"It's really great and it's great to make that connection with women here in this country thinking about the needs of women around the world," said Dr. Helene Gayle, president of CARE International.
Dr. Gayle is in from Atlanta as one of the featured speakers at Oprah's big "Live Your Best Life" seminar in San Francisco, and she will accept a check for $10,000. The event is expected to draw some 4,000 women. Dr. Gayle will talk about the critical needs in poor countries.
Food shortages are causing people to take desperate measures to keep their families alive. A mother in Haiti resorted to mixing mud with water to make mud pies that are then baked by the sun. Haiti has been battered by four tropical storms. People cannot reach their fields or go to the market.
Ethiopia has also been hard hit by the world food crisis. Thousands of mothers show up at emergency relief stations for help. A drought there means crops did not grow. There is no barley for food.
"Clearly we have poverty in this country that we need to do something about as well, but we're talking about people who are living in such desperate circumstances that they don't know whether they're going to be able to put food on their children's plate," said Dr. Gayle who believes poverty becomes a security issue, inviting recruits for terrorism. "The reality is that people who are desperate for food are also the same people who are more likely to succumb to false masters, and they're more likely to be willing to join groups that will take advantage of their desperate situation."
The $10,000 donation from Oprah's Angel Network to CARE will change many lives, forever.
"It's a donation that will help us to extend some of our work with women around the world, particularly women who are involved in village savings and loans and micro-finance programs that allow them to then use those resources to start businesses, send their children to school," said Dr. Gayle.
Financial expert Suze Orman and Nate the decorator are on the agenda at the "O You!" event. Those who cannot attend can participate online.
For more information, visit www.oyouonline.com and www.care.org.
