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Right now many of us are busy buying gifts and preparing for the holidays with our loved ones and friends. After reading Peggi’s “Letter from Africa” this month, I realized how fortunate we are as Americans and decided to give Peggi a call to ask her how we could help people in Africa who literally have nothing…not even food.

Peggi suggested a gift of food…literally a live animal! Great Gift Idea! There is an organization that will allow you to give a cow, goat, chickens, trees, etc to needy families all over the world. You give your family and friends a card with a picture of the animal in their honor. You could even include a small animal ornament or a stuffed animal like a cow or goat. Visit www.Heifer.org to learn more. Click on the gift catalog as well as to learn about their initiatives and projects. I think this is a wonderful gift idea and want to share it with you!

Hungry families from Appalachia to Zambia have used Heifer livestock and training to alleviate hunger and poverty and become self reliant. Heifer’s unique approach also promotes strong communities, sustainability, environmental protection and peace.

Peggi has returned to the US and has been working with a publisher on her book about her experience with the Peace Corps. We have had the treat of seeing a sneak preview all these months! She has earmarked her speaking fees to continue her project with her village in Lesotho, Africa when she returns in 2008.

My conversation with her was so interesting, that I invited her to be our guest on this month’s Smart Women Talk. Be sure to forward this newsletter to your friends who may be interested in being a part of our community and hearing from Peggi this month! She is truly an amazingly Smart Woman!

We would love to hear about your experiences of giving a live animal gift from Heifer.org this year! Please share you experience by writing to katana@smartwomenscoaching.com

~ Katana

Dear Family and Friends,

I’m back in Lesotho after a fun and fabulous two weeks in the good old USA. In my heart I am singing “God Bless America”. What an incredibly wonderful country we live in. Huge Thank you’s are due to so many of you — for the parties, the breakfast, lunch and dinner extravaganzas, the contributions to the American friends of Menkhoaneng fund, the wonderful way you all let me talk about my exploits non-stop in English– it was great! Snail mail thank you notes are on the way. Actually, I’ve had plenty of time to write them.

The airlines lost my luggage so I’m still at the T. house in Maseru waiting for word. It doesn’t look good. It seems to have disappeared into thin air if you’ll excuse the pun. In the meantime, I’ve had three full days to meet with members of parliament, government ministers and UN representatives about the cultural village project as well as my latest idea for our village. The latter is the main subject of this email.

Just before I left the village for my trip, I met with the council of elders who are in charge of deciding how the money in the fund should be spent. They asked if I thought our American friends would mind if they bought food with it. So far, we’ve been spending it on medical transport, hospital costs, medical supplies for the poorest of the villagers and books for my English classes. The program to date is a huge success. I know many lives have been saved and many more made more bearable. There is a new sense of hopefulness in the village. However, I may have mentioned that the disaster relief food shipments the village was receiving have been cut off. Not only did we have a problem with a dishonest official redirecting our food supplies for private gain but also the terrible tsunami disaster has redirected international donations to that very deserving part of the world.

The Disaster Management food warehouses in Maseru are empty. Both the UN and the DMA are looking for new ideas on how to deal with the food shortage problem. So here is the idea I’m going to present to the village council upon my return to Menkhoaneng tomorrow. Both the MP in charge of our area as well as the UN official I discussed it with gave it a “thumbs up”. But, of course, unless the villagers embrace it “as their own” it won’t work.

I’ve noticed while traveling around the village that several of the farming families who are still healthy are able to produce more corn, sorghum or beans than their family needs. There is no viable market for this excess. I’d like to start a program in which we form a Village Cooperative that buys the excess production and distributes it to hut-bound sick people, especially HIV/AIDS sufferers as well as the workers who will be building the toilets for the school (more on that later), and volunteers who work in our “meals without wheels” program. We may even be able to start a school lunch program.

My hope is to develop and implement this program and document the process in such a way that it becomes a model for the UN disaster relief people to use as part of their focus on sustainable nourishment enhancement. They told me that if our village can get this to work and I can show on paper how much it costs and what positive effect it has on the community I can write a grant for the program to continue for years after I’ve left. I’m hugely excited about this.

