In the last years, since I have started to be more conscious of what is happening in my life, I came to realize how blessed I truly am. Everywhere I go people smile at me and help me for no apparent reason, bills are being cut off out of nowhere and opportunities and clients knock on my door when I need them the most. And all of there things keep on happening without me being in control. And not only to me, my boyfriend Mihai, the founder of Male-Extravaganza.com and also a business & marketing coach, amazes me with how much abundance he is receiving.
Last year, around this time, we were left with only $82 in our pockets and instead of saving them to feed ourselves or anything else, we decided to buy organic food and bring joy for 3 families with kids from our neighborhood, in Bethany Beach, DE. Of course, my ego was telling me “But then you won’t have enough!” and I did it anyway, in spite of it, because I knew in my heart that good things will happen to us. (which they did, massively, in the upcoming months)
This year we wanted to repeat the story and help out a few families, but from Timisoara, Romania. We kept on wanting it, but no action was taken.
The following thing I did was to partner with Western Union because I love their message:
“We believe that when money moves, better things happen. A business expands. A family connects. A child goes to college. Emergency aid arrives the moment it’s needed. An economy prospers, an opportunity opens, a community heals.
Moving money for better means moving money for a better world –creating value for individuals, businesses and for society.”
It is so inspiring and so true! This way, I created some kind of pressure to take action and do a good deed ASAP. This is when I told my good friend, Andreea Belean (who was already looking for an organization to do good deeds with) about our idea to feed families and she was on board.
Now you know how we managed to start the campaign this year. Below you can read the rest of the story!
Pay It Forward – How To Feed A Dozen Families
About 9 days ago I created a Facebook Event, invited all of my friends and started asking around for people to share or get involved in the “Pay It Forward – How To Feed A Dozen Families” campaign. It took us less than a week to raise money to feed 12 families, to get to know an amazing teacher, her name is Nicoleta Kadar to help us find the families that needed or help the most.
It was amazing, I was left speechless when someone from UK found out about our event and transferred money to help us out. What happened to be a small dead, started to become a very big one. In a matter of days, I saw so many good people wanting to help that it just blew my mind away.
This is how a Farmer’s Market in Romania looks like. You can see local farmers selling their produce.
This is how a Farmer’s Market in Romania looks like. You can see local farmers selling their produce.
Some things we had to get from the grocery store.
Our car was stuffed with food! Amazing feeling!!!
We had some money left so we decided to shop some more! In the left picture is me pointing to our stuffed back seats.
We managed to buy the following things per family: 500 gr mushrooms, 5 kg potatoes, 10 bread rolls (healthy ones!), 2 big red peppers, 1 kg tomatoes, 1 kg of carrots, 1 kg rice, 1 kg flour, 1 kg corn flour, 1 jar of honey, 1 jar of Zacusca (Romanian dish made our of vegetables), 1 kg of beans, 1 kg of apples, 1 kg of pears, 1 kg bananas, 1 kg of eggplant, 1 big cucumber, 1 big pumpkin, 1 big cabbage, 1 big cauliflower, 1 kg of oranges, 1 sponge cake with cocoa powder and pecans.
Because we paired with Nicoleta Kadar, she also added natural yogurt, sour cream, cheese and butter to the list.
Most of our food was bought from the farmers market, where local farmers sell their produce. The same applies for the diary products. We tried not only to help feed families but also help farmers. We actually bought 80% of all the produce 2 farmers had at the market, it felt awesome.
With 2 cars full of food and good people, we headed to a village around 30 km away from Timisoara, named Hodoni. There we met another teacher, who took us to all the families in need. What our eyes saw it is hard to describe in words. It was emotional, we barely survived without crying, because those families lived in terrible conditions and still they were smiling and being grateful for that they had.
Myself, little Dana – 3 years old and my good friend Andreea Belean
She really impressed us! Dana, the 3 years old girl, me and Mihai.
Dana’s brother, he was quiet and did not really wanted to take pictures with us, but we loved him too!
This little fella made me laugh, he was so funny!
What have I learned from this experience?
- 1. When you decide to do something good, you will find others to help you out, just let people know!
- 2. There are so many good people EVERYWHERE, just look around.
- 3. There is no bigger joy than hustling to buy food for 12 families and see that you do not run out of money, it was like we had a never ending pocket full of money and no matter how many things we bought we still had money left.
- 4. To be grateful for my old furniture, because I saw 3 small children sleep on one armchair with their feet on the ground.
- 5. To be grateful that I have and afford electricity when some families use candles to see themselves at night.
- 6. To be even more grateful for everything that I have and that I do and do some more.
- 7. To be grateful for the people I met while raising money, most of them did not want for me to share their names, but I am happy to know who they are.
What good deeds are you going to do? I would love for you to get involved in Western Union’s Chain of Betters project. It’s an idea that empowers people with the opportunity to change the lives of others. As the money moves around the world, creating a chain of good deeds, together we can start to change lives in ways we wouldn’t have imagined was possible. This isn’t just saying money moves for better. This is proving it, together.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
