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See Jane Advocate bio picture

Welcome to See Jane Advocate

Having babies doesn't mean you stopped caring about the world...It just means you need quicker, easier and cheaper ways to do it! This blog exists to help busy moms impact the world by providing quick, accessible, attainable methods of advocacy that you can do in just a few minutes a day. 

I hope you find some ideas to inspire you! Thanks for visiting!

Christmas traditions that change the World

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Since the idea of finding ways to make a global difference in your daily life is one of my biggest life principals, it makes sense to me to incorporate those values into our Christmas celebrations. So I wanted to share a few ideas for how to do that.

1. Stocking stuffers of cash to be spent on an online relief gift catalog

This has become one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Two years ago we started replacing stocking stuffers for our families with envelopes of $15 cash to be spent together on the Samaritan’s Purse Gift Catalog or World Relief’s Catalog of Hope. So on Christmas day, in that lull between gifts and lunch, we all get online and everyone spends their $15 (PS. You can do SO much for $15! Did you know you can feed a hungry baby for a WEEK for $9???). It’s a win-win for us because it gives us an activity to do and it’s crazy awesome to see the difference that our Christmas celebration makes for people in developing countries.

2. Make or Give an Operation Christmas Child Online Shoebox

If you aren’t familiar with Operation Christmas Child, I would strongly encourage you to check it out. You can now make and send a shoebox gift online for $35 or pay for a box and send it to someone else to let them fill it and send it. This would be a great way for a family to do something awesome together on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Elementary aged kids would probably get especially excited to put this box together on the website (they can even upload a photo of themselves and write a note for the receiving child!). I also love this as a gift for families who don’t live near you.

3. Buy just ONE gift that makes a difference

I know it’s late for gifts, but just ONE gift that makes a difference can change someone’s life in a developing country. Here are couple of my favorites that are pretty mainstream so you don’t have to worry about shipping in time for Christmas:

FEED Bags. Fabulous bags (I use mine as a diaper bag!) that provide food, vitamins and other essentials for children in developing countries. You can find them at Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Gap and tons of other retailers.

TOMS (both the shoes and their new eyewear). Since they are super hip these days, they’re pretty easy to find! Here’s where you can find a retailer for their eyewear or a retailer for their footwear. They also offer gift cards!

West Elm has a whole line of products called Handmade in Haiti that are made by Haitian artisans attempting to rebuild their life after the earthquake. The products are RAD and support a great cause. Here’s where you can find the nearest store.

4. Send a Christmas card to your sponsor child (and if you don’t have one, get one!)

This idea started last year when Abreham, our sponsor child in Ethiopia,  sent us a Christmas card with a drawing of an Ethiopian Christmas tree and it looked nothing like ours. Joelle (my oldest) was intrigued, so we sent him a card with a drawing of OUR Christmas tree…and it has now become a tradition. It’s been a great way to get my kiddo involved in something meaningful that is also fun for her (even if she wouldn’t show her face for the photos)! If you don’t yet have a sponsor child, it’s really one of the best things that we’ve done and I would encourage you to find a child to sponsor. We go through Food for the Hungry because we got to see their amazing work first hand in Ethiopia a few years ago, but you could also go through Compassion International or several other great organizations.

Ok, so these things might not change the WHOLE world. I do realize that. But they will deeply effect the life of at least one person in need and at least one person close to you (you, your child, your family, your friends). Establishing globally minded traditions for your families will instill these values in your children and also give your friends and family a meaningful and interactive way to celebrate this Christmas. And who knows? Maybe you’ll inspire them to make a difference for someone else. The point is: Do what you can. Even if it’s a little thing, it can make a big difference to someone else.

I hope these things inspire you to find meaningful traditions that will work for YOUR family. Please let me know if you have any questions! And if you have any ideas to add to this list please share them with us in the comments!!! I hope you all have a very merry and blessed Christmas! Thanks for letting me be here!

Posted in Involve Your Kids, Practical Ways to Make an Impact, Shopping for a Cause

by Courtney Christenson

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One fair trade gift

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Hello Friends!

I must make a very humble apology for my lack of posts over the last month (or more! Ack!). I’m hoping that you will all understand that there are times in life when things are just too crazy and you have to ruthlessly cut stuff out of your life for a bit…even if you love it. The last two months have been chaos in our household and I really feel like I just barely survived. But I did, and now I’m back. After making some adjustments that needed making, sorting out the necessary from the unncessary, and getting through what was just a ridiculously busy time, I feel like the balance is beginning to be restored.

And just in time for the Christmas season!

I generally really love blogging during this time because there are so many awesome ways to support human rights and opportunities to spend money you were already going to spend in a way that makes a difference…which is what this post is about.

