Thelma C. Davidson Adair interview, 2008.

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    I am was a new bride
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    with my husband in 1942.
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    We had just built a little home in South Carolina.
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    We're very excited
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    and wanted to continue our education not because
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    it was the appropriate time but because it was World War 2
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    and we could not. Get the gas ration card
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    needed from my husband to continue his missionary work.
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    And so here in New York having made a decision to stay
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    a little young bride a little baby
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    and a woman knocking on my door introducing herself asMrs.
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    Oakley Maxwell our neighbor her husband pastored
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    a church a few blocks from our church Mount Morris Presbyterian.
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    She was asking me to come to the World Day of Prayer
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    celebration in the community.
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    Very wise woman who recognize that not one
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    time a day our place would meet the needs of the diverse
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    group that were a part of the Harlem community
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    and she said.
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    The baby Maxwell he'll cry he's six
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    months old. That's all right. There are more grandmothers there than you have at home.
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    And she was right. She was new that some of us could come in the
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    afternoon. Some could come to a Saturday morning lunch
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    and other professionals on Friday night.
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    And I was privileged to be able to be a part
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    of this in collusive diversed
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    many part celebration of World Day of Prayer.
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    One of the most of the World Day
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    of Prayer and movement at that time was responding
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    to the needs of people who had been impacted
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    by the war
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    and the two theaters of the world.
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    You can't remember but I do.
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    There was a request by the mothers of Europe for diapers
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    white cotton or surprise item.
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    Soldiers needed to be dressed bandaids made
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    and yet babies needed diapers
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    and the request went out across the movement.
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    Grandmothers just take one diaper from your grandbaby
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    and send it in to the national office.
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    And we had thousands of diapers to share
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    with the children with the babies of Europe.
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    It's important for us as we look back to be aware
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    of why changes were made
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    and why certain responses were chosen.
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    It was extremely important for women to be recognized
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    not only as the women of churchwomen United which was
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    Uniting Church women are part of the council
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    but women who needed to have their voice.
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    We did not need to be a part of
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    another group to define our goals to structure the
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    expenditure of our funds to make possible
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    the applications that we desired.
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    Women could stand on their own two feet.
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    And so the movement away from a part
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    of the National Movement of the total church was
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    well thought out.
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    And so Church Women United gave women the
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    opportunity to create their goals
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    and objectives to formulate a status to interact
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    and to collaborate with women's groups across across
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    the islands of the Pacific.
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    The women of Puerto Rico in our own way without
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    many of the structures or layers of formal churches.
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    I hope we will look at the the the
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    values that come church women you
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    nine day at the gold
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    pen
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    with the cross
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    and Balash and the center.
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    Many of the Rays going out was the gift
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    of Cleri Harvey a national president of churchwomen
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    united a very spiritual woman a woman to have had
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    many years of working
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    with the YWCA
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    and she was the first woman of color to be the national president.
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    It was her vision. The circle was important that reflected
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    the world. All of us
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    and the cross would be the uniting of our
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    spiritual history
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    and resources of our faith.
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    And it was a reflection
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    of the Negro spiritual
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    with our face to the rising sun.
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    And this is the rays of the sun moving out
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    and up what.
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    She sought to claim the pen
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    with the symbols the lettersC.W.
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    And it was.
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    A result of many conversations.
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    Where should that be placed in the original version.
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    It was to the side so that you would not take away from the centrality
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    of the spiritual. But it later was placed
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    in the center because in the center of our lives was
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    across walls the church was the world.
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    And so the round globe the cross
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    and CW mail together to make this a statement
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    again of who we are.
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    I first met you Thelma in 1980 when you were installed as national president
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    and I remember hearing you talk about causeways wonder if you have a couple of stories
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    about those perhaps we should help people to realize that
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    the causeway is a geographic
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    term.
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    It's the land mass that connects
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    several other land mass.
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    And so when we wanted to relate to say the
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    women of the far east of Japan Korea
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    Philippines India Kozue
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    was created that would join the women of
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    America or the movement of America
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    with women of the Far East.
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    And so there were calls always to
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    the Caribbean Central and South America causeways to Africa.
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    But one particular of the causeway that was taken to
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    the Far East celebrating our
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    concern for world peace
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    and one of the major
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    joint meetings would be in Hiroshima on World Day
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    of Prayer.
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    We would have an opportunity to visit to the
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    searing sight of devastation
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    the outside walls of a Presbyterian
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    Church the only part of any building
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    left standing almost saying come on to me a symbol
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    of refuge a symbol of hope
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    and opportunity for the women of Korea
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    with their grief and their awareness of the years of
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    enslavement. Freed through war joined
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    through faith.
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    It was worth the planning
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    and the visitation of the friendships formed.
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    Let me just say that always as a part of a causeway.
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    There were opportunities for women to visit the homes
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    and the programs of the host country
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    so that once we returned to our our homes
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    there were many bonds that would continue through the writing of
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    letters the sharing of materials the return
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    trips and the Church Women United
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    had been the causeway had been the bridge to bring together
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    women of various parts of the world.
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    What a wonderful story.
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    The other thing we talked about a little is the human rights celebration
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    and as you know now churchwarden united since 2006 has written
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    a human rights celebration that unites do at any time of
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    the year. But you were the prime instigator
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    I believe in having a wonderful National Human Rights celebration
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    at theU.N. would you like to share a little bit about that.
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    Yes we wanted an opportunity to recognize
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    so many women across the world.
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    Nationally regionally in our states
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    and especially in our local units that were
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    able to make the world a better place to live.
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    That had been able to respond
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    and offer with great sacrifice to achieve change
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    is to break some of the barriers
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    that prevented women from
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    and and men and children all of us from having a fuller
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    life.
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    The hope was that yes one person might be
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    honored at a national level
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    but even more important for every unit
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    every every entity small towns country village
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    major cities to find the people in those areas
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    and to take this as a day.
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    It doesn't need to be the same day
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    or the same hour in the same way
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    but it is the occasion of saying thank you
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    and giving recognition to the sacrifices made
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    for justice for all humans.
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    The opportunities that I have had
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    to know women of the many denominations
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    and faith groups
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    but without Church Women United.
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    I would no only Presbyterian women
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    but the richness of my life because through
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    the movement we were able to know women of twenty eight
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    denominations Roman Catholic
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    and Greek Orthodox women to be able to say that
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    as I traveled in 125 countries of the world all continents
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    that there were women
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    with whom I could relate.
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    Out of the tenets of my faith
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    and with whom I could join hands to give praise
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    to create an opportunity for a response
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    for changes.
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    The land mines are destroyed the hands
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    and the feet of children
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    and would be the gift quote unquote
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    that war mongers had left were children
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    and families could be a dress not as
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    an individual or as the Presbyterian
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    but through the movement by all denominations.
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    So the.
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    Widening of my world the
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    creation of the manner in which women could come together
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    could put aside the tiny bit Arend said the small
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    things that tend to leech strenth from the whole
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    and focus upon things that matter a better life
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    for children clean water
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    support of groups around the world
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    that are bringing together their gifts.
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    One small give could make little difference
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    but the joint gifts of thousands of millions of women
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    in a simple way created.
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    Paths of change.

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