“All Things Bright & Beautiful” An Easter Message

WOW joins in the observance of Easter, or Resurrection Sunday this Holy week with fellow Christians around the globe. Easter is the season of victory, the conquering of death by our risen Lord who affirms our hope in the resurrection of all.

To celebrate, we are sharing two performances from works written by the late 19th century Irish poet, Cecil Francis Alexander. The first work remains a popular Easter hymn, “He is Risen” performed by the Tabernacle Choir. “He is Risen,” echoes the words of the angel to those seeking the body of Jesus at an empty tomb. Alexander’s verses continue on to exclaim, “Death is conquered, man is free. Christ has won the victory.”

The second piece is probably her best-known work today, the poem-hymn, “All Creatures Great & Small” performed by the National Taiwan University Chorus. This work is a tribute to God, the Creator who gifted mankind universally with the beauties of nature. Both hymns celebrate the Divine, who was the great influence in what flowed from Alexander’s heart to pen, paper and love of neighbor. However, it took a loving father to provide the nourishment and encouragement of this fertile ground.

Francis or “Fanny” was a timid girl who loved to pen lines of poetry, but in secret. She developed the habit of hiding her private pages under the carpet of her room. Her prolific writings eventually gave themselves away by an obvious bulge in the rug. Her curious father investigated the disfigured carpet and discovered his daughter’s hidden treasure. He immediately recognized Fanny’s talent and lovingly, desired to encourage her. He constructed a wooden box with a slit on top for her to keep safe her precious work. He also began having her share her verses on Sundays, first with family and then to the occasional visitor, helping Fanny to increase in confidence. Fanny blossomed as a writer due to her father’s love and family’s encouragement, and by age 25 her work was published and quoted throughout the British Empire.

Fanny’s contributions extended beyond her work in the arts, demonstrating the woman of character she would become. She took the proceeds from her work to help construct a school for the deaf and mute in 1846 as well as the Derry Home for Fallen Women. It is said of her that those, “…who knew her best felt that, beautiful as her hymns are, her life was more beautiful still” (Campbell, Hymns and Hymn Makers, 1898).

Fanny’s life is an illustration of a few of WOW’s 14 Principles in action. The first is Divine Power. Knowing God loves us and has a divine destiny for our lives, brings greater meaning and purpose to many individuals, who work diligently beyond self to contribute positively to society. With a desire to share this truth, Fanny published one of the first hymnals for children, which grew to 69 editions in her lifetime.

WOW’s principle #7 emphasizes the importance of fatherhood. The love of an engaged father like Fanny’s can and will flow through both daughters and sons to the spreading of greater good. Her story may induce ache into the hearts of some, because of an absent, neglectful or abusive father, but no matter one’s circumstance, peace can be found for all who seek their Heavenly Father. Fanny’s works are deliberate in leading others to Him.

It was said of Fanny that she was “indefatigable” in her good works. WOW advocates for being our brother and sister’s keeper in our principle #11, Service as a means to help strengthen and lift women & family, community, society, and even ourselves. It is through the quiet and not so quiet giving of our lives that truly make, “All things bright and beautiful.”

Happy Easter!

Making Pedophilia the New Normal?

Overpriced Furniture? 

Facebook owned Instagram recently shutdown an AZ couple from questioning and speculating why human names were attached to particular pieces of furniture and selling for tens of thousands of dollars at an online retailer, which appeared to be ridiculously overpriced. The couple had concerns it could be a front for child or human trafficking. News media outlets quickly responded in domino effect decrying the couple’s suspicions as conspiracy, and then flipped the  narrative in trying to make the couple appear suspect.  This type of news spin, circling around the media carousel  leaves the spectator unsatisfied and more suspicious of something afoul. After all, most online shoppers have come across ridiculously priced items, which apparently if you now question or try to investigate yourself, you are labeled a conspirator and told “nothing to see here.” But the AZ couples’ suspicions are not really so unfounded.

Rumors

Years of rumor are turning out to be factual with the recent allegations of child sex abuse and trafficking  in the case of Jeffery Epstein to which the extent of its reaching may never see the light of day. Accusations in the Epstein now turned Ghislaine Maxwell case extend  beyond the local red light district and into an international highbrow crowd, who are scrambling to clear their names.

