I am going to stay in Greece for another year so that I can continue to work with HD in providing recovery to women who have been trafficked or sexually exploited!
This decision has been a long time coming (with a short period of “I’m so homesick!” confusion), and it is based on several things.
- I love what I’m doing, and I feel like my talents are uniquely necessary to the HD team, so why would I stop?
- I think it will take most of this year to adapt to living in a foreign culture, and I want to give myself time to enjoy life in Greece more comfortably.
- There is so much coming in HD’s future – a new office, a one-year anniversary, more participants, graduating participants – and I want to be a part of them!
- I don’t feel called to go anywhere else, so…why go?
I have been talking to my GEM supervisors, and we have created a budget for another year of living in Greece. It is a little higher than last year’s budget, but that is because I am no longer an intern. I will be an employee of GEM, and that means taxes and insurance costs are added to my budget.
I will be in the States for the month of December, and I hope to return to Athens in January! But before I can come back, I need to raise $32,000.
That sounds like a lot! But when you break the amount down, this is totally doable! For instance:
- 100 partners giving $25/month
- 50 partners giving $50/month
- 25 partners giving $100/month
You can make a one-time or monthly donation by clicking on the picture below!
You may have also noticed a couple changes to my blog along with this announcement! There is now a little fundraising section to the right of my blog posts. There is a picture of a fundraising gauge that I will update regularly so that you can see how much has been donated (and when you click on it, you will be taken to the site where you can make a tax-deductible donation)!
Feel free to leave any questions in the comments section, and I will do my best to answer them!
It Is Trish 
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