My wonderful mother (who is one of the hugest blessings in my life) sent me this video and it really struck me. It’s basic point is that we often think carefully about how we’re going to spend the 10% of our money that we set aside for tithing or charitable giving, and then fail to thoughtfully spend the other 90% of our money in a way that makes a difference.  This Christmas Americans are expected to spend $450,000,000,000. What if you spent your share in that in ways that made a difference? What if we re-thought how we spent the other 90% of our money the rest of the year? What if we purposefully bought “need” items that make a positive impact? Check it out:

I love that last statistic that says if every person that attends church in the US purchased just ONE fairly traded gift this year we could provide a years worth of work for ONE MILLION people. That’s just nuts (in a good way).

I realize that buying fair trade for every gift this year is probably not realistic…but ONE? You can do ONE. And for the other gifts, look into purchasing from companies who make a difference. Here’s a just a few of my favorite fair trade and globally conscious companies/websites.

Merry Christmas everyone!

1) Better World Books: I just bought my girls some books for Christmas and instead of hopping on Amazon I searched through Better World Books. The books are gently used so it’s eco friendly and cost effective (read: Cheap), AND to top it off they don’t charge for shipping. Yes, you read that right…FREE shipping. And they have everything! For more reasons why you should buy people books for Christmas, you can read my previous post about Better World Books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2) Seven Hopes United: Really and truly beautiful, modern looking fair trade products. I particularly love their Kitchen section. They have gorgeous table linens and glassware, that honestly do not look like you got them at a craft fair (because, let’s be honest…most fair trade stuff looks that way)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Made: It’s UK based, and they have GORGEOUS jewelry and accessories. The most beautiful fairly traded jewelry I’ve seen…with not a tribal bead to be seen! Not that there’s anything wrong with tribal beads, but those are pretty easy to find and this kind of stuff isn’t. Do keep the exchange rate in mind, though…It’s about $1.50 to every pound. Here’s an exchange rate calculator for your shopping needs.

Posted in Shopping for a Cause

by Courtney Christenson

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Share Your Meals with FEED on World Hunger Day

Saturday, October 15, 2011

 

Today, October 16, 2011, is World Hunger Day. The problem of hunger is worldwide and it’s effects are devastating. More people die from hunger related problems than from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. And every six seconds a child dies from hunger related causes. This is a day to recognize that 1 BILLION people are hungry (that’s more people that the populations of the USA, Canada and the European Union…COMBINED). That 40,000 of those hungry people are children. That we are not hungry. And that we have an abundance with which we could feed some of those hungry people.

I’ve talked about The FEED Foundation once before, but they are doing a couple of super awesome things in honor of World Hunger Day that I would encourage you to be a part of.

In order to help people recognize their own abundance and the potential difference they could make to hungry people worldwide, The FEED Foundation is encouraging people to track their food for a day and do two things:

1) Take a picture of your food/coffee/groceries/whatever and post the photos and the cost of each meal on FEED’s facebook wall. For every photo posted, they will donate a meal in your name.

2) Donate the cost of the meal to the FEED Africa Emergency Fund to provide aid to the people in Africa affected by the famine. (They also have a 1:1 matching donation program going on right now, so your donation will be doubled!)

This is a quick, easy and (if you just post a photo on facebook) FREE way to end someone’s hunger.

If you can’t afford to donate the cost of the meal, I would strongly encourage you to skip a meal and donate the cost of it to someone who has already skipped MANY meals. Or…maybe just skip your latte and donate the cost of that? The cost of a $4 latte could provide SIXTEEN school meals to kids in Ethiopia. That’s SIXTEEN kids who would not be hungry for a day. Because of you. And that’s a REAL difference to those sixteen kids.

 

Posted in Practical Ways to Make an Impact

by Courtney Christenson

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Slavery footprint

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

K…I’m, like, SO excited about this. I’m not sure how I found it, but it’s called Slavery Footprint and it’s basically a quiz that tells you how many slaves are working on your behalf. It’s based on a bunch of info they collect about your lifestyle and it’s obviously all approximate, but it gives you a good idea of how crappy the supply chains of major industries are and what impact your every day life has on the world. It really brings this issue home!

I like to think that my husband and I are fairly mindful of this concept, and we try to make purchases that reflect that, but between me and my two girls we still have 44 slaves working for us. Blerg. Turns out it’s mostly due to my clothes, diapers, and our electronic devices…And two out of the three of those things aren’t super necessary. Double Blerg.

Now, I don’t mean to be a downer (which I do realize this blog can often be) so I’m going to give you a way to change that number RIGHT NOW.

