Saturday, March 14, 2009

This Blog has moved

Thanks for following my blog for Giving Children Hope. We launched our new website and my blog has moved. Please visit it at: http://www.gchope.org/jenises-blog.html

Cheers!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The Controversy of Gaza

How does a Christian humanitarian aid organization try and fundraise to serve Gaza? I’m asking a serious question and am open to replies.

Here’s the scoop. Gaza is so politically controversial and even more so within the Christian community. As an organization we do not take a political stand on any situation. We work hard to get aid to where it needs to go. We will work with anyone willing to get aid to the people – no matter what their political beliefs are. That means in every situation we work with all different people.

This can make Christians uncomfortable, but this does not undermine our commitment to Jesus Christ. Quite the opposite. We feel that working together with people who are different than us shows the love of Christ.

The interesting thing about the Palestinian territories (which by the way with our Google map integration we have to do a manual over-ride because even Google doesn’t want to tick anyone off), is that while Christians can debate about the state of Israel and the Jewish people and discuss the Muslims, the Christians living in this region are often Palestinians.

Now, I wan to re-emphasize that GCHope has no political stand whatsoever and we are working hard to get aid to a hospital in Gaza City – Ahli Hospital – which has not received ANY supplies in 2 years. As I restate that, I’ll speak of a personal experience in 2004 when I visited the Holy Land.

I traveled to Israel for the wedding of an American and a Canadian – both Christians – taking place where they lived in Jerusalem. I learned a lot from them and their friends on this trip, and with the Christian expatriates I met, they had varying opinions. But I did something else. I went behind the new wall into Bethlehem, just a few miles away from Jerusalem and it was a different world. I met with a Muslim Palestinian who toured us around and talked to us from his opinion. He was very kind and I’ll never forget the graciousness and hospitality he extended to us.

I also met with some Christian Palestinians and I think their story was the most difficult for me, or the most heart-wrenching. You see, no one wanted them. The Jews didn’t want them in Israel and the Muslim Palestinians didn’t want them either. However, they were walled up into Bethlehem unable to get permits to travel, but being absolutely persecuted. And the thing is, they feel that Christians around the world only seem to care about the Jewish people.

Now again, GCHope is not taking sides, nor am I. But I will state that I was deeply impacted by their plight and that I pray often for the Christian Palestinians who feel so very alone in this world.

We’ve taken a bit of heat so far from all sides for trying to help the people of Gaza. I’m personally frustrated because I need to find a way to raise $10,000 to help this hospital and people who has been hit by war. Whatever you believe about the war, breathing humans created in the image of God have undergone traumatic circumstances and no resources are available to help them recover from the physical ailments that they have. I’m not sure how to be politically correct, I’m just trying to do the right thing and serve people in need.

I did have a wonderful conversation this week with an Interfaith group. This is a small group of people from all different faiths who come together to pray and get to know one another and they want to help on Gaza. What a beautiful thing! People different from one another, some Christians, some Muslims, some Jews, all coming together around the cause of serving the people who are hurt in Gaza with the medical care that they need. I think this goes a long way in bringing a more peaceful world which we continue to pray for.

I’m sure that this post has managed to irritate some people. As my boss called me this week, I’m like a piece of sand that acts like an agitator. Hmmmm, not quite the compliment. But then he went on to state that this sand turns into a beautiful pearl. That I pose good questions that make people think and in turn produce beautiful results. So, I hope this made you think. And I hope somewhere it will produce a beautiful result…maybe it will be for those in the Middle East.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

The New Face of Homelessness

2009 is off to an interesting year. One thing is for certain, we all can't wait for the economy to turn. Who knows how long that will be.

In recent months we've noticed a change in the needs of our program feeding homeless children. I've mentioned, there are over 11,000 elementary age children in Orange County, CA who are homeless. They are homeless for different reasons. But here's a scenario you wouldn't think would take place:

Two able body parents in their early 30's. He has a 4 year college degree in marketing, she went to a technical school in information technology. Both are smart with a willingness to work. They have 3 kids, ages 8, 5 and 2. But guess what, they are both unemployed....for 9 months now.

What would you do? When your unemployment runs out and no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to get a job? How would you feed your family? How would provide shelter?

Unfortunately this family is representative of the new face of homelessness in our community. The college educated family forced to leave their rental home and bounce around from motel to motel with no money for food to feed their children.

We are thankful for all of the partners that support the We've Got Your Back program and help provide food for the weekends for families like this!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

More than a website

The last couple days my co-workers have just seen me stressed about a “web data migration” but they really don’t understand what I am talking about in the new "website". Harmony in communications told me the other day she was telling her friend about our new “up-coming website" and he can’t understand why she is so excited about a website. And my “web developer” does so much more then building a website, but we have yet to determine a title that fits what he does that people understand, so he stays stuck with web developer.

