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Simply Help: From providing supplies to hands-on training, across the border and around the world
Once Tina Bow glimpsed life across the border, she knew she'd never be the same. The San Diego resident traveled to Tijuana as part of her Landmark Self-Expression and Leadership project, which was designed to bring donated clothes, food, and supplies to people in need. She expected to see a dire scene. What she actually saw surprised her.
"It's amazing to leave San Diego where there's a particular quality of life and manicured lawns, landscaped freeways, and subdivisions and then drive over the border to Tijuana and see such poverty," Bow recalls. "People are living in cardboard boxes and there are hungry children everywhere."
At first, Bow was afraid to get out of the car. But, as she unloaded supplies, she noticed how kind, polite, and utterly grateful the Tijuana residents were. "It touched my heart," she said. "I'd always had my focus and attention on achieving greater personal and business success, not in making a difference in my community or in any other community, especially with people I didn't even know."
Inspired, Bow started "Simply Help," (http://www.simplyhelp.org) an all-volunteer organization based in Los Angeles, that now works with homeless groups and helps the needy in several countries, including Honduras, Haiti, Cambodia, Korea, and Somalia. Several companies have donated warehouse space to hold donated goods. Drop-off points in each country range from a temple to a doctor's office to a bank.
Simply Help has expanded its scope from distributing donated goods to offering other forms of help, such as job training. In , for example, Simply Help established a sewing school for women who previously had no option but to sell their bodies. Many women have graduated from the program and 80% of them have already found jobs. In , the organization started a homeless senior center; in , it began a computer school; and in , it helped provide roofs for the homes of 150 families.
"The enormous satisfaction and reward I got and continue to get is far greater than anything I ever experienced before," said Bow, who is contemplating giving up her own business to spearhead the operation full-time. "My participation in Landmark made the difference and I changed my attitude completely about where I wanted to put my attention. I just looked at everything and said ‘Yes' about what I could change. It's a very simple word but a very powerful one."
See more articles about Grads Making a Difference.
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