This made my day -- hope it inspires you, too.

[Liberty Belle]

Yesterday I published a story about horrific floods in Afghanistan that threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, washing away topsoil from farmlands, in an area where relief supplies can't be air dropped in because they are surrounded by the Taliban. A local relief group has started literacy schools in this area for girls and women, and they were terribly discouraged by the sheer scale of devastation and how little resources they had: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/4010

Tonight I received this heart-warming letter from the head of the local relief agency:


“You win the Motivating Journalism prize for the day... Probably for the next couple years! Sent your article to our board members and a number of supporters last night. Have just received a commitment to match up to $10,000 in donations …I was / am so impressed at reading your article…Thank you - you have touched many lives... and hearts.”

I wonder how many lives will be saved as a result? $10,000, or $20,000 if it gets matched, would buy a lot of rice and other essentials for the starving people there.


Next time you think you can't make a difference in this world, please think again. As a journalist it sometimes gets frustrating, seeing so many wrongs in the world, knowing you can't fix them all. But once in a while, something like this happens that makes it all worthwhile.

[Turborama]

1. K&R & Thank You!

You're a true inspiration! I have been considering starting my own blog for a while now and seeing the positive impact you have made is going to make me finally pull up my bootstraps and get on with it.

Thank you, again and best wishes to you and all the Hazara people that you've been working so hard to help.

:yourock: :hi:

[Liberty Belle]

2. Do start your blog. One person can make a huge difference.

Here are a couple of other stories that kept me going through some past hard times.

Once early in my career, when I'd really only written real estate news, I got a call from a well-known author. A mutual friend was dying and needed a liver transplant. I was asked to write a story. I didn't have any contacts in the field or know any editors, but I just kept calling until I found one who would run the piece, in which I'd interviewed transplant doctors and patients in the transplant wards. Next day, my friend got his transplant. So did a young mother I'd interviewed. Then I got a call from the organ bank. They told me organ donations had quadrupled after my article ran--which had never happened before. I got chills up my spine, and realized what power we all have to move mountains, in some ways.

Another time I wrote a story for a national women's magazine about my own daughter, who was one of the first kids to undergo an experimental heart procedure to cure her tachycardia (rapid heart beat). It;s a "bandaid surgery" that lets kids get in and out of the hospital in just a day, threading a catheter into a vein to treat the problem by burning off a tiny excess piece of muscle that makes the heart short circuit. Five years later, I got a call from a Mom in Alaska who found my article in a magazine in a laundromat. Her daughter was about to undergo open heart surgery because her doctor had never heard of this new procedure. She wound up flying to California to have her daughter treated by my daughter's surgeon -- who cured her of the life-threatening condition.

So....all here, please spread the word about the poor women in Afghanistan who need help, post my article, and maybe just maybe more will donate to help these women and their children live.

[sabrina 1]

3. Very inspiring, thank you.

Turborama has been posting about the awful floods in Pakistan but there seems to be so little interest in those poor people. Babies are being born there, mothers are desperate, in one story I read (and posted) a mother offered to give her baby to a CNN reporter so that 'she could have a better life'.

I am so glad you got such a postive response to your article, it makes me feel that the effort of trying to get help to the millions whose lives are in such danger right now is not wasted after all.

Wonderful stories about your daughter and the person who needed a transplant. People can be wonderful at times and when they are it makes those struggling to remain hopeful, to keep on trying, as you just did.

[Supply Side Jesus]

4. k&r

good for you, and them!

[OneGrassRoot]

5. I have major goosebumps....

Bravo!!!! :applause:

The written word can be so very, very powerful, and a catalyst to inspire others...to inspire real change.

Geez, I'm all teary-eyed about this. I'm so happy for those who will get the help they need, and for you and your journey. How gratifying this is for you and your readers!!!

Wonderful job, Liberty Belle. :hug:

:applause:

[lillypaddle]

6. Good for you!

Wow.

[Scurrilous]

7. K & R

:thumbsup: