Inspiring Women Magazine May 2023
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
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