take steps to support foreign aid. Find a charitable organization to support.

What will you do today to make a difference?

Extreme poverty, particularly in Africa, was a problem that she felt “just shouldn’t be there.” She had followed ONE.org since before its inception, even when she didn’t have a computer. She became one of its members in 2005, and last year got an email that ONE representatives were going to be in her community. She attended and soon after was asked to be a ONE Congressional District Leader for Wilmington, North Carolina. She wholeheartedly accepted. She is now a liaison between members of Congress and ONE, which was founded by rock star Bono and several other important people. It’s big stuff, but it’s just the beginning of what she’s been doing.

Rachel, like our own Jyl, is part of #ONEmoms. Both of them traveled to Kenya two weeks ago with ONE to observe first-hand the problems and solutions in action over there. Jyl’s experience, as much as can be put into words, is recorded in these recent posts. They both went as part of a group of socially-oriented mom bloggers involved with One. The group’s experience is summarized in this ABC News post and attached videos. Rachel’s experience is chronicled on her blog ComingAlive.blogspot.com, which she started after her involvement with ONE began.

“ONE focuses on sub-saharan Africa,” she says, “because of the prevalence of poverty there. We are an advocacy organization for several international programs that supply money and on-the-ground necessities like immunizations. These programs include the Gavi Alliance, PEPFAR, and the Global Fund.” ONE asks our government for its financial support of these programs; its operational costs are self-funded. Its approach is wide and deep because the problems they are addressing are so wide-spread and deep in their effects. In sub-saharan Africa, the root causes of poverty are so historical, so a part of their everyday lives, so complicated, so entrenched in governmental corruption, that the solutions are complicated as well.

The solutions do indeed daunt many. “But,” says Rachel, “we got to meet both community and government leaders who are making a difference for good. We are working to address the problem of extreme poverty from the bottom up and the top down.” ONE is indeed working to help build Kenya’s economy, which is primarily agricultural, through encouragement of the African Growth and Opportunity Act. And, Rachel and the other mom bloggers got to meet women from all over eastern Africa who were working to transcend ethnic and cultural differences. “‘Community’ is an integral thing for them; helping each other is a natural part of what they do,” says Rachel.

For Rachel, one mom making a difference, helping others is a natural part of what she does. Let it become a natural part of what we all do.

Why is community important to you? What steps do you take to help other moms who are in need?

Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the bat. I hate the word “slum.” It sounds so dirty, depressing, and socio-economically divisive. I’m sure the word isn’t intended to convey that meaning, but in my mind it does.

So, I went to Kibera today ready to defy the perception the word conjures up in my mind and excited to see a beautiful culture and the community that exists within its walls.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

Before entering the neighborhood’s interior, we visited an organized called Carolina for Kibera whose purpose is to “advance health, education, and ethnic cooperation, gender equality, and economic empowerment, and equip leaders with tools to strengthen the community.”

While there, I met Anjella Nancie, who volunteers with the organization. Of all things, we bonded over eye shadow. Her blue sassy shade perfectly matched her shirt. If you know me at all, you’ll know I’m a lot obsessed with MAC.

What I found was that talking about something as seemingly inconsequential as eye shadow helped me to first and foremost connect with Anjella. We had fun talking make-up shop. And second, in an odd way, helped me find hope in the situations I was about to learn about—extreme poverty, rape, teenage pregnancy, mortality rates, and the like. And ultimately, what I saw was a community rich in color—richer even than our eye shadow, with people wearing big bright smiles, and welcoming us into their homes, where I was fortunate to hold 4-year Nicole on my lap while talking to her mother, Mercy, about what a typical day looks like in her life and her goals and the dreams she has for her daughter.

Tonight, Anjella friended me on Facebook where we can connect more about both trivial and complex issues like eye shadow and teen leadership and hopefully make people like Mercy’s goals and dreams come true.

Subscribe to http://ONE.org/us/actnow/moms as it partners with organizations like Carolina for Kibera to provide medical, educational, agricultural and other help to developing nations.

This picture shows me and Emily McKhann from TheMotherhood.com and two “TB Ambassadors”—a CDC organized community volunteer program with a focus on helping decrease the number of TB-related fatalities in rural Kenya. The woman on the right recovered from TB and is now a support and resource to the gal on the left. They are amazing examples of community, strength, and sisterhood.

We met one woman who shared about her own battle with TB and how she lost her mother to the infectious disease. She passionately claimed how without volunteer workers, people would not take on the treatment. But through them, they are able to help the bed ridden stand up, walk again, and ultimately recover. 

In the US, many think that TB is a thing of the past. But  2 million deaths worldwide annually show otherwise. So the question is: “What can we do?”

The answer seems difficult: funding, funding, and more funding. But, really, it is easier than that. I am in Africa with ONE.org, an organization that asks for your voice and not your money. No! Really! By simply subscribing, you can sign email petitions, get suggestions for letters to write to your congressman or woman in an effort to help raise awareness and government funds for important global issues, including programs like the TB Ambassador outreach in rural Kenya. Visit ONE.org/us/actnow/moms to learn more and to sign up. You can make a huge difference!

We waited in line and longer for the next flight, arrived in Amsterdam only to wait in longer lines, all to find out we weren’t going to make it to Nairobi in time to join our team on the flight to Kisumu, which would cause us to miss half of our trip. But wait! There were two middle seats. So Cooper Munroe (of The Motherhood) and I snatched them up and boarded the flight.

