The feature below is brought to you by LOTUS Legal Clinic, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here.  Mending broken into BeautifulIntroducing LOTUS Legal Clinic! LOTUS was founded in 2013 to provide Legal Options for Trafficked and Under-served Survivors (LOTUS) in Wisconsin. Our mission is to serve victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking (labor and sex) through trauma informed legal advocacy, policy initiatives, education, and survivor empowerment. Gender Based violence is an ugly problem! Rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking are forms of gender- based violence that are not typically addressed in regular legal practice; LOTUS is fighting to change that. “Creating a beautiful life.. with what is left” LOTUS sees the inherent worth and humanity of every survivor. We give each client a beautiful quilt handmade by the Material Girls. The Material Girls is a group of 25 women in Baraboo, Wisconsin, who have provided LOTUS more than 200 quilts for survivors. These extraordinary quilts are gifts to lift up fellow women, girls, and boys who have been abused and trafficked. The quilts given to LOTUS’s clients remind them there is beautiful in the world and someone cares about them with no expectations- no strings attached. “Many of the fabrics are less than top-of-the line since quilters are a frugal bunch who often make do with what is left. Sort of like creating a beautiful life or a gift with what is left”  “This quilt reminds me every day that people care. Especially in times of self-doubt and difficulty, I like to wrap up and it makes me feel safe” Samantha’s Story LOTUS met Samantha, a fifteen-year old survivor of human sex trafficking, last year. While she was in “the life” everything had been controlled by her trafficker including food, clothes and possessions. When she left the exploitation and went into a state-sponsored care program, she had nothing to call her own. For Samantha, her inability to trust others made her sometimes feel like the state took the trafficker’s place in providing her physical necessities. She still had nothing to call her own. Despite her strong spirit and intelligence, her trauma made it hard to adjust and to sleep, get back on track with education, and form healthy relationships. In time, she came to LOTUS for legal assistance related to her victimization. After the first meeting, Samantha received a vivid handmade quilt from LOTUS’s executive director and staff attorney. This quilt was her very own. She helped pick the patterns and the colors that felt most like her “Soulmatch,” and said that it was something that belonged to her that no one could ever take back. LOTUS hopes for $3,500 in support from See Beautiful. The Material Girls intend to continue making quilts for survivors and even have plans to recruit other quilt guilds in Wisconsin to help. Although the Material Girls have an unlimited desire to help, they have limited resources to acquire the materials and make recruiting trips. Support from See Beautiful would offset some of these costs. The price of materials (fabric, batting, machine quilting) is about $200-$250 (minimum) per quilt. Additional costs for other supplies (e.g., thread, needles, fusible webbing, binding; cost of electricity; cost for trips to shop for supplies and deliver quilts to LOTUS) are extra. In addition to materials, a lot of time and talent are required to make the quilts. Volunteers contribute many hours to making this project successful (shopping for materials, design, sewing, machine quilting; washing, drying, cutting, and ironing fabric; piecing together the fabric; etc.). The volunteer commitment alone is estimated at between $14,500- $48,000! You can’t put a price on feeling valued and respected for who you really are, “as is”; there’s nothing you can buy that says Made From the Heart like the work of human hands who put love in every stitch. LOTUS knows this project changes lives. Written by Madeline Monien for LOTUS LegalEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful
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The feature below is brought to you by Aidan Cares, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. Aidan Cares is what we call our awareness initiative; we are in our tenth year now with the single mission of imparting the joy and necessity of giving to all. It started with four year old Aidan Anderson (now 17) declaring he would not wait until he was 18 to become a difference maker. As his Mom, I was a bit taken aback, but decided to take it literally and we embarked on a road to give and serve. A few years later, at age 7, he made $80 while playing his toy harmonica outside restrooms in a fancy restaurant in Vinings, Georgia. He planned many ways to spend his new found wealth, but ultimately, just an hour later, he decided to send it to a charity serving those suffering with parasites in Africa. He remembered it from a newsletter we read together. A few weeks later he was asked to share his story downtown and raised several thousand dollars to buy more medication. Then we just kept going. This has been about a child and his mother saying yes to serving, sharing, and most of all, modeling giving to others. Along the way, Aidan became a speaker