Run for Congo Women

This piece is contributed by Jen Parsons, mother of two, organizer of the Run for Congo Women-Colorado and MAU calendar portrait & maven extraordinaire. If you ever get a chance to meet Jen, or hear her speak, grab it.

Motherhood is universal. That’s what I’ve learned in starting the Run for Congo Women-Colorado. What a mother faces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, she doesn’t face alone. Her children bear witness to tragic moments that change a woman; many times they suffer atrocities themselves, and many don’t survive. So I stand up for my sisters, my fellow mothers and their children.

It is hard sometimes, organizing a run while raising my small children, I’m not going to lie. But I understand. I understand the pain involved in just becoming a mother in the first place; how one suddenly cares more for a little being than we’ve ever cared for anything in the world before. The feelings of motherhood are the same. These incredible mothers come back from tragedy to create new, powerful stories for themselves. They have hope, and motherhood is universal: I owe it to them to have some hope too.

Join me in taking action, from one mother to another, and run with us Sunday, June 27, 2010 at Wash Park in Denver for the 4th annual Run for Congo Women-Colorado. Visit www.runforcongowomen.org for more information and join the group Run for Congo Women Colorado on Facebook for updates.

Also read Nicholas Kristof’s two recent incredible articles on the Congo in the New York Times—both utterly heartbreaking and inspiring: Wednesday, February 3, featuring my hero Lisa Shannon who started the first Run for Congo Women, and Sunday, February 7.