6 months ago I wrote about speaking at the Problogger event
I was nervous to present, but as I began to speak I noticed a tattooed woman, sitting in the front row, who kept nodding. She smiled warmly, and looked interested. When I finished, she jumped up and introduced herself:
“Hi Richenda! I’m Eden I am so freaking into what you are doing! I want to partner with you guys, here is my card. ”
Eden is the kind of person that makes an immediate impression on you. She is no wall flower. She is forward, brutally authentic and relentlessly encouraging. After 5 minutes with her, I am engaged, entertained and believe we can achieve anything.I was excited to meet a new friend and very eager blogger partner.
6 months after we met, Eden boarded a plane to Niger.
We didn’t intend to send a blogger to the poorest country in the world, but the food crisis in West Africa went from severe to dire in a matter of months and the traditional media was not picking it up. No media = no donations to respond.
Increasingly social media and traditional media worlds are influenced by each other. KONY 2012 is the most prominent recent example. No single blogger is going to solve a famine but we hoped that a passionate Mum could make the media take notice by sharing the stories of mothers and children in the most severely affected area.
We picked Eden or we should say… Eden picked us.
Some were surprised, mostly because she uses swear words in her blog. She even called herself an inspirational a****hole when talking about why she puts charity banners on her blog!
So why Eden?
- Eden is the real deal. Helping those in need is a core part of her value system and more important to her than her blog.
- Eden is one of Australia’s most prominent Mum bloggers, with an large audience and reach
- Eden has been sponsoring World Vision kids for 10 years. She is a passionate advocate for our most important way to help children in need
- Eden is well known in the Mum blogging community and inspires those with influence to their power for the good.
- Eden is an incredible story-teller; captivating, authentic and honest. Send people to her blog and you’ll get brownie points for the “Awesome find”
- Eden shares World Vision’s belief that every child deserves life in all its fullness. Yes, you can use swear words and have great values.
- She is persistent and makes everyone fall in love with her
7 days of #EdenInNiger produced some compelling blog posts:
So far out of my comfort zone I can’t even SEE my privilege from here
Re-entering Earth’s Atmosphere
Today she will be on Channel 10’s breakfast show.
The list of bloggers writing about West Africa continue to grow:
Eden’s trip to Niger gained traction in social media and traditional media. West Africa is noticed. Donations are coming in. Children are being sponsored. We continue to gain media lift beyond the trip.
Since starting at World Vision, our social media team has brainstormed and debated about how to partner with digital influencers. What we know for sure is that the best way to create an authentic experience is by involving the influencers themselves. 3 days before Eden left for Niger, we launched a blogger ambassador program created and driven by a team of 10 Australian bloggers. The trip to Niger was not was planned as part of the program but it did give us something to cheer for.
Special thanks to Louisa Claire for her advice and patience and Joy Toose for being an amazing partner in crime.
Eden & I at the World Vision Blogger Ambassador launch. I took this picture from Eden's blog. I love it because it captures how excited we were to see each other after months of emails and calls organizing the trip.
Eager to hear your thoughts and questions.
Eden has a way with words that cuts to the heart of things (swearing and all). Her posts about her experience in Niger (I felt) were both powerful and real.
Well done World Vision for your tireless work helping those in need and well done Eden for taking this cause and bringing it to our attention so wonderfully. Only good things can come from such positive acts.
I’ll use Eden’s quote for the second time in one day (it should be in one of those quotation books!) “I will always believe that Giving = Good. Always. Sometimes things just ARE that simplistic.”
To you both, thankyou for being in the world and sharing your light with us.
You are so spot on Maddie, Eden’s words are her weapon! She made the experience so real. Thanks for your comment and thanks for being one of our amazing supporters and advocates. So proud to have you on the team!
Teary! And I always forgot to tell you … still can’t believe World Vision chose me, even AFTER reading my blog. I made sure to not swear in any blog posts for you guys. It wasn’t even hard.
This has been … one of the biggest things ever, in my life. To utilise my blog like this … has been worth every ridiculous, inappropriate, too-raw post I’ve ever written.
I love that you had the cojones to go with the Wildcard. I love the result … am completely blown away and touched and buoyed by people’s response to this trip. People, as a whole … really do care about things. They just need a little nudge to be shown how.
XXXXXXX
Oh Eden, can you please stop making me cry, enough already! I totally forgot to mention that your World Vision posts were profanity free…maybe I should add a caviot?
As everyone on here is saying – you were the perfect fit and anyone who ever doubted that, you proved wrong. There is no better blend than your incredible heart and amazing gift for story-telling. And you are absolutely right, people do care, they just have to believe they can make a difference.
Eden, you don’t know me but I am Richenda’s sis-in-law. I think she is the most incredible person and pretty much anything she says or types I take as God’s honest truth. So when I saw her post about sending you to Africa and saw how highly she spoke of you, I knew we were in for a treat. and she didn’t exaggerate a bit. Reading your posts I felt like I was right there with you.. getting sad, confused, guilty. I have a couple more to read, so I’m going to get to it, but just wanted to stop and say thank you! you are inspiring.
Love this story Richenda. Love Eden. Love World Vision. Love what you are doing. Powerful stuff. It’s exciting to see how social media CAN be used for social good…and I’m just so thrilled to be part of it. Thank you. x
Love you Kelly! So excited that your part of the team, you are such a passionate advocate!
If you search the world over you still couldn’t have picked a better woman to raise awareness for the dire food crisis in Niger.
A great post Richenda I’ve been a World Vision child sponsor for over 24yrs – ever since I started working. I love World Vision and watching the various children we have supported grow.
My most vivid memory of my father crying when I was a child was over TV images of starving children in Africa. I think it had a lot to do with my decision.I hope the difference Eden has made snowballs and together we can ease the lives of those affected.
24years you have been sponsoring, that is incredible! Thank you so much for your dedication and support. We are in communities for 15-20 years and can only do so because of long term support like yours.
Hearing the story of your dad is beautiful, he sounds like he had an incredible heart. When I was 15, I saw a World Vision TV ad and prayed that I could one day help them. I sponsored a kid and paid for it with my paper route money! When I got to meet my sponsored kids it was the most incredible day of my life. I made a video if you want to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu7NyYC-P9I&list=UUr-R8-3kBewQ6Ulxc8j819w&index=18&feature=plcp
Thumbs up to it all:)
Thumbs up to you
Hi Richenda,
I was at that conference, I so remember you, and Eden popping up to see you once your part was done.
She’s a woman with heart as big as…Africa and Australia combined.
Love her truth.
I am the grandmother of a girl, Miss S, who has inspired me to do something for WVA too, and wrote about her on my blog.
Thanks for visiting: Denyse
(PS, I’d appreciate the typo correction for my name…)
Sorry about the name mess up! Have changed immediately. As I mentioned on twitter, your grandaughter is amazing. I am so excited to buy her ebook!
Some things are just meant to be.
Eden was meant to work with you and to go to Niger and the both of you (and Joy and Clair and everyone else at WV) were meant to inspire us all.
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