Berlin Authorities Systematically Placed Children with Pedophiles

Germany’s sweeping investigation is making European headlines after it was exposed that in West Berlin, foster children had been systematically placed  into the homes of pedophiles over a 30 year span. The nefarious practice was initiated by professor of psychology, Helmet Kentler (1928-2008). He acquired support for his project  that reached  all the way  to the Berlin Senate. Kentler, like Alfred Kinsey, was able to fund the sexual abuse of children as university research, even pairing the sexual predator to the victim in his experiment.  Kentler advocated  normalizing sex with children, and promoted ideas such as,  “sexual contact between children and adults is not harmful,” calling  them acts of “love.” The last documented Kentler placement of a child into the home of a known pedophile was in 2003. A valid question yet to be answered is how could a  policy of institutionalized child sexual abuse be  kept  concealed for 30 years? It had to have involved a network of university staff,  lawyers, social workers, judges etc.  There were rumors over the years with some reporting, yet they remained un-investigated and unanswered until either the statute of limitations came into effect, or after the death of principal participants.

https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-authorities-placed-children-with-pedophiles-for-30-years/a-53814208

 Testing the Waters

It was in the 1970’s, during the height of the sexual  revolution, that Kentler began his pedophile placement program in Germany.  As if on queue, media support in the US and abroad of Kinsey’s fraudulent science on human sexuality, coincided also with two pedophile organizations, North American Man/Boy Love Association, NAMBLA, and British Paedophile Information Exchange, PIE  to openly campaign for “children’s sexuality” and laws to lower the age of consent.  Today, the same policies are again being repackaged  and promoted under such terms as  “child sexual rights,” which is a pillar in comprehensive sexuality education now being taught in schools across the globe.

The current legal and political unraveling of sexual norms  is  again encouraging   NAMBLA types to test the waters, and a resurgence of propaganda advocating sex with children has been popping up in social media hangouts, even neighborhood flyers. It seems the uninvited pedophile has aims of inclusion into the alphabet mix of sexuality. Conditioning the public is always part of the process for acceptance. Many have now exposed the Hasbro Troll doll, Poppy, as a possible deviant attempt at grooming children for abuse. Hasbro has since pulled the troll dolls from shelves. The doll had a button between her legs, right where her private parts would be, that could be pushed and sounds like sexual enjoyment would come out of the doll. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF67ZQYWZgQ 

 
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Doublespeak

Word choice like “child sexual rights” is very calculated, especially in the political realm. When documents, proclamations, or resolutions contain new language or words that appear obscure or undefined, it is usually a red flag for doublespeak- a combining of Orwell’s “newspeak” and “doublethink.” Ageism is one of those new  words. It sounds compassionate to promote communities free from ageism, but  it’s not just the elderly that’s included under such ill defined language. 

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Online Pandemic

The sexual abuse of children may actually be the online pandemic affecting children today, and the internet is the fastest, and easiest means for abusers and traffickers.  Germany is now investigating more than 30,000 suspects in an online pedophile probe. Justice Minister Peter Beisenbach in support of the cybercrime unit in Germany’s North Rhine-Wesphalia said, “I did not expect, not even remotely, the extent of child abuse on the internet.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53224444

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45096183

Solutions

This is a difficult subject, because child sexual abuse and sex trafficking is a perpetrator’s attempt to rob the innocence, and to steal the soul from the victim. Just reading about it can induce overwhelming feeling. Thankfully known percentages of abducted missing and exploited children remain low at less than 1%. A large percentage of sexually trafficked youth are runaways, that have been exploited. You can find additional facts at https://www.missingkids.org/footer/media/keyfacts. Unfortunately the exploits of sex abuse in regards to the production and exchange of child pornography remains largely unknown.

Please download two free e-books from WOW’s website, “Simple and Safe” and “Before They Connect” to  find out how to keep your family safe.

https://worldwideorganizationforwomen.org/education/before-they-connect/

https://worldwideorganizationforwomen.org/education/simple-safe/

To Learn more about comprehensive sexuality education, and how to keep it out of your child’s school go to https://www.comprehensivesexualityeducation.org/

Contact local law enforcement if you have grounds to suspect abuse. A youth that is carrying all their personal belongings, doesn’t know where they are, and appear in distress may be a youth in trouble.

