Christinaswwworld Unlimited

... and then there was the time I started a project in an African war zone. My journey into the war-torn heart of Africa's Pearl began with an aim to motivate the members at Life in Africa's WE Center Kampala to join hands behind a cause beyond their own poverty. A community like ours could do something to help the children of Northern Uganda. We held a great fundraising event , we got a contract making bracelets to support awareness of the plight of children in Northern Uganda, and we went to Northern Uganda in small groups to facilitate art therapy workshops with groups of night commuter children and former child-soldiers. After interacting with children at different organizations in Gulu, we'd developed the strongest bonds with one night-commuter center in particular. The volunteers that were keeping the place running were horribly under-resourced. We started thinking about setting up some of our adult community activities there, involving the volunteers and the chil...

I will never forget the dancing in Africa. One of the most inspiring successes I ever had in online community fundraising was at the Omidyar.net community, when we needed $700 to transport night commuter children from Gulu to Kampala for a performance at a Life in Africa fundraising event called Solidarity in Style. The money to transport the dancers was raised from individual Onet members ($10-$100 contributions) in one breathtaking week. As we all watched the dropcash campaign overflow, Solidarity in Style became the Onet community's event. My friend Lars managed to have a peacetiles mural delivered for the dancers. Invisible Children - who I'd discovered through Onet - was involved. I later posted pictures and reports from the Solidarity in Style event for the community to see. In a subsequent peacetiles workshop, the kids from Gulu made a thank you mural of tiles that I delivered to the people who contributed at the Onet community conference in Chicago. Lots of good stuf...