What is Dressember?
First Jilli and I are committing to wearing dresses every day for the whole month of December.
But why?
This is more then just a fashion challenge, instead it is to bring awareness and raise money to help end slavery around the world.
Why this cause?
If you know me, you know there are a lot of causes on my heart. Tomorrow I will have a post going up with our list of December causes that I try to do each year... but why are are committing 31 days to this cause?
This is a story that goes back father. This story goes back to a little girl who had some things happen that we not ok. And those events effected how that little girl had a passion for others in the world. As I grew I learned that slavery did not end when Abe Lincoln spoke unlike what I learned in history class. This broke my heart. When I learned of sex slavery my heart shattered into pieces. How? How can this be happening in our world? This became a cause that pulled at my heart.
My whole family has always been involved in the caring and loving of others, I have talked before about my dad and his heart for homeless people and my mom's heart for people with disabilities and children... growing up loving others was just part of life, it was not a big show, it was just something you did.
When I was 16 my family asked me what I wanted for Christmas, but if you know that part of my story you know that I had just spent the 5 months before that very sick and ended up having multiple surgeries and tests and still have GI stuff to this day but it is better managed then the days when I puked every meal for months. But that time changed me. I saw a lot of people who I thought were friends leave while I was sick (and a guy who decided to not run away that I started dating in the midst of all of this) and when you spend a lot of time in bed you have a lot of time to think. When I got to Christmas I realized I didn't want any more stuff... the stuff couldn't fix how sick I was, but instead I wanted other people to be free.
That year for Christmas I asked my family to see how many girls we could raise money to free from sex trafficking. At that time the only place I really knew that was working in this areas was World Vision so my family gave there.
Later that school year once I was back in school there was a debate in a social studies class, I don't know what the debate was about but somehow it got on the topic of slavery and someone said there was no longer slaves, and passionate me spoke up and talked about the reality of modern day slavery. The other person became very angry, but my teacher defused the situation and we went on. The next class the teacher was not there so we had a sub. The angry student started yelling at me and throwing text books at me. The whole situation still seams strange to me to this day because I still have no idea why her reaction was this extreme. The sub told the girl to leave, she said no, so the sub kicked me out of the class (mind you I was ducking for cover as things were being thrown at me). This was the one and only time I was kicked out of class and written up. A bunch of other teachers came to my defense and I didn't get in trouble in the end, but that situation made me a little more afraid to speak up on the topic.
There are times when God puts causes on your heart and you are not sure why you care about this thing so much. But this has pulled at my heart for years.
Several months ago I was listening to a podcast and it was talking about Dressember. Now I had a few friends who have participated in Dressember before so I had heard about it before but never participated. As I listened to this podcast my heart started to stir. Now at this point I was not in yet... it took a few more podcasts for that to happen but about a month ago I was listening to a podcast about Dressember and Jilli asked for more info about it. So I explained to her that if I did Dressemeber I would wear dresses for a month and raise money to help end people not being treated fairly in the world. She asked if she could join. If you know Jilli will you will know this is her. She often shops for toys for RMH instead of herself and is always asking for different ways she can help others. Brent and I talked and decided we would let her participate.
So thats what we are doing, Jilli and I are raising money to help end slavery around the world. Here is how you can help:
1. Join us! Today is just the 1st day, you can join in!
2. Donate. We want to raise $2,000 to help end slavery! But we need help to do that
3. Listen to podcasts about this. I will make a list below for you
4. Think about what you are buying for Christmas... are there fair trade things you can buy? There is a lot of slavery in the coffee, chocolate, and clothing industries
5. Educate yourself on modern day slavery and then think about one way you can live differently so that someone else is not enslaved. In America we have a bad issue with feeling like we should have everything we want now... it is ingrained in our culture... but what if we broke the mold.
Here is our Dressember fundraising page:
https://www.dressember2019.org/team/dressing-for-others?fundraiserPrompt=68387
If you want to follow along and see our dresses each day you can follow me on Twitter:
@amandaraeupton
Podcasts:
The New Activist with the founder of Dressember
Retreat House Dressember Episode
Retreat House Episode about what IJM is
The story of a girl name Esther
As a momma, there is a different part of my heart now that pulls differently. There are girls my kids ages in slavery in the world and that shatters my heart to peaces. That should not happen to any child and no momma should have to have her child taken... not for sex slavery because people do not respect other people and not for labor slavery because of poverty. This has to end and for that to even be a chance we have to work together... because a lot of the things you and I use day to day are touched by slavery and so while we might not have slaves in the way we American's traditionally think, our actions keep people enslaved... and an FYI... slavery is still legal here, if someone is in jail slavery is still legal and our for profit prisons make a lot of money off of that (they are making a lot of money off of that at the border right now) and the way our justice system is often works that many of the same people who were in slavery before now are too, it just looks different so us white people sleep better at night. Learn. There is so much info out there, and it is going to break your heart... but don't let your privilege enslave someone else. Especially if you are a Christian and follow that humans are made in the image of God. Let your heart be broken, because your slight discomfort is worth if for someone else's freedom.
Normally we try hard to balance the hard of the world with protecting our children's childhood. Our children already know that the world is not all sunshine and daisies... they have lived through a lot in their lives. But we also feel strongly about teaching our children about loving other and using their voice, time and money to do that. Jillian does not know about sex trafficing yet... she is not ready for that information, but Jillian knows that we are raising money for women who are in slavery. For her we have told her that slavery is when people are forced to work, live or do things and they do not have an option in any of their choices. It might not be a perfect explanation but it is the one she stuck on to and one that is the right amount of weight for a 6yr old to hold. But if my 6yr old can leverage her voice to end slavery...
How will you join us this month?
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