File official complaints to corporations that sell, or social media platforms that promote adult sex with children, or the sexualization of children. Take screen shots, and send to your friends and family, especially if they are an influencer and have them launch complaints also. The media too often calls a case open and shut, playing judge and jury, with social media platforms like Facebook  & Youtube enforcing the gag orders. Passage of the EARNIT Bill is a first step in holding social media conglomerates accountable.

Contact your Senator and encourage them to support the EARNIT Bill 2020.

https://worldwideorganizationforwomen.org/government-policy/earn-it-act-of-2020-is-worth-supporting/ 

 

Happy International Day of Families

In December of 1989, the UN General Assembly Declared the International Year of the Family. The declaration came as the UN’s awareness and interest in the family developed during the 1980’s, and by 1989 the inclusion of families in the developmental process had officially been initiated. In 1993, the General Assembly set aside May 15, to be observed annually as International Day of Families.

2015 was historic for the family, Worldwide Organization for Women and other organizations who advocate for families. The UN Human Rights Council adopted an unprecedented “Protection of the Family” resolution. 2020 marks the 5 year anniversary of this document. Two important statements reaffirm:

…the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and state.

...the family has the primary responsibility for the nurturing and protection

Strengthening families is at the heart of WOW’s mission and work.

Secrets to a Successful Education

Recently, I revisited a contemporary, classic book on education for a discussion group I participate in by John Taylor Gatto.  This reminded me of 14 educational principles he compiled from personal  research on the top, elite high schools in the US.

Gatto’s history spans a successful career teaching public school in New York for over 30 years, and in retirement advocating with a loud voice for educational reform as a writer and public speaker.  His passion for teaching sparked a personal interest to discover what exactly, if anything was different about what is taught in the elite high schools. He learned that although each school carries its own academic mark of distinction, they all share a core that proves key to their students’ success.

Gatto summarizes the core into 14 areas, which he believes provides the foundation in determining what education for success really looks like.  The programs in these elite schools genuinely equip students with skills, knowledge and tools to launch them way beyond academic success.  These schools continue to produce a large portion of today’s leaders.  This study lends a revealing yardstick of measurement to apply to institutions of learning as students resume school this fall.

 The core list is as follows:

#1 Students form a complete theory of human nature, through theology, classic literature, philosophy, and history, and interestingly enough, not through psychology.  Students reason through  the universals and particulars of man with authors who pondered and wrote about the ultimate questions, inviting them to participate in the great conversation of human existence.

#2 All the schools provide consistent and frequent opportunity for student’s to practice in the active literacies- writing, and speaking. Writing and speaking well, reinforces thinking well and is essential  in the great exchange of ideas for commerce, politics, religion etc. Think of Bacon’s quote, “reading maketh a full man, speaking a ready man, and writing makes him exact.”

#3 Students gain insight into major institutions, and the ideas that drive them by study of their form, history and hierarchy. US public schools do include US government as part of the required curriculum, but the foundation that the government was built upon is generally missed. How many students today read John Locke, and can explain that the US went the way of Locke, rather than Hobbes, two contemporary philosophers; whereas, Western Europe decidedly embraced Hobbes’s “Social Contract.”  Other important institutions in the US that would benefit student understanding might include; universities, hospitals, libraries, the Pentagon, the New York Stock Exchange and so forth.

#4 Students behavior in all the schools is reinforced with a civil tone by repeated exercise in decorum and manners.

#5 Most of the academic work is independent, what I call active learning, as opposed to passive learning. Students do not wait around for the teacher to tell them what to do, read, answer etc., but are actively engaged in directing their education.

#6 Students participate in an energetic, physical sport that Gatto says in addition to the many obvious benefits, the important two are that it helps to confer grace upon the human form, and strengthen endurance. To carry oneself well, and with confidence benefits the person and those around them.

#7 Students apply a theory of access towards gaining access to any person or place. Gatto shares many enlightening, and successful stories of his students venturing around New York City, strategically executing their plans from his classroom.

