If you saw 12 Years A Slave, you were likely thrilled as I was when it received the Oscar for Best Motion Picture of 2013.  The movie, based on a true story,  was difficult to watch.  Still, you felt better for facing, and sharing, a little of that horrible pain.  

 

Lupita Nyong'o. But the special gift for women -- and one to celebrate this International Women's Day -- was the performance of  Lupita Nyong'o as Patsey, a young slave of great strength and dignity brutalized by her white master.  For that performance Lupita, a Kenyan born in Mexico and a graduate of Yale School of Drama, won the Oscar for best supporting actress.

    

What is fundamentally beautiful, is compassion for yourself and for those around you.

 

If you listen to her moving comments given at the Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon,  shown at left, you will feel how she symbolizes, as did the Patsey she played, the special beauty of womanhood, its vulnerability and its power!  

 

Polaris Project has operated the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHRTC) hotline since December 2007.   The hotline operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year as a resource for victims and reporters.  On January 27, 2014 the NHTRC took its 100,000th call. Last year it received 31,945 calls.  2,241 of the calls were from potential victims.  300 of the calls were from truckers reporting sex trafficking at truck stops.

Consider a gift to Polaris Project to honor the struggles of women everywhere - or as a linked gift for that special teen-aged granddaughter or other dear one in your life.

Have a wonderful International Women's Day, a day to celebrate compassion for all!

Sincerely,

Diana McDonough
President, Global Grandmothers