I received this request for support in an email from my friend I know as Verena. I met her in 2008 during my second trip to Bali. I have purchased her incredible clothing designs, visited a Balinese factory she was working with and met other Balinese artists with whom she was in collaboration.
She is a magnificent artist and could be of huge service to women in Bali seeking to make a living as artists.
In Bali there is no word for art because everything is art. The average salary is $100 a month. The people are beautiful and gentle, and women work very hard as they do all over the world.
Verena lives on nothing but faith. She is a gift to the world, and I am supporting her efforts. I hope you will consider doing so as well.
Blessings, Vicki
From Sophia Verena:
Dear Friends
I am asking for help. I am currently without any money to pay my bills, my rent and my food from April 1st.
I do have projects which I am co creating which will support me financially. These are creative projects that I feel passionate about and feel strongly guided towards and which will do the following:
- Serve the improvement of hundreds of Balinese, in particular women in very poor rural areas.
- Generate financial support for me.
- Most definitely grow my soul’s capacity to love and to serve while sourcing the flow of abundance in money joy and peace.
Earthtones is a project I am creating, you can see more about it on www.earthtonesbali.com, to help alleviate the poverty of women living in very poor conditions in the rural villages of Bali and to raise their subsistence level of income.
The women are being trained to weave and learn how to grow and use natural plant dyes for dyeing the organic cotton yarns and fabrics. As a textile designer I will work with them to make simple beautiful unique products which Earthtones can then market.
This project has already generated a lot of interest and local support from existing local natural plant dye producers and weavers, as well as from other textile designers and fashion companies choosing Eco friendly organic textiles.
I am now focused on seeking international funding and support for Earthtones, which requires $20,000 (U.S.), to implement the first phase of training and the production of natural dyes and initial woven products to sell to the local Eco tourists in Bali.
The other two projects dear to me and requiring all of me are:
1. I am writing a book with Jayem, director of Alam Cinta Ashram and Heartfelt Publishing. By immersing in deep facilitation in the life’s journey and then WRITING it all out, we are shaping the journey of a soul that will take two forms.
- a novel.
- a screenplay (possibly more than one to accommodate it all)
2. I am co creating Women’s Transformative Retreats and Festivals, with Elena for those of you who know her from The Way of Mastery, to invite women to celebrate and experience re birthing in the Divine Feminine as Love itself. The first retreat will be held here in Bali at the end of July.
To Ask for help feels very scary and I notice thoughts coming up like what right do I have to be asking for help and why would anyone give me help, and no one will respect me ever again, and I feel a great deal of shame, guilt, and failure. I feel very small and prefer to run and hide, not to be seen at all. In fact, I would rather die than ask for help and to share this now feels really very scary, and I do feel sick. Keep Breathing.
CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME?
I have created a Pay Pal Account which you can access through my website, www.wearableart-bali.com. There is a donate button on the home page and contact page you click on that button. If Pay Pal is inconvenient, I am willing to come to where you are (if in Bali) for cash, and I am open to whatever works best for you.
ANY donation will be very deeply and humbly received and will be used ONLY to meet the needs of support as I work diligently to fulfill the above projects over the next year.
My goal is simply $12,000 (U.S.) which would sustain me for the coming year and free up my energy from anxiety to devote to these creative projects.
I am sending this out from a deep place in my heart and again it feels scary to expose myself like this and ask for help.
PLEASE know that whether you do or do not donate I am so grateful to you for this opportunity to work through my ring of fear and to expose myself honestly to you. Thank you for this opportunity.
Extending Love, Light, Peace, and Joy in Celebration of Life.
Sophia Verena