#8 Personal  responsibility in all areas is driven into the students at these schools. In fairness, the private schools are able to provide a little more opportunity here because most are boarding schools, so house tasks are shared. However, this ethic expands into taking leadership positions in clubs and such, and promoting the ideal of personal excellence in always delivering more than is asked.

#9 By the end of their 12th year, students are expected to have arrived at a personal code of behavior and morality that they’ve decided to navigate life by.

#10 All students emerge from their high school experience with comfort in the arts, both visual and performing, and architecture.

#11 Students acquire the power of accurate observation and recording that includes accurate notes as well as basic drawing. This skill was essential for the men who laid the foundation in modern science.

#12 The schools are able to meet each student with flexibility and skill because of an understanding of the individual. Each person brings with them weakness, so the schools are able to challenge a student in their weakness, so as to strengthen it.

#13 Another practice in the schools is student development and testing of their judgement, or what might be called correct thinking. We always hear about the importance of critical thinking, but a better term is correct thinking. Reasoning demands discrimination in the evaluation of things, then mental follow up on personal predictions and consistent mental correction.

#14 The last principle is an extension of the above.  It is the developing a habit of caution in drawing conclusions instead of jumping to rash ones.

Now I’m not so naive as to not know, that it is often “who you know” that can make the big difference in certain life endeavors, but mastery in the above would certainly prepare an individual to know, who to know,  how to go about knowing them, and where to find them.  It’s also noteworthy, that many of the knowledge, skills, and understanding included in the core are relationship oriented. By the time these youths graduate high school, they understandably will be at ease with the world, and ready to lead wherever life takes them. The beauty of this type of education is that it’s not just for youth, or high school, but is an educational formula that anyone can follow at anytime in their life.

Sowing Seeds of Local Self-Government in Kenyan Fields: WOW Launches Fundraiser for The Gutuka Project This Fall

This month, WOW is conducting a campaign to generate funds in support of our Kenyan sisters and the children they are caring for in Homebay, a peanut growing region of the Nyanza Province.  The women participating in The  Gutuka Project  are members of a local  SACCO,  a savings and credit cooperative,  chaired under the leadership of The Family Resource Center and Jenipher Otieno.  All Funds generated from WOW’s campaign will go directly to the project. The Family Resource Center provides training and support for orphaned children and families caring for these children. 

The Heart of the Program:

 

The purpose in the forming of the coop initially was to provide sustainable solutions for the many orphans in the area. The women who help take in these orphaned children are essentially doing foster care for them, but unlike other places in the world, there is not government funding for these families.

It is often very economically difficult to add an extra person to a household already struggling in this region. There are currently about 30 women involved in the coop. Most of the women in the Gutuka program are the bread winners in their households. They provide for their families through small businesses that include the farming of peanuts, making baskets, raising poultry and making of foods. What makes these women and the program so special is that many of the women have opened their hearts and homes to orphans, that had no place to go. The Coop makes it economically possible to care for the children as well as their families. Please help these children by making a donation

 

The How of the Program:

 

Each family will be responsible for their own planting and harvest. At harvest, the individual families will be paid cash for their crop. The peanut grinding machine will be kept at a center, where the peanut butter will be ground and packaged.  Proceeds from the sale of the peanut butter will go toward food subsidies for the children, and the future purchase of more peanut seed, which the families will receive for free to replant the next crop.

The Cost of the Program:

There are three financial components to the proposed project. The first is to raise money for the purchase of seed for planting peanuts, estimated around $800 US dollars. Planting time for peanuts begins in November. There are generally two successive plantings for the peanut crop. The second is to purchase a peanut grinding machine estimated at $700 US dollars. The peanut grinder is a means for the women to produce peanut butter, which is a nutritious product as well as cash generating for their families. The third component is continuing education for the women, estimated at $1000 US dollars. Building their capacity through training in business skills, will help them improve their income generating and saving activities. These families have already raised $500 US dollars toward the project themselves by saving $2 US dollars a month consistently.

Gutuka is a Swahili word meaning “self-realization,” or as we would say in the US, self-reliant. This is the type of genuine investment in women that WOW advocates for. Please join WOW in making a donation today to help plant seeds of local self-government in the fields of our Kenyan sisters’ gardens. Just go to WOW’s website, and press the donate button. Enter your donation amount. Tag the donation as “Gutuka Program.” We appreciate your support of this project, and all donations are tax deductible.

