The International Princess Project

The Vision of International Princess Project: Restore hope and dignity to women formerly enslaved in prostitution.

The Mission of International Princess Project: Establish self-sustaining enterprises in partnership with indigenous organizations that provide for physical, emotional and spiritual needs of women formerly enslaved in prostitution; AND advocate for women enslaved in prostitution around the world.


This amazing project, started by Shannon Keith in 2005, has made an immeasurable impact on many, many lives. These woman have been brought out of slavery and prostitution and given new purpose and dignity. Keith's actions continue to affect these women and their children.


And you can help. Of all the charitable work asked of you, this may be the most fun: Buy and wear adorable pajamas!

The proceeds go directly to India to help feed and shelter these women and their families, as well as fund the programs that pull women from destitution. This blog entry on their site explains a little about the Red Light District, where many of these women are rescued.
These women handmake beautiful pajamas and sell them internationally. They are beautiful, and they are made with purpose and determination. What better gift to give to someone? They are apparently also very comfortable!

Please check out their store to see the wonderful selection, and to read about their mission: Punjammies

(Thanks to The Pioneer Woman for posting about these today)

Protecting Ourselves

Have you ever wandered over to My Very Worst Date.com for a good laugh? The scenarios are often cringe-worthy, but most of the time you get a good chuckle as well. They had a contest for Valentine's Day where people submitted horrors to win Worst Date In America. Ever since V-Day, they have been running the Finalists.

As you can imagine, these are some of the most brutal, embarrassing and/or scary dates fathomable. I know when I read them I often feel sorry for the innocent bystander who gets lied to/manipulated/humiliated, or all of the above. But there are several that make me nervous for the attitude and behaviour of women in our society (and in myself): the need to appear polite.

Example: This woman's date went from normal to startling in a short time. She discovered, while out in public, that her date had a serious dose of the crazies. She was driving, and when she got him home he made a request:

"He asked me to come up and I really didn’t want to, but didn’t know how to say no. I thought I’d just go up for a bit to be polite and then I’d leave."

Soon after she went inside, he entered the room naked and holding a rifle. Now, luckily this woman's story ends with her safely getting home, and a more appropriate sense of What Not To DO on a date, but it would have been far too easy for her to end up on the news.

Another entry shows us a woman who finds her blind date to be much older than his profile pic (a common crime), in horrible shape and sporting a matted grey beard. He also starts off the date with more lies by having her meet him at an upscale restaurant, only to hop into her car and ask to go to House of Pies. She sees several red flags, and yet says this:

"Then he asked me for a ride home. I was curious, so when he asked me if I wanted to check out his comics collection I followed him inside."

I will not even type the things this man did - and that she allowed - other than to say she wound up... messy.

"Bewildered, I washed my hands and then showed myself the door, wondering if this crazy date had all really just happened."

For one final example, this woman went to her date's mansion on their second date, and had a bad feeling from the start thanks to an unnecessary display of candles:

"He had a couple of glasses of rosé wine already poured – I know, I know, red-alert, right? But I wasn’t thinking, because I was already nervous from the candles.
I didn’t like the taste of alcohol, so I only had a very few sips. Then I noticed that I was getting sleepier and sleepier, and had a horrifying moment of clarity: this guy had slipped me some roofies."

She makes this horrifying realization, and then goes with him on a tour of his giant house! He "kept finding excuses to keep me in the house" and "stalled, and stalled, and stalled" until, in order to show her a 'trick', he crossed to the opposite side of a very long room. This would have been a good moment to escape, if not sooner, but she plays along with his trick.

"After an hour of stalling, he went to the bathroom, and I ran out the front door, leaving my expensive heels behind."

An HOUR, ladies! She stayed and wandered and threw grapes and made small talk for well over an hour even though she KNEW he had slipped her drugs!

Even more upsetting, perhaps, is the comments section. Concerning the last "date", many people were proud of the woman, because she had "the sense to get out". Yes, that much is true I suppose, but if she had any sense, why did it take her an hour?!

Ladies, we have to protect ourselves, not only from lame or creepy dates, but from charming strangers. I'm sure we have all heard about woman being kidnapped in parking lots or out at social events because some charming guy made a simple request, and the women were too polite and/or too trusting. It scares me, because I have those qualities in full. I am often too trusting and polite, although I also have a healthy sense of panic.

Please remind your girlfriends, sisters, daughters, whoever to be careful in this world, that is so full of creepers.

Virtue on your lips

What a neat idea.

I find, too often, that I have slander on my lips. Sometimes anger or malice. I need to spend more time with wisdom on my lips, and devotion.

The clever young women at What's Your Virtue are helping to make that possible. They have come up with a line of lip gloss that promotes self-awareness regarding what comes out of our mouths. Thanks to their products, I can literally have Kindness on my lips, and therefore on my mind.

A big shout-out to Chris at Just A Girl for the wonderful *giveaway* that alerted me to this great product!

Relief for Mauritanian Girls

As of this morning, 30 Muslim leaders in Mauritania have publicly banned female circumcision.

This newsbite from the Associated Press gave me great hope for the slow battle of overcoming culturally self-inflicted torture:
"Cheikh Ould Zein, head of the Forum of Islamic Thought, says the scholars believe the Koran does not endorse cutting young girls' genitals to limit their sexual activity as women. He said Monday that the leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques."