I realize that completely turning your world upside down to make sure that you never use a slave-tainted product is not realistic. And telling you should do that is non of the things this blog aspires to be (affordable, attainable and practical). But the idea of never using a slave-tainted product is a worthwhile goal…at least conceptually.

It is my belief that it should not be my job as a consumer to avoid purchasing slave-tainted products…it should be the industry’s job to be sure they are not producing slave tainted products. Now…I’m not saying you shouldn’t avoid products produced by slaves whenever possible (you should…sometimes it’s not that hard!)…but I am saying that we should confront the greater problem:  Corporations should be made responsible for maintaining a slave-free supply chain.

But HOW do we do that? So glad you asked! (You DID ask, right?) Welp, it’s REAL easy.

1) Go to Slavery Footprint and take the quiz. Figure out your footprint and see the impact your lifestyle is having on other PEOPLE around the world (those are PEOPLE!!!!)

2) As soon as you’re done with your quiz, the website gives you a chance to send letters to a TON of various companies asking them to evaluate their supply chain and take whatever steps necessary to make sure it’s slave-free. Just click on “Send Letter” on the right, choose a company, fill in the REALLY simple form and hit “Send”. EASY. Do me a solid and send at least three…it’ll take you like 2 minutes…MAX.

Ready, set, go.

Posted in Advocacy

by Courtney Christenson

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Advocate on behalf of Iranian pastor

Thursday, September 29, 2011

TIME SENSITIVE POST!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about protecting persecuted religious minorities who were seeking refuge in the US…particularly those from Iran. This post is along those same lines, but with the opportunity to save one man who is being persecuted because of his religion.

It was brought to my attention this morning that a Christian pastor, and husband and father of two, in Iran named Yousef Nadarkhani faces potential execution this week simply because he refuses to recant his Christan faith and return to Islam. You can read the whole story in the Washington Post article that was published yesterday. Here are the basic facts:

Pastor Nadarkhani faces execution solely because he adopted the Christian faith. According to Sharia law (traditional Islamic law) a person who converts to a religion outside of Islam gets three chances to recant their faith and if they still refuse to do so they are subject to execution. Yousef has had two opportunities and was expected to receive his third yesterday, September 28. Once it does, if his still refuses to recant his faith, he could be executed at any time.

Iran claims to be a tolerant government. Their constitution sanctions Christianity as a legitimate minority faith and asserts that Christians are allowed to freely carry out their religious rites. Article 23 asserts that no one may be “reprimanded simply because of having a certain belief”. Iran is also violating its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which includes a provision for the right to “have or to adopt” a religion.

Clearly their actions are not supporting these claims, obligations and statements.

Although there is technically no right of appeal, we are all hoping that the outrage expressed by the international community will convince the Iranian government to stay his execution.

Please raise your voice with me and urge the Iranian government to spare Yousef Nadarkhani’s life, and grant him a full and unconditional release. The court is expected to reach a decision by the end of next week at the latest, so please do not delay!

I have attempted to make this as easy as possible. Turns out that the Iranian government is difficult to get a hold of (is anyone surprised?). The best way that I found to get your message through is on Christian Solidarity Worldwide. It’s a little confusing, but currently they are the only organization (that I could find anyways) with an advocacy avenue open for Pastor Yousef.

So, hit up their campaign page for Yousef Nadarkhani. They don’t have a message drafted, so I wrote one for you. You have to first enter your name and basic info (which will be added to the bottom of your message). Then click “Send Email” at the bottom of the page, and THEN it will give you a field where you can paste the actual message and send it (confusing, yes.)

Here’s the letter for you to copy and paste: (feel free to make tweaks to it if you would like)

To Your Excellency, the Ambassador of Iran,

Thank you in advance for passing my message of concern along to your government.

I am writing to express my deep distress regarding recent reports that Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani will be sentenced to death for his Christian beliefs. The Iranian government claims to promote tolerance, and your own constitution states that Christianity is a sanctioned religious minority and Article 23 asserts that no one may be “reprimanded simply because of having a certain belief”. I urge you to reconsider this course of action, spare Yousef Nadarkhani’s life, and grant him a full and unconditional release.

Please pass this message along to the governing body in Iran as a matter of urgency.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Posted in Advocacy

by Courtney Christenson

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Better world books

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Better World Books is a great find that one of my wonderful readers sent to me (I love it when you send me awesome ideas!).

