Here are two pictures from our wonderful trip. More to follow soon!

The Gathering of Grandmothers was a wonderful success. We met in retreat to explore the past few years and share the challenges, sorrows, healings and wisdom gained from our many personal experiences. The public were invited to attend several events to hear the wisdom from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala, from Australia, Columbia and Hawaii.

The people of Ojai showed themselves to be the loving and wise people that they are! All the nourishment was donated: the time, grace and energy it took to gather, prepare and cook the meals were all donated; local farms and orchards, health food shop, Rainbow Bridge, donated their produce; the beautiful young people created high vibrational food and loving atmosphere along with Margaret, Lynn and Malina who donated – incredible generosity! – their Casa de la Luna. We want to recognize Maxima, our Hawaiian Healer of Light who flew all the way here to offer her healing session to raise funds to help make this event come to fruition. Without all of these gifts, and without the help of Spirit, we would never have been able to make this happen. So much love and blessings to all of you from us Grandmothers: Bilawara, Elizabeth, Laura, Gail, Nancy, Cristina, Lani, Jill.

We will be making available the wisdom coming from our retreat in greater detail. But here is a taste:
It all comes to LOVE
There are no more teachers – we are all students and teachers together
Listen to the young ones for in their words we often hear the voices of our ancestors

More exciting news and events are coming, including our new location for events and meetings …. Stay tuned!

Big Event of the Year!
Grandmother’s Gathering – Women of Wisdom

The Council of Grandmothers – Ojai is hosting a small gathering of women with the intent of sharing wisdom across cultures.  There will be at least seven women coming from afar: Australia, Hawaii, Guatamala, Mexico, Columbia, ect.  and seven local women representing cultural traditions from France, Ireland, Egypt, and the Orient.

Our intent is to spend quite time together, listening, sharing, and finding our purpose in supporting our villages and the global community.  What support can we give each other in our visions and endeavors?

We will be giving a weekend of sharings and maybe ceremony that will be open to the public for the purpose of sharing wisdom from the Elder women and to raise funds to help those in need where we live.  In this way we will be spreading the generosity of those who attend the weekend all across the globe.

The Grandmothers will be also selling some tribal offerings.  This will go directly towards the grandmothers themselves.

Grandmother Bilawara Lee: Aboriginal from Darwin, NT Australia
Grandmother Elizabeth Araujo: El Salvador and Guatemala, Central America
Grandmother Laura Espinoza: Mexico, Central America
Grandmother Lani Kamen Yamasaki: Hawaii
Grandmother Margarita Garcia-Nuñez: Mexico, Central America
Grandmother Oshun: Ojai

The Location: Casa de la Luna, 710 South La Luna, Ojai, CA 93023
The Date: SUNDAY ONLY open to the public
The Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Please bring a blanket or chair and a picnic if you wish to eat.

There will also be “An Evening Around the Fire with The Grandmothers” on Monday evening, October 18th.

Fundraising entrance fee:
Sliding Scale:
Per Day: $40 – $90 per person
Per Weekend: $70 – $150 per person

This year many of the indigenous grandmothers are coming from all over the world to Ojai. There is an event the 17-18th of October open to the public and we are raising funds to feed the grandmothers. It is called The Gathering of Grandmothers – Ojai and will be held at Casa de La Luna.
The weekend events will include aboriginal grandmother Bilawara from Australia.
Leading us in four workshops, Elizabeth Araugo, wife of Done Alejandro, Keeper of the Mayan Calendar. Elizabeth with be sharing a fire ceremony and teaching about the Mayan calendar and the prophecies.
Laura Espinoza de Mexico will be teaching Trance Dancing.
Rose Davis, Navajo/Hopi teaching her medicine ways.
Lani our Grandmother from Hawaii will be sharing a ceremony.
And Others.

Please click here for more information on how you can contribute. Click Here for more information on the event.

There are three new photos. Dr. Skanky from Ojai, visited the school and examined all the children last spring.

We would love it if you would like to support our endeavors to keep the school going. We need 40 people to donate $100. This donation is tax deductible. How to do this? Make the check out to NOMAD FOUNDATION in the notes/memo box please write Imalole Student Support. Send the check to:
The Council of Grandmothers
P.O. Box 970
Ojai, CA 93024

We will take all checks to the Nomad Foundation who will disperse the money in Niger. You will receive not only a thank you letter from the Grandmothers but also a thank you letter with the tax deduction for your records from the Nomad Foundation.

IMALOLE

A Voyage of the Heart – by Jill Townsend-Sorel

I got hooked. We had talked about going, but it wasn’t a reality for me until Leslie showed me the photos she took after the drought in Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world.

The suffering of the Tuareg nomads tore at me.

How can I help?

The Tuareg nomads are beautiful people .. ancient people…..

Leslie and I agreed to meet in Agadez, Niger, in November 2006. We were to leave from there to check on 9 repaired wells that had collapsed during the drought. It would take a month … 1800 miles … and the going was not always easy!

The third night out we arrived at a place called Imalole.. pronounced eemaalowlay. All I could see were a few acacia trees, children, women, goats and a dog. No houses, no buildings.. just the few acacia trees without leaves.

We set up camp and had dinner cooked in a cast iron pot over a fire in the sand. Until late at night, the women sang songs in beautiful harmonies. The songs were all about having courage .. that tomorrow will be a better day..

