Let me briefly introduce you to Dr. Josephine Kim, a professor at Harvard University who teaches at the Graduate School of Education. I first met Josephine this past summer at a leadership conference we both spoke at. While we never had the opportunity to have anything more than a short conversation, I personally learned a great deal from her lectures.
However, I did get to briefly share about One Day's Wages. The truth is I share about the vision of ODW with as many people as possible and most really like or even LOVE the idea but that's often the extent of it.
This is why I was so stunned to receive a note from Josephine that she and her fiance, Solomon, have asked their friends and guests to donate to One Day's Wages in lieu of any gifts to them at their engagement party.
Here's Josephine's note:
…I felt a strong conviction to promote
ODW somehow, and I had this idea of asking people to donate to ODW
instead of purchasing gifts for us. The coolest thing was that right
when I was about to call Solomon to discuss this idea, he called me at
that very moment, and he made this very same suggestion to me
first…I don't think I've been this excited about an
organized effort in a long time…We are definitely showing ODW's video at the
wedding shower in place of a silly slide show. We're so excited about
this decision. We're going to preface the video by stating how we
wanted to use the attention we have to shed light on a larger issue we
both care about and how we also want to make a public commitment – to
live in a way that will always have us looking out to others rather
than in, only to ourselves.
- $20 can provide clean water for one person for 20 years.
- $10 can purchase a bed net to help prevent malaria.
- $45 can pay annual school tuition for one child.
- $100 can provide a woman with a sewing machine and job training.