Donate to WOW While Shopping on Amazon

WOW has discovered an easy way for your regular Amazon shopping  to financially benefit our non-profit without costing you one dime. Open an Amazon Smile account and a percentage of your purchase can go to The Worldwide Organization for Women.  The Amazon Smile  Foundation is an Amazon operated website that offers basically the same shopping as Amazon, except 0.5% of the of the purchase price will get donated to an  eligible charitable organization of your choice. WOW is registered  as an eligible charitable organization.  At Smile.Amazon  you can use your same account and password as Amazon.com. Once you log in, and set it up, it looks and operates just like amazon.com.  It is free and so easy. Go try it right now.

Follow these easy steps:

  1. Go to smile.amazon.com. where you will log in with your amazon account.
  2. Before you begin shopping, you will be prompted to select a charitable organization. Just type in the words Worldwide Organization for Women. Our name will appear, so select WOW as the charitable organization of your choice to receive donations. You only need to do this once to establish automatic donations for future purchases.
  3. It wouldn’t hurt to bookmark smile.amazon.com. The hardest thing to do is remember to shop there instead of Amazon.com, but occasionally they will send you a reminder.

Now you can shop with a smile, knowing that you are benefitting an important cause

Smile.amazon.com

WOW Africa: Changing Children’s Lives in 2018

The Worldwide Organization for Women Anambra State in South East Nigeria is led by Mrs. Ethel Eruchalu. The WOW group of women regularly meet to plan and execute how to best assist the girl child and vulnerable women with the resources they are able to procure. In 2018, they were able to reach their goal of providing critical resources to many young women and girls.

They began the year by making a plan to adopt 3 schools-one primary and two high schools. In the primary school, WOW provided tuition for 12 orphaned students, grades k-6. The rest of the 137 students received 6 exercise books each. This helps to reduce the burden on their guardians.

At the Umuokpu secondary school, WOW provided a series of health talks, which culminated in counseling the students in developing healthy habits for daily living during their summer break. This included talks on washing hands and bathing regularly, keeping clothing clean, cleaning toilet facilities, keeping a clean kitchen, and proper food handling. They emphasized bacteria as the cause of much disease, such as E. coli 0157, which is responsible for food poisoning and kidney failure in that area. WOW taught the students that proper cleanliness prevents the development and spread of bacteria and disease. They followed up at the school again in November.

The students at the secondary school in Asuamocha received similar health instruction, but the visit also included the distribution of treated mosquito nets to 390 students and 10 teachers. This region has experienced high mortality rates due to mosquito borne illness.

In November, WOW Africa held its forum at Awka. The topic was, “ Promoting strong Community, and Religious, and Family support for Combating Violence and Rape Against Women and Girls. The format was a round table discussion, which listened to the victims and included boys and girls. WOW-Africa resolved to work in cooperation with religious, civil leaders and women’s groups to effect changes beginning from within the family. Charity as they say begins at home.

Ethel and the WOW women of Anambra State serve the South East region of Nigeria with wisdom, diligence and love.

Back to School, Back to P*rn?

WOW is issuing a WARNING to all parents with school age children, that  po*rn  purveyors have pushed explicit material into the digital pages of our schools that almost all students have access to.

This is how it works. Schools, both  public and private, online and charter, purchase online library resources. It is akin to the old fashioned reference section of the library. One leading supplier  across the nation is acronymed  EBSCO. Colleges, universities and libraries also purchase from them, which allows all students and patrons  access. The problem is these online reference centers are filled with hardcore p*rnography.

WOW began an investigation into this and within 3 hours was able to document around 8,000 explicit images, articles and advertisements. This raises many questions such as Why are s*x ads in  the student reference library?  Much of the explicit so -called reference material comes from  sales magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Glamor, Marie Claire, and many others within this closed system.

Every student in Utah, whether elementary, middle or high school, who has online access at school also has access to EBSCO through the Utah Education Network. As a matter of fact, it is a recommended place for research, and often preferred above a direct internet search for being safer. This is not true. Schools generally have filters for the internet, but because these reference libraries are a closed system, they CAN NOT BE FILTERED. As a matter of fact, when the reference library is searched the only URL  that appears is the reference library name.