Illiteracy is a major problem both here in the States and around the globe, and it is one of those issues that snowballs and creates many other problems in it’s wake. Here are just a few stats regarding this issues (info from the Better World Books website):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better World Books is tackling this issue on several fronts. They are a self-sustaining, for-profit company that basically exists to fund literacy focused non-profit organizations so they don’t have to spend their time seeking funding. They raise money by doing book drives, and then selling the donated books on their website and sending the proceeds to their non-profit partners. They also have a book-for-book program that donates a book to a literacy program for every book you buy. Here’s a little snapshot of the difference they’re making, but for more information about them and their work, please see their Impact Page or their [super helpful] FAQs:

Over the last 9 years, they have:

  • Raised over $10 million for Literacy including
    • $5.5 million for over 80 literacy and education nonprofits
    • $4.5 million for libraries nationwide
  • Directly sent more than 5 million books to Books for Africa, the National Center for Family Literacy, and Feed the Children

They’re also extremely eco-friendly and have:

  • Re-used or recycled over 70 million pounds of books (saving them from ending up in landfills)
  • Reclaimed more than 720,000 pounds of metal shelving from libraries across the United States

Some of their awesome partners:

 

 

 

 

So…How can you be a part of this you ask? SIMPLE (and free!). I don’t know about you guys, but our bookshelves are FULL of books I never plan on picking up again. Kids books, grown up books, cook books (seriously…who was I kidding when I bought those?), they’re all just taking up space! Better World Books wants your books. They’ll even pay for shipping!

Here’s the plan:

Make it family affair: Have each member of your family go thru their books, pick out the ones they’re done with, then pack them up to be donated.

Now…they don’t want your crappy books (these are going to be re-sold!), so please only send the ones in decent condition. You can read a list of the kinds of books they accept and don’t accept or even use their pre-screening tool to check to make sure it’s a book they’ll accept (FYI: you have to register to use this feature).

Then you just request a shipping label, print it out, pack ‘em up and send it! Easy-peasy.

You’ve just combated illiteracy around the globe.

Oh, and next time you’re in the market for a book (kid’s birthday presents? school text books?) check out Better World Books first and make a difference with your every day purchases! And since they partner with so many college campuses, they have TONS of college text books that are super discounted, so pass along to the word to any college students you may know….they’ll save money and make a difference too!

***UPDATE*** Just discovered that Better World Books is also running a new campaign to increase their social media followers. For every new “Like” of their Facebook Page and every new follower on their Twitter account between now and October 15, they will donate a book to a child in need. So easy! What an awesome way to get a book into a child’s hands.

Posted in Involve Your Kids, Practical Ways to Make an Impact, Shopping for a Cause

by Courtney Christenson

3 comments

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Support Persecuted Religious Minorities

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The religious freedom we enjoy here in the US is pretty unique compared to many parts of the world. Millions of people around the globe experience horrific persecution due to their religious belief. To those oppressed people, the United States is a place associated with freedom. A refuge from their oppression. And part of our country’s ideology is the idea of welcoming those refugees into a safe haven of freedom. The Statue of Liberty says “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

There are several countries that are considered “Countries of Particular Concern” and refugees from these countries are more readily accepted into refugee programs here in the States. Iran is one of those countries but the amendment that grants refugee status to people from Iran due to religious persecution has recently expired. That means that people from Iran and several other countries may not be accepted into our refugee program due to religious persecution.

World Relief runs one of the largest refugee resettlement programs in the country and they have launched an advocacy campaign to get this amendment renewed as soon as possible so that Jews, Christians, Baha’is, and other religious minorities can escape religious persecution and be granted refugee status in the US.

They have made it pretty easy for you to ask your representative to renew this amendment. All you have to do is go to their Legislative Action Page , put your zip code into the field on the right (so they can identify your representatives), then click “Take Action” at the bottom. It will take you to a page where you put in your info (this is just to be able to put your info on the letter to your representative…they won’t even keep your e-mail address). They require you to choose a topic for the e-mail, so I just put in “refugees”. Then hit “GO” and you’re done!

 

Posted in Advocacy

by Courtney Christenson

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iPhone App Reviews

Monday, September 5, 2011

As the rise of the smart phone continues and it becomes increasingly rare to NOT have one, there are a handful of advocacy and social justice organizations doing a surprisingly decent job keeping up.

Some organizations now have their own application to help you keep up and become an advocate from your mobile device. Since I do the majority of my phone-using in parking lots or at the park while my kids are entertained I would love something more worthwhile than twitter to look at, I think this a brilliant idea. I downloaded every social justice or advocacy app I could find and gave them all a test drive so I could tell you which ones I would recommend.

As an iPhone user I can only tell you about the iPhone apps, but I would love to hear from some of you Android users so I can add those apps on here as well.