The next day I saw this courage in action. The women – mostly grandmothers – were digging up sand, making bricks and constructing a small building to store the grain for their new cereal bank.

The children supplied the water for the bricks. They walked 10 miles to the nearest well and back, carrying 5-gallon jerry-cans to fill with water. The goats accompanied them. I couldn’t see any men about.. just children and women….

Such gentle people … the drought dried up the wells which then collapsed; the livestock died of starvation and the children died… the women died and the Tuareg men were committing suicide as they couldn’t save their families and their animals.

Funds were raised to repair the wells with metal cylinders to keep their sides from collapsing. Leslie and I were there to check and see that the 9 wells were all working.

I barely spoke the whole time I was in Imalole…. The inbalance of how much we have that we take for granted, just at our fingertips…. And here, in the middle of ‘nowhere’ there was a monumental struggle for existence for the women, the grandmothers, the children, the animals … But they had each other and they had their songs of courage.Goats are their bank account. They do not use money. They trade for what they need. If they have a lot of goats, they can afford nourishment. I have so much – I am so fortunate – and yet I had nothing that could help them as I stood there in the sand getting ready to go.. deeper into the desert. Through Sidi, who is our Tuareg leader, I asked if there was something they felt they needed that I could help with… Thinking they would ask for a well as the nearest was so far away … But right away – no hesitation – the grandmothers said they wanted a school so that the children would learn ‘numbers and letters’. I said I would see what I could do…. Maybe I could do this…

I learned that a school is a resource for many things: with a school you have a teacher…. a person who can also dispense vitamins… the women and children will have the vitamins so needed for health in a place where people die daily of malaria and yellow fever, and women die in childbirth only for lack of iron. And a medicine chest to aid those will eye ailments and headaches, cuts and fevers. And lunch every day for the children and teacher… A teacher is a connection to many things but his heart is with the children he teaches. The school is the beginning of a better chance in life.

The grandmothers in Imalole are so grateful not to be forgotten. I told them I was a Grandmother and Grandmothers do not forget.

We have a great opportunity now to change the lives of many children. And many generations to come.

Grandmothers know that all children are our children…

… and that every penny counts…

There are several ways to help, if you would like to:

BUY A GOAT: $40

Goats are the banking system. Goats are traded for what is needed. Buy a goat for Imalole or give a goat as a gift to a loved one and you will receive a gift certificate… (the goat goes to Imalole!)

SUPPORT A STUDENT FOR ONE YEAR: $100

This provides school supplies and lunches for a student for one year.

GENERAL SUPPORT FOR IMALOLE:

* Teachers salary: $120 per month; $1200 per annum

* Vitamins for the children: $300 per year

* School expenses: $4000 per annum

* A well for the school: $8000.

Any donation can be made to the Nomad Foundation by contacting Jill:

councilofgrandmothers@gmail.com

or at: The Council of Grandmothers
P.O. Box 970
Ojai, CA. 93024

or at: NOMAD Gallery
307 E. Ojai Ave.
Ojai, CA. 93023
Tel: 805 646 1706

or online: www.nomadfoundation.org/imalole.html

The Nomad Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization

On my voyage, I saw many things… extreme poverty, terrible diseases like yellow fever and malaria, dying children….

I also saw joy, pride respect, care, laughter, curiosity, friendship and yes, happiness…

A voyage to the Sahara and its people is to experience a powerful force that has left its tracks on my soul. They will remain, unlike my footprints in the sand.

Hawaiian healer Maxima is returning. On Saturday September 25th Maxima will do a group healing from 2-4 P.M. at Casa de la Luna. On Sunday the 26th of September she will lead a workshop on self healing techniques. Maxima is available for private sessions Saturday morning from 10-1, Sunday morning from 10-1 and Monday the 27th from 10-4. Please contact Jill to make an appointment. Maxima is asking for donations only, which goes to feeding the grandmothers at their gathering in October.

I was crossing the Sahara Desert with the Tuareg Nomads – 1800 miles! – and on the third day out, we stayed with a group of Tuareg women and grandchildren. Their lives had been devastated by the drought which took a terrible toll… their livestock, children and mothers were dying and the Tuareg men were committing suicide as they were losing everything. I was there because we had raised enough money to repair 9 wells and I wanted to make sure they were working. All night long thee women sang songs of courage. Beautiful voices, soothing and yet so strong. Great harmonies. They all lived under a dead acacia tree with their goats. The nearest well was 10 miles away. In the morning I asked if they would like something that I might be able to give them. Thinking they would ask for a well, I was surprised when they all said in one voice: A school! “We want our children to learn letter and numbers.” And so, with people donating everything from a dollar to $1,000, we got the school in 8 months.  We have a Tuareg school master who now lives with them and so every day the children and the schoolmaster get fed lunch. A medical chest and  vitamins can now be doled out by the schoolmaster to help strengthen the children’s health as malaria and yellow fever are rife there. The Tuareg grandmothers were so amazed that other grandmothers so far away would remember and think of them.  To keep the school going: school supplies, medical supplies, master’s salary; and food cost $4,000 per year. All donation towards Imalole School are tax-deductable. All donations are lovingly received. To donate, please visit www.nomadfoundation.org/imalole.html.