WOW discovered that EBSCO is listed as one of the National Center of Sexual Exploitation’s Dirty Dozen. You can link to their website for more detailed and graphic information and access to some great action items. https://endsexualexploitation.org/ebsco/

Two other news stories have recently broken about the EBSCO database problem in Colorado and Kansas as well.

Colorado https://www.9news.com/article/news/parents-fighting-porn-claim-victory-over-cherry-creek-schools/73-593150722 

Kansa https://www.kwch.com/content/news/Mcpherson-school-district-responds-to-internet-safety-issues-494091541.html

WOW is currently working to get the UEN to sever ties with EBSCO. Nicholeen Peck was able to interview with KTVU channel 2 news in Utah.  Link to that interview:

https://kutv.com/news/beyond-the-books/beyond-the-books-utah-mom-finds-pornographic-pics-on-utah-education-network-database

UEN said in a statement that they will continue to leave EBSCO available over the weekend, and have contacted EBSCO about the explicit material. This is not a satisfactory response.  Ray Timothy, CEO of UEN was unavailable for an interview until Monday or Tuesday. Please contact UEN 801 581 6991, [email protected] , your local school, your school board and your legislator  and let them know this will not be tolerated in UTAH.

Update on This Situation:

The UEN held a special board meeting on October 1, 2018 just to discuss the EBSCO issue and intended at that time to vote to re-enable the database resource for schools after it had been disabled for about a week and a half. There were 8 of the board who were able to attend the meeting. The 6 men voted to keep EBSCO out of schools until it could be proven safe. The 2 women voting didn’t protect children well. The representative for the state school board, Patty Norman, abstained from the vote because the school board had a split opinion. And, Colleen Eggett, the head of Utah libraries and the Utah Online Library, which hosts EBSCO, said that children had a first amendment right to see whatever they want, and that it is up to parents to teach children what to do if they come across something bad.

Colleen claimed no responsibility for protecting children or honoring parental rights to keep their children safe when in public. She said the problem was 30% a technology problem and 70% a problem with children not being taught skills by their parents. This claim is very concerning. First, if I governed over any product that had 30% of the blame in hurting my customers, I would pull the product and fix it immediately. That is a very large percentage. Is she saying that 30% of the database is problematic? Second, everyone concerned, parents, students, and teachers, were all told the databases were safe because they were not linked to the internet. The items in the database had to be intentionally put there. So, to put 70% of the blame on parents and teachers is a shift of the blame.

This claim that access to pornography on a public computer is a first amendment right is something the ALA [American Library Association] made up. It is not actually a right. Just as a person doesn’t have the right to scream fire in a crowded movie theatre when there isn’t a fire because it can endanger other people, pornography on a public computer that children have access to is not a right.

WOW blames the ALA for the faulty thinking of Ms. Eggett, and does not see the ALA as a trusted authority on keeping children safe, especially since the ALA has been trying to undermine the Child Internet Protection Act [CIPA] laws since 2001. They even went as far as to sue the government as well as create a day of the year called Banned Internet Sites Day and create their own library bill of rights. The ALA is acting as if they are their own government and that the government owes them respect, instead of the reverse.

Parents, please don’t allow your children to access library databases without you there, and speak up against databases at the schools in your area too that might be subjecting your children to pornography. Do some checking. And, tell other parents.

We commend the UEN for voting to keep EBSCO disabled for the time being and for their efforts to keep pushing toward cleaning up the pornography problem on school databases. Even an article in the EBSCO database titled “Top 10 Security Risk Factors for Public and Academic Libraries” said that pornography being seen at libraries by minors and non-consenting adults was number 4 of their 10 risks. . So, they know about it. The good thing is, now parents know about it too. We must protect the children.

Also, Thursday, October 4, 2018 the Utah State School Board met to vote on what their position would be on the EBSCO databases being reinstated. Even though multiple board members were opposed to the idea, the majority of the school board voted to reinstate EBSCO databases when the vote comes up again at the UEN board meeting. WOW cannot believe that a school board would be so careless with the protection of children’s safety. We don’t feel we can have confidence in a state school board who takes something this serious so lightly. They have more of a duty to protect the children and families of Utah than the interests of a few librarians and teachers.