Michelle and the African orphanage

A word from Lil' Oprah about Michelle:

Michelle's nick name is "Bella" - beautiful - and she is, from the inside out. The first time I met her she was saying a powerful prayer to bless our mutual friend Danielle before she went on stage. She's got a laugh that makes you feel like you're 12 again, and a zest for life that is exciting to be around. She's the best parts of being girly and grown up all rolled into one.

Michelle's Story:

I’ve known Kalimba for a few years now. She’s the best friend of my close friend Danielle. I’ve always known she was talented, passionate and nice but I had no idea that she was also philanthropic. And, of course, like a true giver she never said anything herself. Recently, she sent me an email and I noticed her Lil’ Oprah blogspot signature at the bottom. Curious, I checked it out … I was feeling a little low that night. I was feeling very sad because a relationship I cared about had just ended. I was really in my head and feeling sorry for myself. As I clicked onto her link, I didn’t know what to expect. But as I read through her mission and then a few of the posts, I was touched. Then I read a post that made a huge impact. It’s the one from Greg where he gave the $20 to the homeless man who gave him and his daughter Shree so much more in return. I’m not sure why that post hit my deeply but it did. I felt my heart crack open and I started sobbing. As I cried I realized how self absorbed my life had become the past few months. I had been going through a lot of transition with career, home and relationship and was totally consumed with things that suddenly became unimportant as I read through Kalimba’s blog. I was inspired.

That night I made a commitment to serve, give back. And, the place I wanted to begin was with TunaHAKI (www.tunahaki.org), a nonprofit benefitting orphans in Tanzania that my friend Scott Fifer founded. TunaHAKI is an orphanage where the children don’t even have basic needs like food and shoes. Scott found this organization when he went to Africa on a “Volunteer Vacation” where he was assigned to the orphanage. He fell in love with the kids, came home, quit his high profile Hollywood writer career and has been devoted ever since. Alone, he has raised over $500,000, bought land to build a new school and retained “green” architects to begin this year. His life is an example of what one person can do.

I had always wanted to help him but never followed through. I contacted him that night and asked where and how he could use my help. He told me the timing was great because he was just about to begin planning a black tie Ball for TunaHAKI and would like my help. I was happy to help and we made a plan to meet the following week. To date, we’ve had a couple meetings as we plan and organize a beautiful event for the worthy children of TunaHAKI. But that’s just the beginning …

Once Kalimba and I started corresponding about how much her blog moved and inspired me, she passed along an application link to Oprah’s White House Project and suggested I would be a perfect candidate for the conference. She was right! As I read through, it I got chills because I knew I had to be there – networking with different types of amazing women (just like kali) who all want to make a difference. The problem was that I didn’t have an idea that was “just right” for this conference. So, I passed it along to my TunaHAKI friend Scott Fifer and it turned out he had another project perfect for this conference, and that this could be the perfect venue to launch from. Together, we worked on the application for about eight hours and then clicked SEND! I will know by May 2nd if I was selected out of over 3000 applicants but regardless of the outcome, it felt so good to work on it.

I found that when I got out of my own story and into the act of helping others, I felt alive. None of this would’ve happened had I not clicked on Lil’ Oprah’s blogspot. So, Kalimba’s $20 goes to TunaHAKI and I’m matching the amount.

In gratitude and appreciation for opening my heart, Michelle