Moms take action to improve life for families worldwide

From the Traverse City Record-Eagle

Moms take action to improve life for families worldwide

BY MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS
mdrahos@record-eagle.com

HARBOR SPRINGS -- Hillary Rodham Clinton may have made the old African proverb famous, but Kate Bassett and Copland Rudolph have always known that it takes a village to raise a child.

Believing that children can thrive only if their families do, and if the whole of society cares enough to provide for them, the Harbor Springs friends home school their four children together and sponsor six more children in Africa, Sri Lanka and Honduras through the Christian Children's Fund. And when Rudolph got an unsolicited calendar in the mail a few years ago from an international group called Mothers Acting Up, they were immediately drawn to its mission of action on behalf of children everywhere.

"We believe that beyond our traditional mother roles we have a responsibility to (publicly) and passionately advocate for the world's children," said Rudolph, 40, a restaurateur and environmentalist with a background in counseling and psychology.

After attending a nearby lecture on Millennium Development Goals, a set of global strategies for ending extreme poverty by 2015, the women decided to start a local affiliate of Mothers Acting Up in 2006.

"I think that we knew just from being moms and (living) in our community that we live in a really compassionate place," said Bassett, 29, assistant editor of the Harbor Light newspaper. "I think that first Mothers' Day we went in blind and hoping for the best. We didn't know if five people would show up or 30 people."

Now Northern Michigan Mothers Acting Up.... (more here)