30-seconds to make a small but very real difference

China Daily is holding a contest to select an expat to run a leg of the Olympic torch run.

There is an American woman in the running who not only deserves the honor, but more importantly would share the honor with 8 girls, from orphanages in 8 different provinces.

Please vote for her here.

Just a little more...

The woman, Jenny Bowen, started the Half the Sky foundation, which has changed the lives of thousands of orphan girls through its programs to improve life in orphanages. Many girls grow up there, never getting the family they long for.

They train orphanage staff, fund nannies so that kids get more individual attention, develop educational programs for all ages, sponsor college for orphanage kids that would never have that opportunity, and sponsor foster families to help more kids get out of orphanges and into family-like settings with foster parents who are trained and supported by Half the Sky. It's staggering what this woman has been able to accomplish in under 10 years.

Running the torch with these girls, who represent a million or more girls who are literally invisible in their own society, giving them a seat at this table would be such a gift to them, and a reminder to the society that would rather forget about them.

So please take a moment to follow the link and vote.

Thank you!

•  Thanks for helping out

  I'm a mother to two girls from China so this is near to my heart.

  by Joan in Seattle on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 09:41:55 PM PDT

  •  Thank you, Joan in Seattle

    for your diary and for providing the link.  I have placed my vote, and wish the best of luck to Jenny Bowen.

    --gatorbot, also in Seattle :)

    by gatorbot on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 09:45:48 PM PDT

    •  Thak you! nt

      by Joan in Seattle on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 10:22:45 PM PDT

•  Thank you--that was an easy vote for me

  My niece, too, is a mother of two little girls from China.
  From the beginning, she has worked to help them
  understand their culture, their heritage and even why they
  would have ended up in an orphanage, when they were
  probably not orphans.

  by begone on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 09:45:09 PM PDT

  •  Sounds like she is

    doing a great job. It's so tough to explain to them what we don't fully understand ourselves! They will be filling in the blanks for the rest of their lives, I think.

    by Joan in Seattle on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 10:24:37 PM PDT

    •  Yes--dad is a Chinese language scholar, so he's

      trying to keep their language alive for them, they're taking
      the girls to China in a few years, and they made scrapbooks
      for each of them about what they could find out about their
      lives, pre-adoption....

      But the blanks will always exist. Thank god there is a whole
      lot of love to assuage those blanks.

      by begone on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 10:30:57 PM PDT

•  Done.

  What a great organization.

  by Elise on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 10:02:47 PM PDT

  •  It truly is!

    Jenny Bowen must be a force. I wonder where my "start" button is, so I can accomplish even a fraction of what she has.

    by Joan in Seattle on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 10:25:30 PM PDT

•  rec'd. tip'd. voted!

  mom to a beautiful girl from hubei province.

  hooray for adoption!

  1,000,000 is a 'floating' figure - the mortality rate in those orphanages is not always pleasant.  

  there are approx 70,000 chinese adoptees in the united states.  recent changes in china may decrease the rate of new adoptions.  

  by jlms qkw on Sat Sep 29, 2007 at 11:00:44 PM PDT

•  Easiest vote I ever cast

  and a chance to plug Love Without Boundaries.  Thanks for letting us know.

  by marykk on Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 05:29:02 AM PDT

  •  I know that LWB does awesome work as well!

    by Joan in Seattle on Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 08:24:29 AM PDT

    •  And there's no shortage

      of work to be done, sadly.  Thanks for sharing this lovely story.

      by marykk on Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 08:37:48 AM PDT

•  :) done and good luck to you all. <nt>

  by misscee on Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 06:34:40 AM PDT

•  I must need new glasses

  took me three time to get a successfully typed in security code; I hate it when they have or 'O' or '0' - so hard to distinguish.

  Thanks for making this easy Joan. Glad you were 'rescued' as well or I'd have never seen this.

  by oysterface on Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 09:37:57 PM PDT

  •  It took me five times. n/t

    by flumptytail on Sun Sep 30, 2007 at 10:41:33 PM PDT