Posted on 07/20/2009 1:51:01 PM PDT by jan in Colorado
Isabelle Redford is a 7 year old little girl who loves to draw, but her art is more than just kid stuff.
She is an artist. Her drawings are good enough to earn some real money but she isn’t spending it on toys or candy. Isabelle draws cards and raise money to help the orphans.
It all started when Isabelle was 5, her mother Kelly Redford told her a story about twin girls in Haiti whose mother died during childbirth. Isabelle immediately asks her mother, “What can we do, we have to help.” Isabelle brainstormed and thought of a way to help by making cards because she loves to draw.
She started by selling cards at garage sales and to her friends and family. Her sales took off and, now, the cards are sold through the Global Orphan Project in Kansas City, Mo., a charity that builds and runs orphanages around the world.
Isabelle has earned more than $10,000 — half of that was enough to build an orphanage in Haiti and she was able to visit her own orphanage in person. When Isabelle arrived to the Isabelle Redford House of Hope, the girls were chanting her name and they gave her the warmest welcome.
Isabelle spent two nights with her new friends at her House. “I also loved the girls in my house,” she said. “I was glad that six girls had a place to live. We were just friends immediately and I, we didn’t have to speak the same language. We just were having fun and we laughed and played a lot.”
One orphanage is not enough for Isabelle. She continues selling her artwork and collecting money to put toward her next project.
Her mother said, “I thought we’d get to $5,000 and then she’ll feel like she’s accomplished something and she’ll be done. We got to $5,000 and the amount of money that she received was actually more than she needed. … And she quickly said, ‘Well, no Mom, this is a perfect amount for the start of my second home.’”
The Global Orphan Project is about to break ground on another Isabelle Redford house — this one in Malawi, Africa.
“I really want to do this all over the world where they really need it,” Isabelle said.
Her mother is not surprised. “Her heart and her compassion and her love is just so huge, and really from as early back as I can remember,” she said, “she’s always been full of compassion.”
$5,000 can go a very long way in Haiti!
Haiti is a failure nation. But, the Haitian people are creative, and hard working. If ever a place needs help—its that woe-begone nation. There are lots of orphanages in Mexico that need help too. The drug wars have left many children without parents. If you want to make a difference that too is a place to start. Many of them are ran by nuns and monks who give all they can to their young charges. There a few dollars can help and not go to feed some bloated group and their TV spokespeople. I sometimes wish France would take back Haiti and teach them a bit about democracy.
Zang! I can’t even draw a squiggly line.
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