and has given 4 TEDx Talks, spoken at Leadercast and shared his unique and wise perspective that if we aren’t giving from our God given giftings and passions, then we cannot have wellbeing. Aidan wants to activate as many givers as possible by encouraging them to follow their hearts into their paths of giving. Aidan has now served thousands of hours and has been a part of raising millions of dollars in donations for over 500 charities and individuals in need since our journey began. We serve by sharing our message in each city we visit. Pediatric cancer patients, VA hospitals, shelters, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America are especially dear to us. Aidan is now a singer songwriter, blues musician and guitar player; his passions of music and helping people come together when he plays his music and shares his message. He hopes to continue sharing, singing, speaking, mentoring and reaching out for the rest of his life. This is our most inspiring hopeful summer yet, as we have recently created a Youth Giving Initiative Pilot Program that began with middle school students in Savannah and will expand to high school students in the coming school year. We are providing dozens of giving opportunities to youth of all economic backgrounds so they may serve people, animals or environmental efforts- their choice. We have been asked to extend the program through the fall semester and help facilitate school leaders, non-profits, partners (we hope) and students to take it forward year round. We are living in Savannah during this launch and working with our young volunteers to create art, play music, read to little ones, clean the beach, participate in etiquette-that-matters classes, music lessons for toddlers at low income daycares, and make art pieces for pediatric cancer patients, hospice patients and veterans at the VA hospitals. We are also working with Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s youth so they can serve too. This is the platform we want to take forward. We launch July 9, 2018. The most amazing thing is that children from all walks of life learn that their hearts and time matter. That touching fewer screens and more lives really really does makes a difference. Our project goes beyond just giving, it’s about creating relationships no matter how different the initial approach may seem. We plan to, for a brief moment, stop the world from spinning long enough to truly connect and see what we can all learn from each other. We are creating more beautiful by the sense of wellbeing that replaces doubt, entitlement, and lack of connection. This truth that will shine forth. We aren’t that different after all, and giving feels so good. We want these children to know that when you have purpose your life changes forever. You can see Aidan speak and learn more at www.aidancares.org Our Mission To inspire people of all generations and economic backgrounds to share in the joy and necessity of giving, partnering with non-profits, communities and individuals to magnify the good they want to see in the world. Our Vision A world where the power of gratitude is unleashed, where the measure of generosity is not a size but a sacrifice, and where all children grow into giving adults through a lifelong culture of compassion. Written by Toren Anderson, Director of Aidan CaresEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by Foster Care Alliance, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. The best way for us to introduce to you the work that we do is to share with you a story of one of our moms and her daughter. To see the beautiful in the faces of moms who want second chances and precious children who are always ready with pure forgiveness. A precious 3 year old girl, so excited to see her mommy, came in from the car. I walked them through our building, offering fresh coffee on the way down. And then we walked into the visitation room, a giant wooden playhouse in the middle with a bright blue slide caught her attention. She ran straight to the slide, then to the coloring books, then the fishing poles with magnetic fish, then the kiddie kitchen and so on. So many toys, so many windows with the sun shining in on the beautiful mural! Val: "She is in heaven! This is the most beautiful visitation center I have ever seen! Can we do visits here every week?" Chelsea: "I am so glad you all love it. Make yourself at home. And yes, we would love to have you every week!" Kate arrives 15 minutes later. A friend had dropped her off. She walked in the front door. Kate: "Hi I'm Kate. Is my baby here?" Kate's daughter hadn't seen her mom in several months. But, it was as if no time had passed. She heard her mom's voice as we walked down the stairs and you heard her sweet voice get super quiet. Then she said, "Is that my mommy?" She squealed with excitement and hugged her momma's neck. // Isn't it amazing how much we can learn from children? The ability to forgive and forget.The ability to love with no strings attached. And the ability to always give second, third, and fiftieth chances! // They played and laughed. My heart was glad. After their visit, Kate and I met. Our time was sweet. Her story was typical. No family, so support, no education, and no resources. So, where does she start? We talked