CREATING A BRIDGE OF LOVE TO THOSE IN NEED

Women helping women in practical ways

Women's Federation for World Peace Arizona Chapter's "Purse Project: Women Helping Women" was a resounding success!

It started last year when we saw a picture on Facebook of a handbag filled with toiletries and essential items for homeless women. The WFWP Arizona Chapter decided to use that inspiration to help homeless women in the community and we decided to give our donations of handbags and purses filled with essential items to "Maggie's Place" on March 12, 2016, during Women's History Month.

We created a flyer with contact information and a Facebook event encouraging women to collect and/or donate bags filled with toiletries, snacks, money, or whatever the donor wants to share with those in need.

Our first donor was a nurse colleague named Lynda Peralta, who donated five bags filled with essentials; she even placed 20 dollars in cash in one bag! As soon, as I posted the picture of that donation, more friends started to take notice as they shared the idea and our event.

Some of the donated bags

One friend, Elizabeth Inganamort, shared the picture and encouraged her friends to help. Then one of her friends, Naye Olvera, an online Spanish radio talk-show host, encouraged her friends to bring their donations to the Legends Event Center lobby after getting permission from the owner. Her friends came, one by one, and dropped their purse donations filled with many toiletries. The Legends Event Center owner, Vanessa Montes- Cazarez, graciously invited us to use her event center for future activities as a community outreach because of this encounter.

One day I met and spoke with a homeless female veteran at work. That gave me the idea of bringing some purses to the US Vets Transitional housing. So, on February 21, 2016, Elsie Delgado and our teenage kids went with some purses to donate to the women in the facility. There, we met a couple of women who were very grateful for the gifts. We learned that most of them had become homeless as a result of their physical injuries and ailments and the subsequent loss of family support.

Front of Andre House

Later, I received an email from Shelley Dennis of "Nefesh Soul," a Jewish congregation in Chandler, Arizona, who was informed by her friend Angela about this project. She promised to meet me as soon as she gathered purses to share.

In the meantime, we kept on getting more and more purses from co-workers like Mercy Abraham and from our church community from people like Judge Mark Anderson and his wife Lucia, Ronda Flowers, Jo Ann Crooks, Melanie Taylor, Romina Toska, Veronica Tashiro, Keiko Moreno, Elsie Delgado, and Karen Puanani Warwick, who even got some of her neighbors to donate a total of $85 in addition to the purses she collected.

On March 8, International Women's Day, Naye Olvera and I, together with my daughters, delivered some of the purses to "Andre House," a place taking care of many homeless people through their soup kitchen, as well as providing donated clothing, medicines, and other donated items for the homeless in downtown Phoenix. Our children saw the huge number of homeless men and women in the area and saw their plight first-hand, realizing that they should not take things for granted after that encounter.

On March 12, 2016, a group of us took the collected purses to "Maggie's Place" in the Tempe and the Phoenix locations. Glenda Lambert and Jane Berg, along with other young people took the purses to the Tempe area. I went with Miss Earth Arizona 2015, Asia Espiritu Dising, Miss Teen Earth Arizona-Water, Rebecca Jo Acero, their wonderful supportive mothers, Grace Espiritu Dising and Minnie De Gracia Acero; their producer, Ms. Alma Duenas, and Ms. Naye Olvera to the Phoenix location.

Going to Maggie's Place

We donated a tremendous amount of beautiful bags. Sharon Jane Baysan had even donated new bags. Grace Espiritu Dising's co-workers and friends even gave designer bags like Coach, Burberry, Kate Spade brand-name purses. One of the ladies, Mercy Abraham, even put one dollar in each of the purses she had up to $20.00.

Maggie's Place coordinator, Lizzie, said that the bags would be very useful for the mothers, especially when they go for job interviews. She sent us a thank you note via email that said, "Thank YOU! I just had all of the moms pick out the different purses they wanted - and they had a blast!! It totally made all of their nights. Thank you so much for your generosity and loving heart. It is beautiful knowing how deeply people of the community care about our moms! Again, thank you so much. Have a blessed week! "

Miss Earth Arizona 2015, Asia Espiritu Dising, wrote this on her Facebook wall after the event, "Had an uplifting experience joining forces with my Women's Federation for World Peace USA sisters (WFWP) in our project collaboration, Purse Project/Women Helping Other Women which was a huge success thanks to our wonderful donors and friends! We delivered a wide variety of bags to Maggie's Place in Tempe and Phoenix locations! Recycled purses, woman's products, goods and new purses were put to good use for all of our sisters creating better lives for themselves and building a foundation for their children. Special thanks to all our hardworking and amazing Arizona sisters who gave so much to this project! Thank you so much, Rhia Luz, once again for this great opportunity!"

That morning, I finally met Shelley Dennis and her friends, and they gave me four huge bags of purses to share with our sisters in need. I told her that we could take them together to Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS), on another date.

Anyone can do something for others

Another thing happened when I went to a birthday party after delivering the purses. I met another group of Filipino women and shared with them what we had just done. One lady said that since December she had prepared and has kept a purse filled with what we requested in her car. She knew that it was there to give to our cause, and she became inspired to tell her friends and to join us in this cause.

The beauty of this project was not only in helping people, but in meeting and collaborating with women who want to help others by creating a bridge of love and sharing with those who are in need. In this way, we substantialize the words of the Founder of WFWP, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, which became the WFWP motto: "Living by the logic of love!"

To see more pictures, click here.