Something really big happened yesterday.
When it started out I was stressed that I wouldn’t make my fundraising goal.
But then everything changed.
If you didn’t see my email yesterday, a nonprofit I work with called Her Future Foundation really needs a $700 fee by Friday to get NGO status.
They need it so they can get 2 years of funding for their mission. They have a meeting on Friday and the need the fee for NGO status by then.
They protect 80 individual vulnerable girls from child marriage, FGM and human rights violations that often occur in Sierra Leone towards girls like them, who may have lost parents and the only way for them to survive could be to marry an adult man.
When I realized I was really stressed, I realized it wasn’t going to help me.
I’ve been through enough with my dad’s death and I had to train myself to stop myself when I go into a doom spiral.
So I calmed myself down and got present.
With time I calmed down, and then I came back to check in with myself.
I had an inner conversation with my pal Sofia Wren (me)
Part of me still wanted to know: “What will you do if you can’t find enough people to donate the money? What will happen to the girls? You have to find a way to help them.”
I have been involved in this organization for a year, and they don’t have a lot of donors.
At the time, no one had donated to my fundraiser yet.
The stakes felt pretty freaking high, which is why I was stressed. I just had found out the night before HOW needed the $700 was for the organization and the 80 girls they care for.
Ok…I thought some more about what I could do, what I could post to the world, who I could talk to…
Then it hit me–“I can cash out my bitcoin.”
Many years ago a client paid me for a service I was trying out, a sound healing, with bitcoin. He said, “This is going to be worth a lot of money one day.”
And then years later, Bitcoin blew up.
But recently, I’ve been disturbed by the environmental impact–that the carbon footprint of every transfer of bitcoin is equal to taking a plane ride.
That bitcoin collectively uses more energy than Sweden. And the higher value it is, the more energy it will use.
So I don’t really want bitcoin to increase in value, make me money and be successful anymore.
I had a little bit left, but I’d just been leaving it alone not sure what to do with it.
But now it felt right to cash out the bitcoin.
Take it out of a system that was harming the planet, and putting it into something I believe in:
THE POWER OF GIRLS!!!
The value a girl inherently has, has nothing to do with how smart, pretty or nice she is.
She deserves safety and protection from danger.
She deserves education.
Even if she is across the world.
So I just decided that was what I was going to do. And I instantly felt better.
TAKE THAT to every time I got the “little girl, sit down, shut up,” treatment.
NO
I will value girls.
And today I did it, I cashed out my bitcoin.
Whatever does not get raised for the girls in Sierra Leone, I will pay for out of my own pocket.
And I feel great. I feel like it is so beautiful and healing to make this investment–
and usually I feel good about investing in myself but this is so much bigger.
People are banding together.
I have received $270 so far from beautiful, beautiful souls who want to help the girls all along side of me. That’s from 5 wonderful people.
That’s close to half way to the goal of $700 that we have to raise by Friday.
If you want to team forces with us and be a part of a movement that is going to literally change the lives of 80 girls, you can join us.
Donating to this cause has made me more abundant:
I realize all the things that I have going for me.
In fact, it is healing my past.
I’m more grateful for the things I have received from others–
even where I will admit it, in my grief I have been bitter about things that were lost or unavailable.
I feel better about all of it because I am now more powerful than it.
I am the one who can hold a little girls hand and take her out of danger.
Like I am saying through my actions:
You don’t have to worry about that.
You will be safe.
You will be cared for.
You will have a future.
You will be an inspiration to the world and you will change everything just by being yourself.
I am that person leading that mission.
But you can be, too.
So even though, the girls will be ok, I will make sure that this fee is paid for them,
I want to invite you on this journey with me.
Because it’s not about me.
This is bigger than me. You can step up too, if it feels right.
This is about all of us. We can change the world together.
We can make the world less ugly.
We are not powerless. Even a dollar, or whatever you have is going to help these girls.
You have no idea the power of a dollar in their country.
If you want to give go here:
Donate to my paypal here and click send as a Friend. This is the fastest way we can get them the money for their Friday deadline.
Or venmo to @Sofia-Nitchie
Want more info?
See my other blog post or shoot me an email for more information!
Thank you thank you.
And thank you to all who have donated to my dad’s gofundme last year, or who sent me a birthday coffee.
I didn’t say thank you the way I would have liked to at the time, because I was grieving so much.
Let this be my way of saying thank you—paying it forward to these girls.
Love you
