if you want to catch a lot of rain, put out a lot of teacups...
Anna McDonnell, Founder
I thought I would use this space to tell you a little bit about me, how I came up with the idea for 5 for Fairness and how I hope this is the last place on 5 for Fairness I will liberally use the word "I".
I am proud and blissfully happy to be the mother to three sons. And much as I adore each of them and wouldn't trade them in for anything, I always longed for a girl. I hoped for a girl because I wanted the challenge of bringing up a girl in a culture that still, despite all its progress, places girls at a disadvantage in many ways. I never did get my own girl, but through this community, I like to think that I get to be, in a small way, mother to millions of girls.
In my early forties, I went back to school and received a Masters in Social Work. I defy anyone to make it through that training without becoming acutely aware of the importance of social justice.
I started a small private social network for women which taught me the power that can be generated in an online community.
In the course of this effort, I came upon research demonstrating that "under the right circumstances, the group is smarter than the smartest person in it."
Last summer, I visited Emusoi in Tanzania and was deeply moved by the work being done there to give Masai girls educational opportunities they have long been denied.
During the last Presidential election, I received many emails from Barack Obama's campaign asking me for 5 bucks and inviting me to be part of a movement for change. Even after I gave considerably more than 5 bucks, they never asked me for any more than that. They valued my capacity for action as much - maybe more - than my money.
Though I supported numerous worthy charitable organizations working on women's rights, I began to feel that the traditional philanthropic model was not going to be enough. Their work needs to be supplemented and supported by a movement powered by individuals with a common purpose, a movement born at the intersection of the internet, democracy and social action. In short, right here.
So there you have it. That's how this idea came to be. Where we take it from here is as much up to you as it is to me.
I am proud and blissfully happy to be the mother to three sons. And much as I adore each of them and wouldn't trade them in for anything, I always longed for a girl. I hoped for a girl because I wanted the challenge of bringing up a girl in a culture that still, despite all its progress, places girls at a disadvantage in many ways. I never did get my own girl, but through this community, I like to think that I get to be, in a small way, mother to millions of girls.
In my early forties, I went back to school and received a Masters in Social Work. I defy anyone to make it through that training without becoming acutely aware of the importance of social justice.
I started a small private social network for women which taught me the power that can be generated in an online community.
In the course of this effort, I came upon research demonstrating that "under the right circumstances, the group is smarter than the smartest person in it."
Last summer, I visited Emusoi in Tanzania and was deeply moved by the work being done there to give Masai girls educational opportunities they have long been denied.
During the last Presidential election, I received many emails from Barack Obama's campaign asking me for 5 bucks and inviting me to be part of a movement for change. Even after I gave considerably more than 5 bucks, they never asked me for any more than that. They valued my capacity for action as much - maybe more - than my money.
Though I supported numerous worthy charitable organizations working on women's rights, I began to feel that the traditional philanthropic model was not going to be enough. Their work needs to be supplemented and supported by a movement powered by individuals with a common purpose, a movement born at the intersection of the internet, democracy and social action. In short, right here.
So there you have it. That's how this idea came to be. Where we take it from here is as much up to you as it is to me.
Last updated by Anna McDonnell May 18, 2010.
© 2012 Created by 5 for Fairness.