 

Here are my favs:

International Justice Mission (IJM): IJM is an anti-trafficking and abolistist group that does A-MAZING work, specializing in prosectution of perpetrators. The app is exhaustive with 10 options on the home screen- from taking immediate action (although the app takes you to it’s website to complete the advocacy action) to the latest news. They also have a Justice Map where you can read IJM success stories from around the globe…it’s a great, uplifting feature on an otherwise pretty heavy app. You can also create a profile to keep an eye on the stories or issues that matter most to you. This app is also available for the Android and Windows phones.

 

 

ONE Campaign: My favorite feature on this app is that it will notify you if there is an extremely important action that needs your support and let you take action immediately with a single click. They have only notified me once so far (regarding the famine in the Horn of Africa), so it’s not annoying…I just feel confident they won’t let me miss anything SUPER important. I also like that you can advocate and sign petitions within the app with a single click (as long as you have to have a ONE account first). It also has some great snap shots and critical facts about the really huge issues our world is facing.

 

 

Amnesty International: The Amnesty app is less extensive than some of the others, but I like the simplicity of it. They have a page with all of their campaigns and they also let you sign petitions within the app with a single click (again, as long as you already have an Amnesty account). Also, as a perk, the home page is a candle that lights when you blow on your phone. It’s super fun to play with and if you ever happen to find yourself at a Journey concert you’ll be totally set.

 

 

 

Call + Response: This abolitionist app is super unique. They have some really cool advocacy actions you can do within the app. You can take a picture of your favorite brand and then overlay a slave-free label and send it to the company with a letter asking them to become or stay slave-free. You can register your phone and send it to the phone maker and ask them to use slave-free materials. Plus several other awesome and creative actions. It’s a pretty sweet app and one that I would imagine will continue to expand with creative ways to help make the world slave-free.

 

 

As more and more are created I’ll keep a look out and let you know of any other great ones I stumble upon.

Happy advocating!

 

Posted in Advocacy

by Courtney Christenson

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Save Darfur

Thursday, September 1, 2011

One of the organizations that has NAILED the “empowering people to be advocates” thing is the Save Darfur Coalition. As their name implies, they have spent the greater part of the last 10 years focused on the conflict occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. If you’re unaware of the conflict and genocide that has and is occurring in Sudan, I would highly recommend reading the Darfur Primer and the South Sudan Primer on SDC’s website. Super informative while still being brief….but to sum it up: Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives and the international community has done relatively little to stop it.

 

The way that the Save Darfur Coalition works is by creating easy, fast and effective ways for concerned members of the international community to advocate for the people of Sudan. Specifically, they are advocating for the global community to intervene on behalf of the people of Darfur and several others areas that have recently seen conflict as a result of Sudan splitting into North and South.

I would  highly recommend signing up for their e-mail alerts. They will provide you with petitions or pre-written emails that you can send to the appropriate people with a single click (from the President of the US to various UN committees). They make it insanely easy to become a voice for oppressed people who have no platform to ask for help.

They also have a search bar that you can download and every search that you do with it generates money for them…And you know I love to donate other people’s money to a great cause.

Happy learning and advocating!

Posted in Advocacy, Learn

by Courtney Christenson

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Matching Donations to Charity: Water

Monday, August 22, 2011

I realize there is very little personal information about me on this blog. I do that intentionally because I really want to respect your time and give you practical ways to make a difference without chattering on about myself (particularly since I’m not all that interesting). So here’s one of the few semi-personal posts you’ll see.

The whole story behind all of this and ALL the details about everything are on our PERSONAL BLOG, and I would encourage you to visit it read up on what we’re doing…but for the time-strapped, here’s the Cliff’s Notes:

My husband and I are photographers and we strongly believe in “giving back” from the abundance God has given us and inspiring others to give back as well.

In that spirit, we have created a Charity: Water campaign with the goal of raising $5000 to install a new well in a developing country. We will match all donations up to $2500. For all the details about why we picked Charity: Water, the things that they do as an organization and details about the matching donations, please see our personal blog. And as a little extra incentive, anyone who donates $500 or more will receive a free photoshoot with us.

Thank you in advance for helping raise funds to provide much needed clean water for a community in the developing world.

-Courtney

 

***UPDATE*** August 23, 2011

YOU DID IT!!!! We met our $5,000 goal in under 48 hours!!!! That’s crazy and insane in the best way possible!!! I’m actually a little embarrassed and ashamed that we chose a 90 day campaign thinking that it would take everyone that long to raise the money. Congrats on making a difference and providing life saving water to at least 250 people!!! The need doesn’t end here though! If you didn’t get a chance to give, I would urge you to still consider making a donation to this remarkable organization. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!

 

Posted in Practical Ways to Make an Impact

by Courtney Christenson

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