Ultimate Girls Getaway

Celebrating our new Sponsored Sister from Bosnia

 Semsa Vraco was born in 1947, married and cares for 3 children. 

Semsa lives in the war torn country of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  For decades it was part of Yugoslavia but in 1992 these peaceful people woke up to a nightmarish war of ethnic-cleansing that would wipe out hundreds of thousands of people, severely injure 200,000, and terrorize millions.  The women suffered horribly because rape and torture were used as weapons of war.

But war and terror met a new kind of resistance in the spirit of the Bosnian women. Thanks to the courage and bravery of these women who spoke out about the crimes they endured, for the first time ever, rape was prosecuted in international courts as a war crime.  

Thanks to our sisters who come to the Ultimate Girls Getaway, over the next year, Semsa will undergo a transformation that will allow her to regain control over her life, earn a living and begin to heal from the emotional and physical wounds that war has inflicted on her and her family.

We will be posting news and letters as we receive them from Semsa and Women for Women. Please send us a few words of encouragement for Semsa and we will send them to her.  Sharing a dialogue with our sisters shows there are no boundaries between us or distance too far.  We are all sisters!

A Letter from our Sister Rizike

We recently received a letter from our sponsored sister Rizike, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. She joined the program in late 2009 and we wanted to share her letter with the Ultimate Girlfriends who have made her transformation possible! The translation is below.

Her letter reads:

Hello!  How are you doing?  As for me, I'm keeping well with all my family.  The aim of this letter is to thank you for your financial support which is helping me to improve my life.  Also, I'm married NS Hve five children among them whom there are 3 boys and 2 girls.

Thank you for all what you are doing for me. 

P.S. The name od my husband is Jean and he was born in 1970. I was also born in 1978.

Rizike

Celebrating New Sponsored Sister Aimerance!

Thanks to all our UGG Girlfriends who attended UGG Fairmont Mont Tremblant in November, we were able to sponsor our 11th Women for Women Sister, Aimerance Nankafu Cimalamungo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Aimerance is 25 years old, single and caring for 1 child.  Over the next year, Aimerance will undergo a transformation that will allow her to regain control over her life.  She will join a circle of 25 women who will become her support network as they go through an intensive and life changing training.

Aimerance will learn about women's rights, allowing her to take control over the decisions that govern her life and that of her children; she will learn technical and business skills that will allow her to sustain an income; she will receive direct cash assistance and emotional support, and on graduating, she will be given access to jobs or tools to start a business.

In a few weeks we will receive additional information about Aimerance, which we will be posting. We are so excited about her year a head of transformation!  Thank you UGG Girlfriends for making this possible!

Celebrating New Sponsored Sister Rizike

Thanks to all our UGG Girlfriends who attended UGG Fairmont Scottsdale in October, we were able to sponsor our 10th Women for Women Sister, Rizike Bulambo from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rizike is 30 years old, married and has 5 children of her own and cares for 4 other children.  While caring for all 9 children, Rizike also works on agricultural activities during the day.  They all live in a house with no electricity and no source of water, with their main source of lighting a kerosene lamp. She rates the general health of her family as poor and she has lost family members to war, violence, poverty, illness or political oppression.

Rizike has just begun the Program and we look forward to hearing her progress throughout the year, where she will be provided with food, shelter, medical attention and education, to help improve her life, her family and her community.

Next month we should be receiving information about our 11th sponsored Sister, made possible by our UGG Girlfriends who attended UGG Fairmont Mont Tremblant in November!

Letter from our Sponsored Sister Vestine from Rwanda

Thanks to the all the wonderful woman who join us on our Ultimate Girls Getaway adventures, we are able to support our sisters around the world.  To date, we have sponsored 9 women and increase that number every year.  

Vestine from Rwanda sent us a note recently.  We love hearing from our sponsored sisters and how the incredible organization Women for Women International has helped their lives.

Our Sponsored Sister Hassiba from Afghanistan

One of the most rewarding parts of the Ultimate Girls Getaway is seeing the power of women helping women. By every girlfriend in attendance, we are able to annually sponsor women survivors of war. The sponsorship is through Women for Women International that provides food, shelter, medical needs and education for an entire year.

We look forward to receiving the letters from our sisters letting us know how they are and how the program has helped their lives and in turn, their families and communities.   Below is a letter from Hassiba who graduated from the program earlier this year.  Due to cultural reasons we were unable to get a photo of her but we were so happy to receive this letter.  We wish her all the best and congratulate her on all her accomplishments in the program!

UGG Montebello 2009 Sponsors 3 Women Survivors of War!

Thank you to all the amazing women who were able to attend the Ultimate Girls Getaway in Montebello! Through this incredible weekend, we were able to sponsor 3 more women survivors of war. 

Each sponsorship provides food, shelter and medical aid for women in war torn countries such as the Congo, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sudan, Rwanda, Iraq, Columbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina for an entire year.

We believe in the power of women helping women all around the world and this is so wonderfully achieved through each and every UGG event!   To learn more about our sponsored sisters and Women for Women International please click here.

UGG Sets Charity Goals for 2009

The Ultimate Girls Getaway in Montebello kicks off the 2009 year of amazing UGG weekends to come. 

With only 2 months away we are all excited about the upcoming getaway and also the inaugural weekend to supporting our sisters for another year!!

In 2008, we sponsored 6 women survivors of war, providing them with food, shelter and medical aid for an entire year.  We have received the most heart warming thank you notes from our sisters, like Salima from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Clementine from Rwanda.  Every letter we recieve is another reminder of the power of women and are ability to support each other.

This year our goal is to sponsor 6 more woman survivors of war to come to a 2 year total of 12!  Please join us in Montebello, Bermuda and Mont-Tremblant and be part of this amazing movement that has been made possible by all the UGG girlfriends that come to the events!

To read more about the Women For Women International and the sisters we support, please click here.

Cheers!
Nadja and Veronica