I don’t know if I was overly exhausted. Or maybe I was just used to choosing my seats, but my mind turned to my middle seat and focused on my future inability to sleep during the flight. I was so tired in that moment and starting to wonder if the trip was worth it when I remembered I hadn’t taken my malaria pill for the day.

In an instant, my mind shifted to the real reason for heading to Africa, which had nothing to do with landing at a specific time or which seat on the airplane I sat in. It had to do with Kenyans. Women. Global issues, including the very illness I was about to take a pill to help me avoid… malaria, which so many struggle from and many die from. I was humbled and suddenly remembered how lucky I was to have my health and the ability to help raise awareness let alone be on a flight to Kenya with a seat at all, regardless of where that seat was located or how much sleep I’d get over the next week. What an amazing thng to visit with mothers halfway around the world!

We safely arrived, immediately caught another flight, and then spent the day in a remote village outside of Kisumu in western Kenya. Our group went on house visits where women, men, and children were tested and some diagnosed with HIV.

I visited a hospital and saw women who recently had had c-sections who, after only a couple of days in recovery, would walk sometimes long distances home, alone, with their baby.

This is the recovery room. The blue things hanging from the ceiling are mosquito nets.

I saw teeny children some with pneumonia with IVs in their heads and others on oxygen tanks, fighting malaria, tummies extended, breathing rapidly. I was told that only a few years back this very village didn’t have such luxuries. By luxuries, they meant heart monitors and oxygen tanks. I thought back to when my now 8-year-old was laid up in the hospital for a week while the infectious disease specialist performed more than 2o0 tests to diagnose him. Those tests, the diagnosis, and its treatment were things I was so grateful for, but today, realized I took for granted.

I looked into a scared mom’s eyes and wanted to scream out that it would be OK. I wanted to give her a hug that I knew the feeling of being scared and helpful when watching a child struggle to live. I struggled with the urge to break down at the enormity of fixing global health issues and with breaking out in song that ONE.org is doing something about it, giving mothers around the world hope!

What is your “middle seat”? What do you get so focused on in your daily life that keeps you from taking actions, however simple, that will really make all the difference in those areas that matter most to you?

Take a moment, click here to enter your name and email address, and sign a petition to help fight global health issues in Africa. You can make a difference from the comfort of your own home and without spending a dime!

Photo credit (home visit, 2nd photo): Morgana Wingard, ONE.org.

Sometimes, helping people halfway across the world feels difficult. The distance divides us. Getting there requires lots of time and money. Options to help feel limited. What if you knew you could make a difference right from your home and without spending a dime? You can!

I leave for Kenya in just a few hours. Want to come? Regardless of where you are, you can virtually travel with me and the ONE.org team as we make our way through cities and villages, visiting amazing African women and their families in hopes of both learning about and raising awareness for important global causes like maternal and child health care, education, agriculture, government, and more.

Lots of moms are joining in the trip—and many without even leaving their homes. Join us! Here’s how:

• See the chatter on Twitter at http://search.twitter.com/ONEmoms.
• Add to the conversation when you tag your tweets #ONEMoms.
• Join the movement on the ONE.org site (http://www.one.org/us/actnow/moms/).
• Read about the wonderful people we’re meeting in Africa and share your feedback in comments on the blog
• Share your feedback on the ONE Facebook page.
• Post a comment here to share how you’d like to make a difference.

There are so many global issues we can raise awareness for and help. Visit http://one.org to learn how you can make a difference.

For those unfamiliar with the organization:

ONE is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support smart and effective policies and programs that are saving lives, helping to put kids in school and improving futures. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African activists and policy makers.

What I love about ONE is their emphasis on voice. Your voice, regardless of how small or in whatever way you choose to raise it, can make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. A simple act like signing a petition, writing a letter to your congressman/woman, and/or calling your local representative goes a long way in helping fight HIV in Africa, for example.

The more I become aware of global women’s issues, two things happen: 1) My gratitude increases for things I may have taken for granted in the past: immediate access to medicine and healthcare, the safe delivery of both of my children, that I don’t live in fear of contracting or delivering a child with HIV, and that I have enough food to put on the table to feed my family—all things the vast majority of African women have to worry about on a daily basis. And 2) My awareness grows for the needs of women all around the world—both here and abroad. And with that, a call to action surfaces to do more; to learn more; and to share my talents, my skills, and my resources to help those who cannot help themselves, even if it’s as simple as sharing their stories to help raise greater awareness.

This July, I’ll be joining ONE.org along with a small group of bloggers on a trip to Kenya, Africa, where I will get up close and personal with global women’s issues there. More importantly, I’ll get to know the women who are facing and fighting those issues. ONE reminds us that:

African women are leading a movement. They are the driving force behind Africa’s economy, and mothers in particular have an enormous impact on the future of Africa. Moms in the US are also leading a movement. They recognize the enormous power that they have as the key decision makers in their households – they can decide what foods their families eat, where their kids go to school, whether their child can be vaccinated against the deadliest diseases, and more. Get educated, engaged, and activated. Use your voice on behalf of the world’s poorest.

I’m excited to virtually pack you in my suitcases and take you on my journey! Together, we can all make a difference.

In the meantime, Happy Mother’s Day! What will you do today to make a difference in someone’s life?