I imagine a great sigh of relief passing over this West African country this morning, although I see a struggle in their future. Some people, even women, will fight to continue this horrific practice, and I pray that they one day realize the long term effects this has on all involved.

Words that don't need twisting to offend

If Kate Moss spent any energy on what comes out of her mouth, instead of focusing on what does not go in, she might have avoided this media circus.

For those of you who may not be aware, there are sites all over the web dedicated to anorexia and bulimia; giving how-to tips, ways to hide it, and so on. These Pro-disorder websites feed off of quotes like the one recently thrown out by Kate Moss in an interview.

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."

She refers to this as one of her many "personal motto's". A spokesperson for Beat, a charity focused on preventing eating disorders, pointed out that this quote can be found on the front page of "Starving for Control", a well-known pro-anorexia site.

I cannot stress enough how big of an issue eating disorders are for women of all ages, and there is especially a big fight against it in the UK right now. Please talk to the women in your life, especially those that are young and impressionable, and tell them their beauty is not measured in pounds or inches.

Signs of our Society's Decline

It is ironic that I should feel moved to post this blog, because on my personal blog I posted one that felt near the opposite just a few hours ago.

A guilty pleasure of mine is to head over to Texts From Last Night online. Sometimes they are really funny, and they are often offensive, but sometimes they are entirely too tragic for me to understand why someone would willingly share these things. Although, I suppose the real concern is that they sent them to someone in the first place.

They give me an insight into the culture of our youth. Granted, I should not pretend that these messages represent all teenagers and young adults. In fact, these may only represent a small percentage of our population, but some of these are serious red flags, even if they only encompass a small demographic.

Case in point. This message was posted this morning:
(847): This is the first month I have not taken plan B to get my period in over a year
(847): And somehow that makes me sad knowing I haven't had raunchy unprotected sex in a month

These are the values and priorities of our youth, at least the party-culture. And people always want to assume all young men are wanton trolls, but that young women have a higher standard of virtue... perhaps we should stop looking at it that way? From what I have heard and read, young women are becoming just as lustful and reckless as the stereotype of their counterparts.

And it is this recklessness that concerns, more than the lustful behavior. Yes, from a moral perspective, I am highly concerned about the sexual behavior and allowances of our youth. What I want to evaluate, though, is the complete lack of self-protection. Constantly putting drugs and alcohol into their bodies, sleeping with several different partners, choosing "lazy contraception" (Plan B, abortion, etc) over thinking ahead and preventing problems...

I know that one does not completely excuse or explain the other, but this seems to tie back exactly to the lack of sexual education in our country! Not the promiscuity, necessarily (though possibly), but certainly the recklessness.

We have got to do something! We need to be reading, voting, writing, SCREAMING at the top of our lungs!

The Best Use of Bribery - Hip-Hop for HIV tests

This week in Houston, TX, the NAACP, along with Planned Parenthood and other foundations, are going to bribe young Houstonians into getting HIV and syphilis tests, as well as sexual health education.
And I am loving it!
Sure, I wish we didn't have to resort to bribery to get things done, but hey, I'm just ecstatic they are doing SOMETHING proactive, and probably very helpful!

HIV AWARENESS TESTING
•Who: Anyone 15 to 40 with photo identification (driver’s license or a state, military or school ID)
• What: Free HIV and syphilis rapid tests plus sessions on sexually transmitted disease prevention
• When: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Thursday
• Where: NAACP Family Technology Center, 4203 Fannin
Information: 713-794-9020
~*~

The goal — targeted to National HIV Testing Day on Saturday — is to screen 1,200 people daily from today through Thursday at the NAACP Family Technology Center and another 10,000 in the next two weeks at Planned Parenthood, St. Hope Foundation and other partner agencies.

~*~

Everyone who goes in to take these tests, as well as an hour of education, will receive tickets to a concert in the George R Brown Center, with a long list of performers. The entertainers include someone named Bun B (from Port Arthur) and LeToya Luckett, who apparently used to be in Destiny's Child... for that week that they had four members. Whatever, it is still a free concert!

I am so proud to be a Houstonian, because they are taking action against an epidemic of ignorance. There is simply too much information for people to know everything they need to for their own health, especially with declining (and sometimes non-existent) sex education. This seems to be a larger problem with the black youth of America, which is the most bitter irony, because they are much more likely, biologically, to adopt these diseases:

"African-Americans bear the heaviest burden of the nation’s HIV/AIDS crisis. The U.S. population is roughly 12 percent black, but African-Americans account for 46 percent of the 1 million people living with HIV nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
"Those hit hardest in Houston are young and black, which is why the mass testing targets African-American youths."

People do not realize the staggering statistics that go along with these diseases, especially in areas with limited education:

"In 2008, 14 clinic patients tested HIV-positive. There have been three more this year. The youngest was 15; the oldest was 24. Before, an average year turned up five young adults with the virus."

Please, spread the word of this effort, so that we can protect our youth. Hopefully, this will seriously open the eyes and minds of many, urging them to better protect themselves and those they love.

You can read more about this event at The Chron.