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Inspiring Women Magazine May 2023

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profile<br />

Revisiting 2018 ...<br />

Priscilla Heffelfinger<br />

Liz introduces us to her <strong>Inspiring</strong><br />

Woman of 2018, founder of Thrive,<br />

Priscilla Heffelfinger, AWC<br />

Philippines and AWC Thailand.<br />

"I<br />

was inspired by Priscilla’s story<br />

because almost without meaning<br />

to she has created an organization<br />

that really is having a direct positive<br />

impact on children’s lives. It began with<br />

something as simple as visiting a school in a<br />

country she was living in and finding that by<br />

donating 250 bananas (costing just $30) a week<br />

she could help children do better at school as<br />

their diet would be improved. She saw a need<br />

and took action.<br />

The follow up from this simple action grew over<br />

time and by 2018 when we met up with her for<br />

the magazine, she, with others, had set up a<br />

charity that was serving 1000 nutritional meals<br />

a week to children in two countries, Bangladesh<br />

and the Philippines.<br />

Priscilla Heffelfinger<br />

Sometimes when we see things in the world that<br />

aren’t right we tell ourselves there isn’t anything<br />

we can do, that the problem is too big for us to<br />

solve. I liked the fact that Priscilla had started<br />

with something small and manageable that she<br />

could do: donate bananas. Then when that went<br />

well she was determined not to give up and<br />

stop there. I was encouraged to hear that she<br />

believes everyone can make a difference. She<br />

doesn’t look at something and think “why would<br />

I do that?”. She looks at it and says<br />

“why not?” I admire that trait and<br />

I hope that I would do the same if<br />

faced with what she found in the<br />

school all those years ago."<br />

Carrying<br />

bananas to<br />

snack time<br />

16 INSPIRING WOMEN INSPIRING WOMEN 17

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