Writing our story together, as didis (Nepali for "sisters")

My name is Sarah Jane Davison-Tracy-Badi.* I am the founder of Seeds of Exchange, an organization igniting a community movement so that our globalkula (community) is able to live with purpose, connection and dignity.

For much of my life, stories of women and their families around the world, particularly those who are vulnerable and without freedom, have quickened my heart.

Stories like those of the Badi – a caste community in Nepal. For generations, Badi girls have had but one opportunity for work: enforced prostitution – sexual slavery. Until now.

Thanks to the efforts of impassioned community activists in Nepal and many of you in our kula, a growing number of Badi in this generation know freedom for the first time in many, many years. Freedom from sexual trafficking and slavery. Freedom to be educated, to have dreams and hope for the future.

I am eager to collaborate with these friends to write their extraordinary story because I believe the world needs to hear it and they are ready to voice it.

This is my place. This is my call.

This is my – OUR! – story.

As a kid, I plastered my room with world maps and pictures of women and their families, work, and villages from around the world.

At my core, my roots deeply interweave with those of these amazing sisters. For much of my life, my journey has been a treasure hunt of discovery around and response to these words: \"Look deep within yourself and recognize what brings life and grace into your heart. It is this that can be shared with those around you.\" - Christopher De Vinck

Yes! What brings life and grace into my heart is to be with women and their communities around the world:

• sipping chai in their homes,


• eating their food,


• dancing their dances,


• singing their songs,


• learning their words,


• wearing their clothes…, and on and on.

Being with: cultivating friendship, collaborating, and celebrating together.

To share these sisters’ stories in a way that ignites ever-deepening understanding, connection, and love within my community, makes my heart sing. I have journals full of dreams, curiosities, and prayers. I’ve sounded the call, inviting people to learn, grow, give and join.

In October, 2015, my lifelong passion found its feet with the chance to partner on a book project about a powerful, transformative shift occurring in the Nepali Badi. Here was my chance to dig deep with work already underway to allow women to rewrite their story from one of exploitation and slavery to one marked by freedom and empowerment. Perhaps by sharing their stories, we might be able to inspire a new community of women – regardless of their place on the globe.

From the moment I met these Badi sisters, I have seen the ways in which their stories hold extraordinary threads of connection with people all around the world.

I have witnessed the ways in which their very presence and words bring light, hope, and joy to others in their own country and around the globe. Today they are strong, fierce, and committed warriors of love. Their days of silence are over, and the world is about to hear a new chorus of powerful voices.

I am honored and overjoyed to be a part of life with them and am ready to put pen to paper and write the words my Nepali sisters speak.

I have no doubt that I – we – will not be the same after hearing their story.

Arm in arm we walk, dance, laugh, and sing our way, across the threshold and through the door, down the path, all-the-while illuminated and fueled by love and grace.

Do you hear it?

No? Then, I will whisper it.

You are loved.

Like, crazily, over-the-top-ly, fully.

NOW.

Loved. Celebrated. Cherished. Delighted in.

You are Loved. BE{loved}.

Take it in.

Inhale it.

Let it take root. Flourish.

The courtroom

– judgments and words of

“too much/not enough” …

“good/bad” …

“beautiful/ugly” –

It’s adjourned.

Over. Now. And forever.

Imagine the possibilities!

Oh, baby, the places you’ll go!

You are free to be you.

Come!

Take your place at the table in this feast of life!

You.

BE{long}.

Here.

THIS is our kula.

***

A bit more about Seeds of Exchange…

In 2006, I launchedSeeds of Exchange with a vision to build a robust and committedvillage in order tosupport the enterprises and well-being of oursisters and brothersglobally.

Seeds of Exchange fosters and ignites connections through

• supporting dynamic collaborations locally and globally


• creatingcommunity events and opportunities for transformative service


• promoting engaged travel for social good


• sharing these stories to encourage individual and community compassion, purpose, and love

Yes, we are passionate about sharing stories here at Seeds of Exchange. We've been wondering lately about stories of leaps – big and small, deep and wide, alone and together.

We're talking leaps of all shapes and sizes – stories ofcourageous decisions andcat stretches alike... over the course of a life or in the everyday... Quiet choices that lead to lastingshifts, or silenced whispers boldly rising.Here's the thing: when we take in someone else's leap, it has a way of ignitingand awakeningsomething in our own story. We come to life. We feel a little step closer to taking that courageous leap of our own.

We believe it's impossible to fully leap alone. We need community.

• Tired, worn out, running on fumes? |We enCOURAGE one another


• Ready tostep into your calling, but not sure what to do next? | We clarify + connect each other


• On fire andliving yourpurpose? | We cheerlead + spread the word

*Each part of my name reflects a kula (community) from whom I have come + to whom I am fiercely committed.

• Sarah – God’s princess | given name @ birth…my faith kula


• Jane – my god-mother’s name | 1st taste of expansiveness of this kula


• Davison – my husband’s family name | ever-growing family kula


• Tracy – my family’s name | shared by my 2 sisters – my 1st taste of the sisterhood


• Badi – Nepali caste | given this name in 2016 by my Nepali Badi sisters

How to Get Involved

Connect with Sarah Davison-Tracy (email)

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