through the Reunification Readiness Process at the Foster Care Alliance: - Initial Reunification Readiness Assessment (Reassessed for progress every 3 months) - Weekly Birth Parent Coaching Group - 2 hours/ week - Employment Coaching - Weekly Visitation with her daughter - 2 hours/ week CONSISTENT AND MOTIVATED ATTITUDE FOR 1 MONTH - Place in an apartment. - Write reports and attend court hearings to document progress. - Reunification with children (DFCS lead). CONTINUE IN THE PROGRAM TO COMPLETE 12 MONTH I told her that we are not a service provider, but a community program. Kate: "What does that mean?" Chelsea: "That means we don't check boxes and send you on your way. We are your community, your safe place. You don't have a mom, or a person to ask questions? We can stand in that gap and be that for you." Kate: "Really? I want all of that!" She signed the program agreement and signed up. She wanted to better herself. She wanted to get her GED. She wanted help, but no one had offered before.... UNTIL NOW We have asked for this grant to help pay the fees for mothers like this one to be able to participate in our program and become healthy parents for their children. Written By Chelsea Sabo, Executive Director of Foster Care AllianceEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by Every Woman Works, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. Kamp Kids SEE BEAUTIFUL! How Every Kids Kamp got started… Hello See Beautiful Community! My name is Sonia and in order to share about what we do at Every Woman Works (EWW) and the program this grant was written for - Every Kids Kamp, I will have to share a little about my background. As mentioned in our SEE BEAUTIFUL application, Every Woman Works is a job readiness program serving a portion of Atlanta's disadvantaged and displaced women as they move from homelessness (to include homeless female veterans), alcohol and substance abuse, domestic abuse and system dependency to a life of self sufficiency. In January of 2013, as an Army veteran of 9 years and combat veteran, I found myself homeless due to PTSD, depression and anxiety. While at a transitional housing program in Atlanta called Mary Hall Freedom House (MHFH), I was referred to Every Woman Works - a holistic job readiness program for women. Even though I needed help, I didn’t know how to let others in because of the walls I had built due to challenges I’d been facing. The staff at EWW helped me to break down those walls and find healing as I took the necessary steps towards gainful employment and regaining my identity. This was in 2013. That summer, I was employed but still in transitional housing. The most challenging thing about being in transition with a child(ren), is knowing that you’re receiving the help and support you need emotionally and mentally but not having the necessary resources to help your child(ren) as they transition. I found an AMAZING summer camp 2 hours south of Atlanta called Camp Grace for my then 9 year old son Michael. After spending a week with nothing but unlimited fun tailored to him, as we drove back to MHFH, I literally heard… “Is Michael the only child in transition that needs camp?” So I’m having this conversation with God like, “G, really? I’m homeless right now dude AND you want me to take other kids to camp? I’m barely making ends meet in taking care of the one I have! Come on, really?” I know, G and I have a unique relationship. One day at EWW, I shared with a board member that my son Michael had the most amazing time at Camp Grace and I mentioned how much it costed for him to attend. She was blown away and wrote the check that provided sponsorship to take 7 kids to camp. That’s how Every Kids Kamp was started. Since then, I have been partnering with other camps throughout the Atlanta Metro area that cultivates relationships with these kids for years to come. Every Kids Kamp serves not just the children of the women at Every Woman Works but MHFH, AutoGift and kids from several other nonprofits as well as children in low income families or families facing financial hardships. How are you creating more beautiful? There is nothing more beautiful than helping to change a child's heart and mind from doubt, fear, and hopelessness to acceptance, inclusiveness, fun and love. One week in nature, surrounded and supported by kind, authentic, loving people, free to just be kids and play, creates beautiful, lasting memories for children whose life experience have been challenging thus far. I am the mother of one of those boys who experienced the saving grace of summer camp and his life has forever been changed because of it. His mind was expanded and challenged and camp provided him with opportunities to discover who he is truly meant to be. As the mothers of these children are breaking the cycle of dependency, their children are experiencing the potential that life has to offer and I am helping pay it forward so other kids (and parents) can experience the change that summer camp brings. Since graduating from Every Woman Works, I’ve started Every Kids Kamp, served on the board of Every Woman Works and currently serve as their Camp Director (this is a volunteer position). I’m also on the board of directors of Mary Hall Freedom House and another non-profit called AutoGift where