We'll have four paintings made by Indian survivors of trafficking. The paintings are of birds, sunsets, and trees. I find them charming and representative of someone's hopes and dreams for a better life.
I just found their website here: http://sharansthan.org/programs. One program they offer is Day Care. Here is what they write about it:
This offers holistic care - education, physical care and medical attention to the children who are uncared for in the Red Light Area - Ganga Jamuna, at Nagpur. Outside of our daily care, the mothers are forced to induce drugs to their infants in order to entertain costumers. (Age group 6 months – 6 yrs; Timings 9am – 6pm).
Um, is that saying prostituted mothers are forced to give their children drugs in order to keep them subdued while they "work"?
I have even more motivation to put on the best art auction there ever was.
SO awesome to be part of the culminating event tonight! It was really a wonderful time - and we were happy to come away with some of our art piece wish list! Well done, and congratulations. Be sure to take time to reflect this week on lessons learned; as I told your mom, this even really seems like a "seed" event for other like investments of your life in the future.
ReplyDeleteHi Dr. Inslee, I'm glad you and Kyra won some of your bids! I also saw this as a "seed" event as it's precedence to show that I can manage a project. One thing I learned regarding fundraising is that it helps to match the crowd to the event. Essentially, I think we would have sold our more expensive art if we had targeted more art buyers. On a different note, one thing I did achieve correctly was time management. I spent no time staying up late working on the auction until the last minute. I had everything done on time. We even left the venue early before it was over.
DeleteSo... I was out of town during the event. It sounds like it all came together. I'm curious about two things: 1) what sort of challenges did you encounter along the way that threw you a curve from your initial plans, and 2) how do you see an impact on the people this is all intended to serve (victims)?
ReplyDeleteKudos for a successful event. Not an easy accomplishment, to be sure!
Hi Barry,
DeleteYou know, I was actually most surprised that there were no surprises! I kept waiting for one and it never came. I was disappointed that we didn't reach our fundraising goal, but I knew we might not do that ahead of time. We just had no precedence for that. Art and it's value is subjective. Regarding impact, I see survivors and their communities being empowered to be their own change. The survivors are participating in their own healing because our auction guests purchased the items they made. Since Rescue:Freedom supports survivor led care, I hope to see our guests supporting them in the future so that this can continue in the future.
So it sounds like the event was a success! I was sad to miss it!
ReplyDelete