This blog goes back to the beginning….when I first started my travels overseas and when the foundation was developed.
In 2004 I was recruited to complete a project development for Orphans in Yangon Myanmar. I experienced first hand the tremendous needs, injustices, hopelessness and poverty while I was there.
Since then my travels have taken me through the slums of India and Africa, into the hidden villages of Burma and Cambodia, to the depths of the garbage dumps of Nicaragua. The more time I spent meeting with people, looking at the world from their perspective, the more I understood just how much we need each other to bring about change.
With a funding partner, I was in a position to become a part of the solution, seeking out ways to help children dying of hunger and sickness, girls living in a torment of daily abuse, women living on the margins and labouring to protect their families.
I have found – time and again – that the biggest impact comes from empowering women by teaching them and creating sustainable fair wage jobs.
Hands of compassion Foundation was developed in 2005.
After a 5 year hiatus period we realized the tremendous need to impact the lives of girls and women. We plan to do this by equipping them with skills training, education and building a safe and encouraging community. Our focus is now specific to empowering girls and women through a social enterprise where they can earn a fair wage and a sustainable income.
My work continues to be an immersion into cultures, where picking up the local nuances has helped me to communicate beyond words. However, I realized that if I was to communicate effectively with the local people in India, I needed to learn their language. So in 2010 I hired a tutor and learned to speak, write and read their national language, Bengali.
I have met with women and men entrenched in daily struggles – as well as joys. I have played with children who had never learned to play. I have shared with leaders and with outcasts. And I have cried as many tears of sadness as of laughter.
I invite you to join me on an infusion of culture, relationships, faith, and inspiration. My hope is that you will be inspired to partner with us.
By working together we can make a powerful, sustainable impact!
Love Brenda
Hands of Compassion Foundation... 