Mar27

I met Cynthia Changyit Levin a decade ago as an advocate for global child health for the United Nations Foundation Shot@Life campaign. Our kids were young, and as moms, it was a thrill to meet other mothers who cared about global issues with equal enthusiasm. Cynthia already had advocacy experience through her previous work with RESULTS and had been writing about humanitarian topics on her blog for years. She has been an inspiration and a leader since we met.

What is so exciting to me about her new book:

From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates And How To Get Started serves as the guidebook that I needed and yearned for when I first started as an advocate. I had no idea where to begin, what I was doing, or how to impact change effectively. There were no guidebooks out there. It took in person trial by fire for me to figure things out. A decade later, I am thrilled to have her book in hand as a valuable resource and guide. Her book provides a step-by-step guide, with real-life profiles as examples for women who wish to make the world a better place.

Since I first moved to Washington, DC thirty years ago, by far the most important thing I’ve learned is the power of passionate, committed advocates to affect change. Not paid lobbyists, not PR firms-but thoughtful, informed constituents who move their members of Congress into action. – Dr. Joanne Carter, Executive Director, RESULTS

At the UN Foundation Shot@Life Summit in Washington, DC

Why Moms make great advocates:

Early in the book Cynthia highlights the ways that Moms make excellent advocates. After all, Moms are powerful, persistent, responsible, have the interpersonal skills we teach our children and are good at explaining things. When we become mothers, we gain a heightened awareness of the world our children will inherit. Motherhood forces us to realize the injustice of the inequities many children face around the globe and highlights the global issues we see as pressing for our children’s futures.

The advocates profiled in From Changing Diapers to Changing the World began with small steps inspired by issues they faced. Columbia realized the environment was impacting her daughter’s health issues. Felisas’ first-hand knowledge of the barriers immigrant children faced in the education system in the USA inspired her to act. Elena realized she needed to advocate for the Affordable Care Act to protect her daughters’ health coverage. In the book, the author encourages each of us to find the issue that keeps us up at night and know that we can impact change.

Advocacy made easy:

The last section of the book serves as the How-to segment. There are tips on how to find who your representatives are and how to contact them. Ways to take action online, write a letter to the editor, or what to say when you call your member of Congress. Cynthia provides an outline of how an in person congressional visit should go and even offers suggestions of what to wear. I remember how nervous I was on my first visit to Capitol Hill with the Shot@Life campaign. This book would have been valuable to guide me through those early days emerging from the fog of motherhood to taking action. I am thrilled that From Changing Diapers to Changing the World is now an available resource to help those who are interested to advocate for change.

“My goal is to empower moms to move from thinking, ‘I can’t change the world. I’m just a mom” to “I can change the world because I’m a mom!’ “- Cynthia Changyit Levin

About the author:

Cynthia Changyit Levin

Levin is the author of “From Changing Diapers to Changing the World: Why Moms Make Great Advocates and How to Get Started.” A non-partisan activist working across a variety of issues, Levin coaches volunteers of all ages to build productive relationships with members of Congress. She advocated side-by-side with her two children from their toddler to teen years and crafted a new approach to advocacy based upon her strengths as a mother.

Levin served as a board member of RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund for four years and led volunteer groups for RESULTS in Chicago and St Louis for more than ten years. She is currently a volunteer with RESULTS, the ONE campaign, Bread for the World, CARE, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, MomsRising, and the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign.

Her published opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Financial Times, the Washington Post, and many other national and regional publications. She has delivered in-person presentations and workshops for many organizations including PTA, The World Bank, the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign, and RESULTS. She also appears on podcasts and webinars speaking about advocacy and motherhood, discussing global poverty issues, and training advocacy volunteers. She received the 2021 Cameron Duncan Media Award from RESULTS Educational Fund for her citizen journalism on poverty issues.

Nov21

Homemade Granola Recipe

Posted on November 21, 2021 by documama

The Nantucket youth hostel used to be one of the most beautiful and affordable locations to stay on the island. Right across from Surfside beach, I would grab a cup of coffee from the communal kitchen in the morning and walk down to enjoy it on the deserted beach. The Hostel was sold to developers in 2020, but my fond memories of staying there remain. We were there to do the Nantucket Triathlon one weekend when we wandered into the kitchen to find a young rustic Italian backpacker with tousled hair making homemade granola. Warm maple syrup scented the room. The granola was delicious and something that I had never thought to make at home before that moment. When I make this recipe, I always think of my friend Jo and our delight and surprise as we entered the kitchen that morning. She had published this recipe on her blog, Creative Whimzy, a while back, and I’ve been making it ever since.