So all of you who so generously contributed to the fund during my visit will be making this program a reality. I’ll set up separate books for the community cooperative committee to manage. The villagers who manage their fields well and have excess food to sell will be able to earn actual cash. I think it will be an incentive for all those able to work, to work very hard and perhaps practice some of the crop improvement programs my permaculture PCV colleagues are promoting. It will address the big controversy about disaster relief grain shipments lowering the price of South African produce and it will save many in our village from starvation. It’s a terrible thing but we’ve had at least three villagers that I know of die of starvation since my arrival.

The other project I started working on before I left was getting toilets and water for our village school. This school is just awful. There are 270 students, only three very underpaid teachers ($60.00 per month!), no toilet facilities at all, no water available anywhere nearby, no desks or chairs – just wooden benches – it’s really sad. The principal came to me some time ago to ask for help. I found a resource to which I can submit a grant for the money for the bricks and cement to build latrines and buy a water catching tank (the school has a metal roof). The villagers will do all the work – the grant source will not pay for the labor but your contributions will. We’ll pay them in food from the cooperative.

There is so much to do and so little time. We are also having our big Moshoeshoe Day celebration on March 11th. I left a lot of organizational tools behind but word has it that the planning for this event is in a state of chaos. I’ll be stopping in the camp town of Hlotse on my way to the village tomorrow to meet with the district planning committee for this event.

And so, here I sit waiting for the airlines to find my luggage – it even has the power cord for this computer in it – damn! Oh well. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that it arrives. The South African Airlines official I spoke to this morning said cheerfully that only 1 out of 10 of the misdirected bags are never recovered!

On that note, I’ll sign off. May good health and happiness be with you always.

Love from the heart of Africa,
Peggi

Barbara Stanny, leading authority on women and money, brings her powerful workshop for women to New York City on Monday, January 15th 2007 from 9am to 5pm at St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus. Barbara uses money as a metaphor for power. This workshop is about stepping into your power. If you are serious about increasing your earnings and wealth this workshop is a must. Register today as a declaration of your intention to go to the next level. Monday, January 15th is Martin Luther King Day so celebrate your financial liberation! It should be easy to get the day off, or perhaps your office will even be closed. Space is limited so sign up now to guarantee your spot! We want you there! Join us to become a wealthy women warrior!

This workshop has been developed to help women overcome the psychological barriers that keep us from earning our potential. Past participants have called the workshop “insightful”, “provocative” and “empowering”. Based on Barbara’s book, Overcoming Underearning® (HarperCollins), the interactive workshop covers:

• Understanding the signs of underearning.
• Identifying the five simple steps to increase your income.
• Thinking bigger about what’s possible for your life.
• Uncovering the Big Lie you’ve been telling yourself.
• Understanding the signs of resistance and how to deal with them.
• Tailoring a specific action plan to your individual situation.

Registration is $275 for this all-day workshop and includes her 55-page workbook, a copy of her Overcoming Underearning® book (Harper Collins), lunch and hosted cocktail hour immediately following to allow participants to network. You can register by clicking on the registration form at www.barbarastanny.com/1592.html, calling Brandy at 360.385.0600. Space is limited so be sure to register today!!!

*St. Johns University, Manhattan Campus
101 Murray St.
New York, NY 10007
Workshop 9am-5pm, room 123
Cocktail hour 5pm-7pm, room 118

I will be heading out on Friday morning, January 12th. Let me know if you are going, and maybe we can get a Smart Women group together for this fantastic life changing event!

Last week Jill and I presented a “Powerful Transitions” career/job workshop with Lesley Delgado of StaffPro America for Leadership Oakland. Our trio presented practical tips and strategies for professional presentation, resume and interview preparation for those in job transition in the greater Detroit area. We followed up the workshop with 15 minute “Smart Laser Coaching” sessions for over 30 people! Amazing shifts can happen in just a few minutes, if the right questions are asked! The event was a “good news” story, a way to support a community that has experienced continued job losses. By assisting those in the job market be their very best, everyone wins! “Smart Laser Coaching” is available to companies, organizations and universities. Contact jill@smartwomenscoaching.com.

This month we have the pleasure of interviewing adventurer and soon to be published author, Peggi Tabor.  Although we continue to print her letters for your enjoyment, she has recently returned from the Peace Corps and is now speaking nationally about her experiences in Africa.  Please click on the player below to hear her personally!

Peggi Tabor Interview