My Girlfriend’s $10 a Month Club

Live Holistically is a multi-author site.
This post was written by: Susan Blue

Recently I was at a University Conference: Woman to Women. We were asked what could we do individually to help our communities and to be bigger than that. How could we help the women in the world?

As I am a volunteer with an international non-governmental agency that uplifts the world by uplifting the individual, I felt pretty good. I have been a volunteer with this group for nearly 10 years. Most of the other women were at a loss as to what they could do locally to help globally.

One of the speakers, suggested using the Internet for finding and supporting different groups. She spoke of the Fair Trade Cooperatives for native made clothing and coffee. There are groups supporting children’s health and education by contributing a dollar a day. There are also the political and social issue of women’s genital mutilation. Social pressure from other countries can turn the tide for many. We can support Doctors without Borders, make contributions for medication for the African Aids Epidemic.

I had to tell them about my girlfriend’s $10 a month club. I don’t remember if the origins came from an Oprah Winfrey show or somewhere else. But it is an easy to do club.

• One charity or cause was picked a month. We could add to the list with causes or charities that we wanted to contribute to.
• We used the Internet to email choices and to vote. Those who were non-techies, were updated by telephone.
• We could donate goods amounting to $10 or $10.
• One day was chosen with a time frame for donations to be dropped off. If you couldn’t make it, you made arrangements with the person who was the acting drop point. This was tea and social time too, but not always.
• The person collecting items and then dropping them off rotated. If help was needed, some one volunteered to be the helper.

Some of the charities or groups that we gave to:

Emergency Care for Children: This agency takes care of children for emergency situations, such as a single parent being hospitalized and when there is no family to help.

Care and Share: This group collected canned goods and other foods for distribution. As much of their stock went out to help with Katrina, the winter needs for families in need was very low. It was pretty easy to call on friends and family to get them to give $10 worth of goods or money. A group of 15 women were able to get over 100 contributions.

Amnesty International: We went through all our household stuff and gave it to this group. The people coming into our country are given a stipend for putting a home together. Even with Goodwill and other used goods distributions, it is pretty minimal.

Human Trafficking: There are groups that specialize in rescuing women and children who have been sold or forced into the sex trade.

I saw one of the women from the conference a week later. She wanted to join my girlfriend’s club. I told her she had to start her own. I hope you do too.