This recipe makes about 6 cups of granola.

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened coconut chips

1/2-1 cup of shelled pistachios

1/4 cup Pumpkin seeds

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/4 or 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

optional 3/4 cup dried raisins or craisins or sour cherries

Pre-heat oven to 300F. In a large mixing bowl, toss together the oats, coconut, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, salt, and cinnamon.

Over low heat, in a small saucepan, warm the brown sugar, maple syrup, and olive oil until all dissolved together. Pour it over the oats mixture and stir until evenly coated. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the granola mixture evenly in one layer. Bake for approx. 20 min, or until lightly toasted.

Enjoy!!

May8

Mother’s Day Reflections

Posted on May 8, 2021 by documama

Mother’s Day Reflections

Mother’s Day Repost: Birth of a Mother at 45

I first wrote a version of this post nearly a decade ago, but wanted to share it again here for Mother’s Day.

What struck me most about turning 45 was that my mother, at 45 years old gave birth to me. I was her second child, her first child, my brother, was born when she was 43. That was in the 60’s when most women did not have babies that late in life. She was a Navy nurse, an RN, who went on to get her Ph.D. She was used to doing things most women didn’t do at that time. My mother died from breast cancer when I was seven months pregnant with my own first child. As a new mother, I had never needed her more.

The last words my mother spoke to me were “I will always hold your hand”. I held her tiny, cold, and puffy hand through that last night of her life in the hospital. In the morning I watched her chest rise and fall, as she slowly took her very last breath. I truly expected to feel her presence then, as she had promised, but felt nothing. I looked for her everywhere for weeks, for months, but she was gone. The stark finality of death confounded me.

When my first child was born three months later, I half expected to look into her eyes and see my mother’s soul. It was clear however, that my daughter was a unique individual from the very start. I had to come to terms with the fact that my longing was just a wishful notion. The magical thinking that follows death of a loved one.
I did find her, eventually, but not where I would have expected. A year and a half later, on a wintery night, my baby woke me with her cries. With a fierce mothers need to warm and comfort her, I brought her into bed with us. I hushed her, and soothed her, and held her hand as we both finally drifted off to sleep.

My epiphany came somewhere in that hypnagogic state. The hand that I was holding was suddenly so familiar, tiny, cold, and puffy in mine. I had held this hand before.
I was flooded with the exaltation of a reunion with a long lost love, wakened now by the realization that a baton had been passed. My mother was there, where she had been all along. That intense mother love, that profound need to soothe my baby’s cries,resonated within, and I found her deep inside me. I was the mother now. She had shown me the way. I understood that the incredible depth of what I felt for my daughter, was how my own mother had always felt for me, and she was there.

Photo by Michelle Amarante

Honestly, for the first time I reflected on the gestation, birthing, nursing, and holding, all of the draining things mothers give to their new child with love. All that she gave of herself was what brought me here, to my own motherhood. Now, whenever the small hand of one of my own children slips into mine, I hear her words, “I will always hold your hand, ” and she is there with me.

This post was modified and reposted from “I Will Always Hold Your Hand” on www.amomknowsbest.com

Feb26

The Key to Saving Lives

Posted on February 26, 2021 by documama

The Key to Saving Lives

Shot@Life Champions at the 2019 Summit in Washington,DC

It costs less than forty dollars and is no bigger than your thumb.

Sometimes it’s the little things.

Those tiny vials of the COVID-19 vaccine are currently the key to putting an end to the pandemic that has taken so many lives and impacted most others. The annual letter published by Bill and Melinda Gates is Titled The Year Global Health Went Local, and COVID-19 has certainly proven that if a virus exists anywhere in the world, the entire global population is vulnerable. It has also highlighted global inequality in access to health care.

I have been advocating for childhood vaccines with the United Nations Foundation Shot@life campaign for nearly ten years, and our message that “A virus does not need a passport” has never seemed more pertinent. My mother was a polio survivor who passed away before any of my own four children were born. Due to the Polio vaccine, I never had to worry that any of my own children might contract it. I don’t think a mother anywhere in the world should have to worry about losing a child to a disease that a vaccine can easily prevent.