All this to say, those of us involved in this project are actually really excited about it. But just calling it a website, well, that doesn’t really cut it. This is certainly web 2.0. When I think of a website, like last night I was on the Pier 1 website looking at dining room chairs, I’m there for information. What’s in the store and what is the closest store available and is there enough of what I want to make me drive over. What we are building provides information, but hopefully it connects you in your soul to doing something greater than yourself. Hopefully it inspires you and lets you know that YOU can do something big for a particular community.

I must say, my friends at The Man Can deserve high kudos for their time and brains. Brett and Fred have been working round the clock on front and back-ends. Harmony and I are frantically trying to move over data. Only it isn’t cut and paste. You have to use your brain.

So we can’t wait to launch – hopefully this week. We welcome your feedback when we do.

The most we can say now is that we hope it will be a place you enjoy visiting on a regular basis. We hope that partner projects around the world will be highlighted in new ways. We won’t focus much on GCH as an organization, but tried to pull ourselves out and connect you better to our partners. We hope that people who want to make a difference but don’t know how will have the tools to equip them and that this will be more of a community of people working together than a website.

As I just returned from Peru and meeting with Dr. Gabriel in the jungles I had the first-hand experience to understand why this community needs a hand-up. I’m inspired by their project and inspired to give to it. However, if you visit a website you might not get the sense of what has been accomplished and what next steps are and why it's so important. The hope is, our new design will somehow help you to understand Dr. Gabriel’s community without going there and inspire you to volunteer or donate to assist him as he cares for the health needs of the community. It pulls me out of it and instead displays Dr. Gabriel. And who knows, maybe we'll have people that want to connect with partner organization Mercy Homes and go visit Dr. Gabriel. We'd welcome that type of interaction.

So, here’s to a new on-line world, and that’s really what it is. It’s more than a website, it’s a community of inspiration and change!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Great Ideas!


I love sharing inspiring ideas. This one is from partner organization Mercy Homes and what the President Mike is doing with his employees at work.

The company decided to give all of the money that it makes in the soda machine to help support the Mercy Home. Mike and I were in Peru talking about ways to engage employees, and somehow the idea of putting the kids faces on the soda machine buttons was born.

Take a look at these cute kids in Peru and see what you think.

Do you have creative ideas you can share with us?

Monday, January 26, 2009

What do art and human slavery have in common?

Read the entire post to find out:

Over the weekend I had a great chance to catch up with a friend I hadn’t talked to in some time. These days, keeping up with my friends is so hard because every day is SO full here at Giving Children Hope.

As she and I sat yesterday over coffee the time flew. I finished telling her about my week last week and she looked at me and said, “Most people don’t do all of that in 6 months, how do you do it all in a week?” I guess the answer is, when you work in the industry that I am in with the ever changing conflicts around the world (ie Gaza) and you work with so many different kinds of people to get in resources and give out resources, it means that a lot always happens in a week.

For those of us that need to be working in a fast-paced and interesting environment, it’s really perfect. Every day I am learning from the partners that we serve about what issues they are facing in their part of the world. Hopefully this blog is a good place to share them with you and keep you informed in ways that mainstream media can’t. If there are particular things you’d like to learn about, please submit your questions. I promise to listen, and I promise to inform you of the most pertinent information that our partners face and what you can do to make a difference.

Recently, Giving Children Hope is getting more involved with the issue of human slavery because so many of our partners are dealing with the issue of human slavery. We want people to know that when they support us that are assisting in practical ways to support this cause. In response, we’re having an art show on April 18th in our facility entitled My Hands Have a Voice. (www.MyHandsHaveaVoice.org). If you know of people that might like to participate as an artist, let me know. If you know of a celebrity that might like to attend or that can create art, let me know. Otherwise, just save the date and plan on attending.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Honoring the Life of Martin Luther King Jr

Most people know that MLK day is a big volunteer day. What better way to honor the life of Martin Luther King Jr. then to spend the day in community service. Today Giving Children Hope hosted about 70 volunteers over the course of the day: http://www.gchope.org/serve-on-martin-luther-king-jr.-day.html. The volunteers also had the opportunity to learn about his life.

I learned some things today. I didn't know that he skipped the 9th and 12th grades or that he finished his PhD at the age of 26! Wow!

So today we tried to inspire the many people in our office to continue to give back. To use their talents and passion to make a difference. Martin Luther King Jr. was a single person who inspired great change in the USA. Who are the Martin Luther's of this generation? What can YOU do to inspire change for the better in your community? Around the world?