we gift single moms with minor children, and no access to a vehicle, with ownership of debt free transportation. We’ve also partnered with Camp Grace for the past 5 years. We are so excited to be a part of the SEE BEAUTIFUL community, and even more excited to learn about all the other amazing programs that are creating beautiful in the life of others. Please visit us at www.everywomanworks.org or take a look at our brochure to learn more about who we are and what we do. Thank you guys for SEEING and SUPPORTING Beautiful! Summer 2016   Summer 2015 Written by Sonia Simon of Every Woman WorksThe feature below is brought to you by Realize Your Beauty, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. “I learned that you can’t judge a book by its cover but by the details inside. Everyone has the same problems; everyone is unique, original and beautiful. I got to let out my thoughts and experiences in a peaceful fun way. I also got to let everything out to people in a group”. – Raynell, age 14 Realize Your Beauty is so excited for the opportunity to share our work with the See Beautiful community! To begin, we’d love to tell you more about who we are and what we do. Let’s start with our mission statement: Realize Your Beauty promotes positive body image to youth through theatre arts. We bring plays, workshops & summer camps to youth to promote self-esteem & kindness. Our workshops focus on fostering inner beauty- taking the focus away from societal standards and the pressure to be 'pretty'. We encourage students to put their energy into kindness, integrity and respect towards themselves and others and to focus on developing their own unique inner qualities. For our older students, we also teach eating disorder awareness. Teaching them the signs & symptoms of an eating disorder, and how to reach out for help if they or a friend need support. RYB is a 501c3 based in NYC, with program offerings in New York and Colorado. Our website can be found here: http://realizeyourbeauty.org  The Project Currently, Realize Your Beauty is hard at work preparing for our summer camps. This summer we are creating more beautiful by helping our campers fully discover the incredible gifts they have to offer to this world! We teach them that they are the most beautiful when they are the most themselves. Encouraging campers to understand that beauty comes from within and helping them to build their confidence allows them to grow and create their own beautiful in this world! “Never judge someone based on how they look. Get to know them better and their personality before you say something. I learned you must accept yourself for others to accept you”. – Rabeenah, age 14 More about camp: Every summer we hold Camp Realize Your Beauty- a 5-night summer sleepaway camp at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. The summer camp teaches classic theatre techniques, while also including ‘empowerment’ workshops throughout the day. Our campers learn acting, play writing & directing skills, with a special emphasis placed on developing a positive sense of self. We cover the following topics of ‘empowerment’: self-esteem, kindness (towards self and others) and anti-bullying. Our course also includes tons of traditional camp fun – including nature walks, archery, arts & crafts, fire rings and s’mores! Throughout the week, the campers use their new knowledge and skills to create their own theatre piece, to be performed for parents on the final day of camp, at pick-up time. “I learned that I don’t have to say bad things about other people. They taught us that we are beautiful how we are, not how we look.” – Eloidy, age 13  The Need Camp Realize Your Beauty highly values a diverse and inclusive camp. We prioritize making camp a safe and judgment-free zone, and to include campers and counselors of all backgrounds. Among the ways that Camp RYB focuses on these philosophies is by making sure that campers of all financial backgrounds have access to our programs. For this reason, it is extremely important to us that camp remains affordable and accessible to children of all backgrounds. To that end, we keep our tuition as low as we possibly can and provide discounts and scholarships for those campers in financial need. This summer, 1/3 of our campers will attend camp on reduced tuition. However, the low tuition means that without support, it’s very difficult for us to meet our expenses. This summer is no exception, and Realize Your Beauty is in urgent need of support to bridge the gap between our summer camp expenses and the income we will receive from campers. With support, our summer camp can grow and thrive, and we can encourage a whole new generation to create beautiful in this world! We’re very grateful to See Beautiful for the opportunity to share our story! To learn more about our programs, please visit our website: realizeyourbeauty.org “I am now working towards being fully confident in my own skin & have tips on how to do it in the right way.” – Danielle, age 12   Written by Stacey Lorin Merkl, Founder and Executive Directory of Realize Your BeautyEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by Puppy Prodigies, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here.  Puppy Prodigies is a non-profit organization that provides paws-on healing through canine-assisted surfing, paddling, swimming, playing, therapy and other initiatives through our Waves of Empowerment program. We provide no-cost assistance to kids with special needs, people with disabilities and wounded warriors and veterans with PTSD. We have applied for a See Beautiful Grant, and are honored that our application has moved to their next round of review. We look forward to partnering with See Beautiful in uniting diverse populations through the challenges they face. We create more beautiful through our unique and innovative organization that utilizes service, therapy and emotional support dogs. Our highly effective, non-traditional approaches enhance and improve the quality of life for individuals with physical, cognitive, or emotional disabilities.   We are a grassroots organization that prides itself on our pioneering efforts and innovative programs. We are rooted in the human-canine bond and are dedicated to helping individuals grow in mind, body and spirit through the unconditional love and acceptance only a dog can provide. Every 65 minutes a veteran with PTSD takes his or her life by suicide. That’s 22 lives a day! Kids with special needs and people with disabilities are two of the most marginalized and excluded groups in society. Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages one to four, and the third leading cause of death in children 19 and under. However, the danger of drowning is much higher for children with special needs. In fact, drowning is the leading cause of death for kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We are determined to reduce these staggering statistics and improve the lives of our physically and emotionally wounded war heroes and children with special needs while embracing diversity and creating an all-inclusive, non-judgmental environment for our participants. Opportunities are provided that enable veterans to continue their lives of service, while finding new purpose by engaging in community service by mentoring and inspiring future generations. Our objective is to empower and enrich the well-being of veterans and civilians of all abilities and backgrounds, taking them from the battleground to the playground. Each veteran becomes a mentor, and is paired one-on-one with a child who has special needs for a day of canine-assisted activities. We find that being of service to another individual affords a sense of responsibility and self-worth. The goal is to connect diverse populations through the challenges they face, bringing them together for their greater good and the greater good of the community. Our Waves of Empowerment program is three-fold: 1) improving the PTSD symptoms of active duty service members and veterans by helping them transition from military to civilian life through recreational and canine-assisted activities. 2) Exposing kids with special needs and people with disabilities to adaptive surfing and other recreational activities. 3) Providing swim lessons to kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other special needs in an effort to reduce the high incidence of drowning. Canine-assisted swimming is the newest facet of our program. We strive to reduce the number of drowning incidents among kids with ASD and other special needs by providing a unique approach to water safety and swim lessons through our partnership with Special Fishies. We focus on underlying roadblocks that often manifest as anxiety, distrust, combative behavior, non-compliance, and unresponsiveness. Our newest pup, Cori heads up the program and provides an expeditious conduit that breaks through barriers much faster than her human counterparts. What can take months or years with traditional lessons can often be accomplished in one miraculous session! Click here to watch a video of three-year old, Caiden who was anxious and crying until Cori joined his lesson.  Surf Dog Ricochet is the most known dog in our program. In 2009, she made an independent decision to jump on a surfboard with a boy who is quadriplegic. A "kleenex alert" video of this surf session went viral on YouTube and has over 6.5 million views. As a result, she became the only SURFice dog® on the planet, and has been surfing with people/kids with disabilities ever since. She adjusts her surfing style based on the person's disability. Kids often hold on to her back end while she balances the board so they can stand up. Although surfing has been at the forefront of Ricochet's work, it’s not the act of surfing that makes her interactions so life changing. It’s her extraordinarily powerful ability to make immediate, deep, heart-to-heart connections with the individuals she interacts with. She intuitively and empathically alerts to their emotional and physical changes which allows for profound paws-on healing interventions. Ricochet has taught us an exponential amount about the healing power of dogs. Thus, we are privileged to share it on the “unleash your dog’s healing power” page of our website. We hope the information provided will further unleash your dog’s abilities to see more beautiful too! For more information, please go to http://www.surfdogricochet.com And on social media: https://www.facebook.com/SurfDogRicochet https://twitter.com/SurfDogRicochet http://instagram.com/surfdogricochet/  Written by Jody Fridono, Executive Directory of Puppy ProdigiesEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by Love Not Lost, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here.  After losing my daughter to a terminal illness, photos were one thing I could turn to that provided deep comfort. If I sat with them and ugly-cried, I didn't have to worry about any judgement for the snot pouring out of my nose. They gave me freedom and space to grieve however I needed to in that moment. The tangible prints allowed me to hold my little girl when she was no longer here to hold. Recognizing the power photos have to bring comfort and healing, I wanted to give that gift to others and started Love Not Lost. We photograph people facing a terminal diagnosis and provide a free portrait session as well as a beautiful hand-crafted album. We're on a mission to celebrate life, preserve memories, and support people in grief. The driving question of Love Not Lost is "How can we love people better?"  Since our first grant with See Beautiful, we've grown tremendously! We've added photographer volunteers in Atlanta, partnered with local hospices, partnered with Northside Hospital's oncology centers across the state of GA, and we have plans to keep growing. A grant from See Beautiful would continue to allow us to serve people facing a terminal diagnosis, as well as refine our systems in our photographer program in Atlanta that we will take to cities across the US. In addition to our photographer program, we've added a grief support program that naturally came when we asked the question "How can we love people better?" It's one thing for us to show up for these families to preserve their memories and support them, but we recognize it's even more powerful when friends and family show up to support them too. Often times, people don't know what to say or what to do to help people so they don't do anything, leaving their loved one feeling alone and abandoned in times of need.  We want to change that, so we've created grief and empathy tools you can request on our website to equip you with ways to tangibly show up for the people you love when you don't have the words. We're developing a grief support library and resource page to support our greater community in addition to the people we serve directly. Our hope is that we can see beautiful, even in the midst of grief and suffering, so that we can be a people who show up to support others when they need it most. There is so much more work to be done, but the grants from See Beautiful and support from generous donors have allowed us to make an incredible impact in 2017. This year, we're growing exponentially and are so excited to bring Love Not Lost to a new city in 2019. If you want to request resources, make a donation, or learn more about Love Not Lost, please visit our website at www.lovenotlost.org and follow us @lovenotlostorg. Thank you! Written by Ashley Jones, Founder of Love Not LostEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by YFC Maine, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. There is a lot of "ugly" in our community of Howland, Maine, and well, in our world, really. Did you know our small city’s hospital is the leading hospital in the United States for delivering drug addicted babies? Or that over half of our town’s school population goes hungry for meals each and every day? Did you know that on average our community’s prison holds a minimum of over 50 more inmates than it is designed to hold? Or that our EMT’s administer more Narcan (a heroin overdose reversal drug) on average more each day than previous years combined? There is a lot of "ugly" in our community. Sometimes it’s easy to get distracted, caught up, if you will, in all of the ugly. But there is beautiful... A whole lot of beautiful... Our aim is to help bring light to that beautiful. Rather than getting lost in the statistics and all of the ugly, we hope to walk through the ugly and fix our eyes to the beautiful. My husband and I spent five years working for a local high school. A baby brought about a job change and we found ourselves running a restaurant in our community. We began to see life from both sides, first our students’ and then what these students were aspiring to do after high school. This dishearteningly opened our eyes to the drug epidemic’s full force. It knows no bounds or social status. Young lives are being ripped apart in an ever increasing force. On more than one occasion, I cried with our community members as they chose to spend their last dollars to feed their drug addiction, instead of their children. It’s not just a statistic to say over half of our students are going hungry everyday. It’s real lives, real children, right here. It was through having our eyes really opened to all of the ugly around us, that we knew we needed to strive to create beauty in the midst. Through law enforcement friends and area organizations, we began to see the generational issues that were at hand. It wasn't just young people, but young and old alike. A sheriff patrolling our town once told me that in the same day he had arrested a grandmother, father, and son all in the same family, for separate crimes. That's when we began to think, “What if we