Shot@life is a campaign to educate, connect and empower Americans to advocate for global vaccines. Not only because it is the moral thing to do, but preventing infectious disease overseas, also protects Americans at home. The goal of Shot@Life is to decrease vaccine-preventable deaths in children around the world so that every child has a chance at a healthy life, no matter where they live.

While we take for granted in the U.S. that our children will not likely die from measles, pneumonia, or a case of diarrhea, sadly, mothers in the poorest countries around the world do not have that luxury. In low-income countries without the healthcare infrastructure we are used to, mothers will walk all day in the hot sun with a baby on their back and a toddler in hand to reach a vaccine clinic. In many cases, it is because they have already lost a child to a vaccine-preventable disease, or know someone who has.

Global health makes up less than one percent of the Federal Budget yet is one of the best returns on investment. For less than five dollars per child, vaccines can prevent future disabilities, wage and productivity loss, disease, and treatment costs. As we have seen first hand with COVID-19, disease outbreaks disrupt nations’ economies leading to instability. Saving the lives of children is the right thing to do. Funding global health infrastructure also improves tracking and surveillance systems, supporting global health security and outbreak response to emerging viruses like COVID-19.

Thirty years ago, polio paralyzed over 1,000 kids a day. Today, thanks to the Polio vaccine, the world is nearly polio-free. Health systems initially put in place for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative are perfect examples of that return on investment as they have been used to control Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and more recently mobilized in the effort to support the COVID-19 pandemic response.

Meanwhile, as the world is focused on pandemic triage, routine childhood vaccination schedules have fallen behind, putting the progress we’ve made at risk. In 2019, measles deaths surged to over 200,000 children due to declining vaccine rates in many countries. The pandemic has only exacerbated the problem over the past year. The measles-rubella vaccine costs less than two dollars per child to protect them for life.

Sometimes it’s the little things.

The 10th anniversary of the Shot@Life Champion Summit this year was held virtually. Our office visits with Senators and Representatives were held over zoom, they looked a bit different than in the past, but our message was the same.

Vaccines save lives, and every child deserves a shot at life.

Our request in FY22 is to fund child immunization budgets for the CDC and USAID that combat polio and measles and support GAVI and UNICEF. Those investments will save the lives of millions of children and prevent future outbreaks of those diseases and strengthen the eventual delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to even the hardest to reach populations.

With Senator Reed and fellow champion Lisa Davis during a past Shot@Life Summit in DC

The COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to develop more efficient vaccine programs using innovations like barcoding, vaccine registries, digital records, cell phone reminders, and enhanced cold chain and logistic systems. The funding for routine childhood vaccines creates and supports critical distribution infrastructure that will be turned around to deliver COVID-19 vaccines subsequently. The pandemic will only come to an end when the whole world has access to the vaccine. The longer the virus lingers and spreads elsewhere, the more the virus has an opportunity to mutate and set us back to square one.

We are not helpless in this fight to save lives. Let Congress know that you support funding global immunization programs to save the lives of children around the world from vaccine-preventable diseases by signing this petition. Ultimately this investment will strengthen our own country’s health security system from future emerging viruses.

What is so exciting to me about her new book:

Why Moms make great advocates:

Advocacy made easy:

About the author:

Share this:

Share this:

Mother’s Day Repost: Birth of a Mother at 45

I first wrote a version of this post nearly a decade ago, but wanted to share it again here for Mother’s Day.

Photo by Michelle Amarante

This post was modified and reposted from “I Will Always Hold Your Hand” on www.amomknowsbest.com

Share this:

Share this:

It costs less than forty dollars and is no bigger than your thumb.

Sometimes it’s the little things.

Sometimes it’s the little things.

The 10th anniversary of the Shot@Life Champion Summit this year was held virtually. Our office visits with Senators and Representatives were held over zoom, they looked a bit different than in the past, but our message was the same.

Vaccines save lives, and every child deserves a shot at life.

Check out the Shot@Life website for more information on how to get involved and become an advocate.

We can all do our part. Sometimes it’s the little things that add up to make an impact.

Share this: