When I started Zen Stitching back in 2020, it was a way of rolling all my passions together into a business: my love and respect for art, my passion for sustainability, and my desire to live meaningfully. My goal was to share the joy of stitching with others - and if I could, to give back to the community in other ways, too.
I'm so proud to say that in 2023, with the support of our online community, Zen Stitching was able to donate $7000 to CARE Australia. That money went to causes centered around helping women overcome poverty and build community - you can read the full report from CARE here!
Why women?
With a plethora of valuable organizations to support, you may wonder how Zen Stitching settled on CARE, an organization focused on helping women.
The (vast) majority of my readership and students are women. As women, we often play integral roles in our families and communities. We tend to be caregivers - of children (our own and others), the elderly, and other family members. It also tends to be women at the center of social justice movements, helping push for equality, equity, human rights, and climate justice.[1]
All this is to say: supporting women not only helps lift other women. It helps our homes, workplaces, and communities, too.
Who is CARE?
CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) is an organisation that works around the world to end poverty. They do this by focusing largely on women and girls because when women rise, they bring four others with them - "we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities."[2] In 2023, they reached 167 million people through their 1600+ projects in 109 countries!
What do they do?
CARE supports social justice globally through a slew of programs and projects, including focuses on:
- Crisis relief (for emergencies and ongoing crises)
- Food and water
- Health
- Education and work
- Climate
- Equality
Much of this work takes place in the Global South, including sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia.
One great example of their work can be found in the 2023 report.
CARE Australia has been able to help support Petronella, who leads a savings group for 30 women in Timor-Leste. The women pool their money in the hopes that they will be financially prepared when disaster strikes. Petronella has noted that women, and especially those with disabilities, can be overlooked by leadership in times of crisis, and wants to make sure all the people in her community - of all abilities - are cared for. This is a great example of how CARE works to lift women out of poverty, who in turn contribute to lifting others in their communities out of poverty.
How does Zen Stitching support CARE?
The biggest way that we support CARE is by donating a portion of profits from our Making Zen VIP Pass sales - you can stay up-to-date about that event here! I also had the opportunity to chat with Kate Eddy, Care Australia's head of philanthropy, during our May 2023 Making Zen retreat, and you can listen in to that conversation here.
You're supporting CARE just by supporting Zen Stitching, but if you'd like to donate individually to the cause, or get involved in other ways, you can do that here.
