On May 24, 2020 I wrote my last blog entry. Little did any of us know what would happen the next day. I, like all of you I imagine, am reeling from the murder of George Floyd (and so many others) and am trying to find the words to say something here about racism. I’ve been watching, listening, reading and thinking a lot about my own part in this and what The MoonCatcher Project’s place is.

I’ve thought of us as a caring, kind and informed organization that’s doing good in the world and I still believe that. But I think we must do better. A lot better.

Two days ago, the MoonCatcher Board pulled out our mission statement, vision statement and core values. I’m adding them here.

Mission Statement

Optimize girlsʼ lives worldwide by removing barriers related to menstruation.

 Vision Statement

A world where all girls participate fully in their lives and communities.

 Core Values

We:

1. Commit ourselves to gender equity, racial equity, social justice and human rights;

2. Celebrate the dignity of girls and their bodies;

3. Believe that education is a reciprocal process and a basic human right;

4. Strive to build relationship through an inclusive process;

5. Are fueled by passion, compassion, hope and generosity.

The problem is, we had to find them and review them. We didn’t know them by heart though we had worked hard and long to write them and had agreed that this is who we wanted to be as an organization of caring people.

We shared them with a few volunteers who Zoomed with us last week to talk about next steps for The MoonCatcher Project and they all said, “I’ve never seen these before”. I know that happens in organizations. We get so involved in the day to day work that we forget to look at our original intent and make sure we do right by it. I’m sad about that. We will do better.

Over the last weeks I have thought a lot about race and find myself uncomfortable looking at my own privilege and realizing that I’m not doing enough  work around race; the work we committed to when we started The MoonCatcher Project. Our core values specifically say we commit ourselves to racial justice, so what do we need to do to make sure we are working towards that? Who exactly are we talking about? And the questions go on and on. This is a conversation that is overdue and will need to continue indefinitely.  I will do better. I hope we all will. We owe it to each other and especially people of color to talk about race, to take action to get comfortable with being uncomfortable while we try to find ways to change and work together toward erasing racism from our planet.

Meanwhile there are new concerns for girls in Africa and India. The Washington Post and others ran a story about how many girls in Africa are now at greater risk of dropping out of school after being home for so long, as countries everywhere have locked down.  Families, already financially strapped, have lost income during this crisis and school fees will be even more difficult to pay. In many families, girls are expected to do additional housework and childcare while home and this means they have fallen behind on their studies.  In addition, girls who are home more become even more vulnerable to sexual abuse and assault.  Once schools reopen, we aren’t sure what we will face, but it’s likely that we’ll see fewer girls.  This saddens me and reminds me how they will need The MoonCatcher Project more than ever.

 I hope that you are all staying safe.