Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2014 - (Page 21)

A seat at the table by Nate Hoekstra breaking the poverty cycle for the world's poorest women Mary Dailey Brown, front right, walks with a group of women in a village in Uganda, doing field research on a proposed SowHope project. courtesy photo It wasn't until dinner was served that Mary Dailey Brown realized the women she saw preparing the food earlier in the day wouldn't be joining her. She learned they weren't allowed to eat at the table with the men and visiting mission workers. Brown, then an international mission director for the Bella Vista Church in Rockford who had traveled to Bolivia on a mission trip, excused herself to take her meal in the kitchen with the cooks, the women who weren't allowed a seat at the table. Today, she cites that moment as one of several that led her to realize the need for an international non-governmental organization with a singular goal: to improve the lives and well-being of impoverished women in the developing world. "That moment really had an impact on me," Brown said. "I had seen the women working all day in the corner of the building, making the food, and couldn't bring myself to eat it knowing that they were not allowed to sit with us to enjoy it. They were getting by on the leftovers in the kitchen. It was a moment that really made me realize what kind of work I had to do." 21 www.gvsu.edu Grand Valley Magazine http://www.gvsu.edu

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2014

Table of Contents
Campus News
Fall Arts Celebration
Athletics
Donor Impact
Sustainability
Research
Q&A Karen Gipson
A seat at the table
Students dig program
Deployment to enrollment
Seeing double
Off the path
Arts
Alumni News

Grand Valley Magazine Summer 2014