Background
An important part of my experience began when my husband and I took an early retirement and took assignments doing full-time volunteer work. Our first volunteer assignment was in 1993 1994 with the VISTA program in Elgin, Texas, working for a social services agency. From 1996 1998 we served overseas in Bangladesh with MCC, an international service organization, working for peace and justice. I worked as a Design Consultant in their Job Creation Program for Women. We traveled though remote villages of Bangladesh where women produced handmade paper and crafts for marketing in Fair-Trade outlets in USA, Germany, Japan and England. Much of my artwork is done on this beautiful hand-made paper.
From 2000 2001 we served in Vancouver, British Columbia; I worked to raise funds for First Nation Women who were victims of family violence, and my husband worked in social housing. In 2004 2005 we served in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as grant writers. I also enjoyed working with some of the children of the staff giving art lessons.
While in Bangladesh and Cambodia we had the opportunity to travel to India, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.