Touching the Lives of Others: In for a Little or a Lot

As odd as it seems – I am totally hooked on YouTube. I know, late to the party as usual, but several years ago, thanks to Laura Geller, a makeup artist in my old NYC neighborhood, I discovered my first beauty YouTuber. A sprite of a young woman, Miss Glamorazzi, who totally charmed me into searching out others like her on YouTube! From there it just snowballed -- beauty, fashion, lifestyle, music. I won’t tell you how many YouTubers I am subscribed to at the moment – somehow, I think it might be more than any other 65-year old woman on the planet. (The good news is there is not one “cat” subscription in the list! Not that I'm judging.) Coming from the world of marketing and advertising, I am pretty sure that YouTube statisticians are scratching their heads – it's highly likely that I am the one viewer that messes with their demographic profile! 

Anyhow, my point in all of this is that two of of the beauty fashion women I follow in England recently made a journey to Ghana to visit with a few different women’s groups supported by a nonprofit organization, Sport Relief. Both women did vlog-style videos highlighting their journey and the time spent with the women and their children in Ghana. I'm sharing the vlogs here as I thought my Kazuri bead readers and collectors would enjoy watching them. (If you are reading this on a mobile device and can’t see the videos here are the direct links for both: Lily Pebbles and Anna at VivannaDoesMakeup)

I do hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch these two videos – they are lovely really. In both of the “downbars” under the videos, you can learn more about the nonprofit Sport Relief and ways in which you can support them, no matter where you live. Feel free to share and pass the videos around to friends and family. Heck, who knows, you might even find yourself with a YouTube subscription list! But, don’t worry, your secret is safe with me!

As you know, I design an ever-changing Kazuri bead collection of jewelry that is available on my site/shop. When I learned the Kazuri story years ago and first held the beads in my hands, I knew they carried a special energy. At that moment, I decided to do all I could to lend support to the women in Kenya in any way possible. If you aren't familiar with Kazuri beads you can read more about them here and you can see the Kazuri Bead Collection on my site here.

So, thanks again to both Lily Pebbles and Anna for sharing your Ghana journey – you are, indeed, special spirits and your enlightened energy shines through in your vlogs. Together, through educating women about owning and running small businesses we are supporting their dream of earning their own money so they can, in turn, support their families. In for a little or in for a lot -- either way we are working to truly change the world – not by giving hand outs but by giving these women a hand up – and that makes my spirit soar.