On May 4th, Global Citizen, in partnership with Johnson & Johnson, launched a new space (http://community.globalcitizen.org/) for global citizens from around the world to show their support for the Global Moms Relay – a worldwide initiative for moms and dads to share their voice on issues that matter.
The Global Moms Relay is an annual campaign running until June 17th. It was first launched by the United Nations Foundation and Johnson & Johnson in 2013 to put moms and dads at the forefront of the discussion of how to tackle the world’s most pressing issues.
This new space is a place where moms, dads, parents, celebrities, and global citizens of all ages can share their voices with a tangible benefit for a good cause!
Every time you like or share an article from the Global Moms Relay, J&J will donate $1 USD per social media action, (up to $350,000) to one of five causes (Shot@Life, Girl Up, Let Girls Learn, US Fund for UNICEF, or Nothing But Nets) that help improve lives for moms and babies around the world.
So in the spirit of sharing, here are excerpts from six of the Global Citizen team's favorite posts to get you started and sharing! (Pro tip: click the title to get to the post and share that to raise money for moms)
Kristen Bell Wants Every Child To Thrive -- Kristin Bell
What I would wish were true for every child every where is access to health and safety. If a child is exposed to infectious diseases or war or violence or displacement -- they’re caught. They’re stunted. But if a child has access to health and safety, they can thrive. They can discover who they are and really choose any path in life.
If Only It Could Be -- Janice Sprow
My wish for every child everywhere is first and foremost to be loved and cared for properly. My wish for every child is that he/she would be safe, healthy, and happy. Every child should grow up in a loving home with plenty of food to eat, decent shelter, medical care, education, friends, a beautiful environment, plenty of opportunities to play and to enjoy his/her childhood free from worry. Every child should lead a life full of opportunities to be whoever he/she is meant to be and recieve the nurturing and support to achieve his/her full potential.
My wish for every child is that he/she would always be treated with kindness and love and never harmed in anyway by anyone. My wish is that every child would be taught to treat others with love and kindness and respect as well. They should be taught to take care of the Earth and animals and help others as much as possible and to never hurt each other through words or deeds.
My wish for every child everywhere is to be able to grow up in a world filled with beauty, hope, kindness, peace, laughter, love, joy and blessings of every kind! My wish is that children could all grow up knowing that they are wonderful , valuable, individual human beings worthy of being loved. My wish is that children would never have to know suffering, hunger, fear, hatred, war, disease, or mistreatment of any kind.
If only it could be!
My Wish for Children Everywhere... -- Blake
My wish for children everywhere is to live a happy and healthy lifestyle. Everyone deserves the opportunity to explore their dreams and to receive proper education. This is not just the responsibility of leaders. It is also the responsibility of everyone as citizens of the world. We have the power to change the world if we all just band together to make the changes that we wish to see.
How My Mother Created the Space for Me to Lead – Alaa Murabit
The first leader I ever met was my mother. Her life is a series of sacrifices that society often writes-off and disguises as the necessary duties of any woman. At 19, my mother left her own family and moved to Canada, a country where she didn’t know the language, or the people. By my age, now 26, she had lost a daughter, and she had me, her seventh child. I am what some academics call “the radical middle” ... And what some parents call, the “malignant middle.” As a young child I was a handful – I was curious and inventive – my mom not only tolerated that, she fostered it. Not the telling tall tales part, but the ambition. The curiosity.
My childhood was riddled with daily evidence of my mother’s courage. I saw my oldest sister, Amera, graduate from medical school at 22 and go on to become a renowned pediatric plastic surgeon, inspiring myself and my entire community. I saw my older sister Ahlam choose to be a stay at home mom, and go on to create the same environment for her own children that my mother had created for me. In both these cases – opposite life paths, they received the same enthusiasm and support from my mom. Her definition of leadership was to nurture the necessary confidence and build the skills for her daughters to make their own decisions.
As I grew older, I would go to her, in the middle of the night, first with ideas of my culinary career (until I realized – I don’t like to cook), then ideas of my medical career, and later with ideas of the global peacebuilding capacity of women. Every time, her eyes would shine and she would feed the ideas in my brain with her experience, and with her belief in me. And when it got difficult? When I wanted to quit? She was my courage, my backbone, and even 6000 miles away, the greatest online enthusiast on my behalf.
As a peace and security policy maker and advisor, what I do daily is not courageous. It comes from a sensibility my mother’s courage has given me. I wake up daily with the reassurance of hundreds and thousands of local leaders whose courage has afforded me the comfort of making peace out of reason. Their daily courage allows all of us to exercise strategy when addressing global challenges. The knowledge that these local leaders will keep the lights on, the schools open and the electricity running provides us with the space to deliberate, measure and even unfortunately, sometimes ignore global crises.
This is the leadership we do not recognize in today’s world; the leadership which lives every day for peace. Our definition often focuses solely on leadership in its most visible form. We discount young leaders, and our definition usually overlooks local and community leaders – the ones whose daily presence and struggles, whose compassion and integrity make the larger movements more possible. It may come as no surprise to many of you, that these local leaders, particularly in the over 60 conflict areas around the world, are women.
The women, the mothers, doctors, CEOs, painters, astronauts, artists, athletes and reporters whose very existence and presence is a sign of defiance to the injustices of climate change in the Marshall Islands, to food scarcity in Sudan, to child marriage in Niger, to sexual violence in the refugee camps of Zaatari and Dadaab, to extremism in Libya, to the effects of extractive corporations in Latin America, and to the manipulation and control of women’s bodies globally. This is the leadership which has quietly created the space for all of us. It is time we widen our definition of leadership so that it encompasses those leaders. The ones on the front line every day – in whatever capacity it may be – who create the possibility of a peaceful tomorrow.
It is time we teach young girls and boys that they are leaders – that they can be leaders. Be it in their own homes and communities, or globally. I know my story is part of a global story, and that I owe a debt to my mother and all the leaders who came before me: the women who have the courage to leave their own homes to provide more for their children, and the women who have had the courage to play music or teach young girls when disparaged by societies whispers or threatened by the barrel of gun.
I also know that I have a duty to every child to recognize and cultivate their own sense of leadership, because had it not been for my mother, I would not have recognized or claimed my own space to lead.
My Wish for Every Child – Marta Gonzalez-Morell
Hello from Puerto Rico! I wish every child had access to preventive healthcare, vaccinations, nurturing love from their caregivers (not every child may have relatives or parents around) and a safe environment where they can grow up feeling supported.
Healthy Food Available – Alta Smith
There are far too many children who have little or no food. We need to make access available to good healthy food to ALL children. Healthy food is needed for children to fight off sickness. Too many children worldwide do not get the nourishment needed to fight off diseases.
Click the links above to "like" or share your favorite blogs and JNJ will donate $1 for each social action you take.
These stories and contributions are inspiring both because they share a unique perspective from global citizens and parents around the world and because of the change each post will make for children globally.
Stay tuned for posts from more than 18 celebrities and influencers both in the community space and here at http://www.globalmomschallenge.org/globalmomsrelay/.