halfthesky.org/journal/?p=85 Half the Sky Foundation » Blog Archiv...

Half the Sky Foundation » Blog Archive » At last, it s Spring! - the news at Half the Sky « As life returns to normal… At last, it’s Spring! - the news at Half the Sky April 8th, 2008 Hello and a belated Happy Spring! I n February, during the last hectic days of the Little Mouse emergency, when we were trying to protect so many children from China’s winter storms, I got a phone call. Half the Sky was to be honored in a most extraordinary way. We had been selected to receive the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In Oxford, England. Presented by former US President, Jimmy Carter. I sat there teary-eyed as I continued updating the list of urgent needs at orphanages hard-hit by the storms. We’ve won a few awards and some fine recognition in Half the Sky’s 10 fantastic years - but the Skoll Award is not just another award. It is given each year to a few select organizations whose proven innovations have “the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time.” Our work is being recognized not just for the lives we have helped directly, but also for the positive changes we are helping to bring about for all of China’s orphaned children. I am so proud of Half the Sky. I am so proud of you - of all of us who have worked so hard and given so much! The Skoll World Forum at Oxford was amazing. You can see some of it here, including presentations by Jimmy Carter and Al Gore. I met dozens of extraordinary people from 35 countries, each one doing their bit to make the world a better place. The Award comes with a monetary gift. That gift will help us formally evaluate the effectiveness of each aspect of our four HTS programs so that we can understand how best to teach others what we have learned. That gift will also help us expand our outreach so that others around the world will hear the voices of institutionalized children and learn how they can help. But that gift won’t run our programs or support our hundreds of loving nann...