created an avenue were we could reach students before they became a statistic? What if every student we came into contact with knew they were loved, pursued (we were around for the long haul), and that they were beautiful?” We teamed up with YfC a nationally recognized after school program, to create an avenue, an escape for students in need. Our aim is to be there, to place caring adults into the lives of students for genuine relationships, no strings attached - just purely loving on the hurt and broken (and who isn't hurt and broken?) helping them see the beauty in their own lives. We do this through Campus Life nights, which are high energy, everyone come-as-you-are evenings. Where we create a family-like atmosphere, we discuss things like making the right choices and how to navigate hurdles life undoubtedly throws at us. We also hold regular events which are just different ways we have fun with each other! Most recently we teamed up with our local high school to provide much needed meals for our students. While the school works tremendously hard to see that no student goes hungry during the school year, they are left with a loss over the summer months. That's where we were able to step in and continue their food program all summer long ensuring that no child goes hungry in our community. We recently applied for a grant through an amazing organization called See Beautiful. If chosen, this grant will help further our program, help us finalize our building, replenish our food supply, and ensure that our program continues to run. See Beautiful's mission is to help create more beautiful in the world, and they do just that through a tremendous history of giving to nonprofits. You may also purchase clothing, jewelry and more from their site to help them continue their beautiful work. I wanted to paint a picture of our community, how our students are living, what it is like day-to-day to be a student in the Howland area. Although it may seem like the odds are stacked against these students, they are beginning to see the beauty in our community around them, and they are beginning to learn that they have people in their corner. A small town carpenter has donated countless hours to help us prepare our building for the upcoming food program, because he sees beautiful in these kids... The town unanimously voted to sell us the building at a ridiculously low price, even when they could get more, simply because they see beautiful in what we are doing together... A family of 8 living in one small trailer handed me what could possibly have been their last $10 bill to further help those students who are hungry. We see beautiful in their sacrifice. A man whose name I don’t even know backed his truck up to mine and said, “The back end is full of food. Get it to families that need it.” He left without another word, because his thanks was in seeing the beautiful of giving. We are seeing beautiful. Written by Kayla Thompson for YFC MaineEdited by Jannan Poppen for See Beautiful The feature below is brought to you by CARE for AIDS, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. CARE for AIDS exists to empower people in East Africa to live a life beyond AIDS. We do this through a nine-month program that is focused on counseling and holistic care. We seek to facilitate transformation for our clients in five main areas of their lives: physically, spiritually, socially, economically, and emotionally. David’s story is one of my favorite examples of the holistic transformation that happens in a client’s life.  David, a CARE for AIDS clientWhen David came to the CARE for AIDS program in January this year he was completely blind. He’s 47 years old and he barely weighed 100 pounds when he joined the program. In addition to his sight loss and overall declining health, he was experiencing kidney failure. David has known his HIV+ status since 2012, and unfortunately his family abandoned him because of the stigma associated with HIV in Kenya. With no one to take care of him, and without being able to see, he felt completely helpless and hopeless. This wasn’t the first time David had felt this way in the last few years, but this time, CARE for AIDS was there to intervene. Back in 2013, election-related violence in Kenya was rampant. Tension was especially high in the slum regions where armed criminal gangs were fighting. David remembers it as a time of chaos and war in the slum where he lives. Theft and looting was common and David was the victim of a gang that wanted to steal from him. They severely beat him, hitting him hard over the head and damaging his legs so they could take what they wanted and he couldn’t chase after them. Unfortunately the worst was still yet to come for David. One day, on the way to work, his eyes started watering profusely. He had to leave work that day because he couldn’t see. Shortly after that, his eyes started swelling and his vision quickly got worse. One day everything went completely black while he was at work. David had become totally blind. David spent the next two years at home unable to work, unable to pay rent, and unable to buy food. His friends would occasionally show up at his house and buy him food for the week, but he hated feeling like he was a burden to others. Twice during this time David made an attempt to take his own life and twice God intervened so that he didn’t go through with it. During the first attempt, David found a mosquito net to tie around his neck and hang himself from the ceiling banister in his home. He knelt down to pray one final time just before hanging himself and said to God, “I want to come home. I’m about to show up there, so please don’t be mad at me…” While he was praying, a friend knocked on his door and prevented David from going through with his plan. A few weeks later he planned to swallow termite poison before bed so he would die in his sleep. Not long after making this new plan, David's friends miraculously intervened again. They found him a new place to live, bought him food and paid for his first few months rent in his new home. A CARE for AIDS graduate lived nearby this new home and had heard about David’s situation. She took Rose, the Health Counselor at the CARE for AIDS center in Githurai, to meet him. Rose recruited David into the CARE for AIDS program and quickly realized he needed immediate emotional and medical intervention. His face was swollen and he was incontinent and malnourished. Rose immediately accompanied David to the hospital. The doctor drained fluids from David’s head and face to reduce his swelling and prescribed medicine to treat David's kidney failure. He also began treatment for David’s eyes and, after doing a chest x-ray, prescribed medicine for pneumonia. Blood work was drawn and David’s viral load was over 2 million copies. It became clear that David had defaulted on his medication and his strain of HIV was now resistant to the medication he had been taking. The doctor prescribed a new regimen of medication for David to begin taking immediately to get the HIV virus under control and boost his immune system. David also started one-on-one counseling and group therapy at the CARE for AIDS center after joining the program. He has found solace in knowing others who are HIV-positive, and he has worked with the CARE for AIDS counselors to get rid of his suicidal thoughts. Since being on his new medical treatment for over 5 months now, David is seeing great improvement. His weight is up to 135 pounds and he has regained control of his bladder. His stress has decreased and his viral load has also decreased. Wanjiku, a neighbor who often helps to take care of David, makes sure that the food he gets from CARE for AIDS is prepared for him and she ensures that he takes his medicine daily. David's greatest improvement, though, has been in his eyesight. While he still cannot see well, his left eye is seeing shapes, figures, and colors. His right eye has difficulty in the light, but can also see better than before when he is indoors. David told us that he is no longer weak. He has more strength than he’s experienced in a long time. He boasted that he is now able to walk all the way to the market without anyone even holding his hand. David admits that he still has challenges because he can’t work and has to be given everything he needs, but he’s happy that he is making progress and has new hope that he will become self-sufficient in the months to come. David attended his first economic empowerment seminar at the CARE for AIDS center this month. He sat up front so that he could see the instructor and told us in detail all the practical information he learned that day. So far, CARE for AIDS has spent a total of $120 on David’s medical care. As you can see, a small gift to CARE for AIDS can go a very long way in the life of an HIV+ client in East Africa. If we were to receive a grant from See Beautiful, we would be able to reach hundreds of more clients like David and create more beautiful in the lives of our clients in East Africa. Funding from See Beautiful will provide practical medical care and invaluable hope for the future for our clients! Written by Holly Heacock, COO of CARE for AIDSEdited by Rachel McLeroy for See Beautiful The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." ~ B.B. King Join us in celebrating our newest giving initiative with the Kutemwa Foundation. The Kutemwa Foundation, alleviates the cost of schooling for young children in Lusaka, Zambia, by providing funding for required school supplies. Additionally, many children with whom they support are vulnerable to not being able to continue education or are orphans and must receive supplemental financial support to attend school. Since schools in Zambia work on a trimester schedule, there are three points during the year they look provide funding for school supplies including books, pencils, paper and more to the tune of $6-7 per child. Additionally, when the school year starts many children do not have the means to pay for tuition or school uniforms. And while this is only Kutemwa Foundation's first year of operation, they are working to collect livelihood gifts to bless children with for the coming year (i.e., soap, toothbrushes, etc). How your purchase helps: Your purchase provides a child with required school supplies for an entire trimester. Additional funding from this Giving Initiative will provide tuition for students who need the supplemental support. Connect with Kutemwa Foundation directly here, Facebook, & Instagram.
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