December was a most anticipated month and this year it was for entirely different reasons.
A Corona Christmas is not what any of us thought we would have on January 1, 2020. However, it is what we got.
December On Lockdown Again
Due to people’s unwillingness to either believe that COVID-19 is real or that their governments were telling them the truth, Thanksgiving 2020 was a “Super Spreader” event.
In this our Accountability Report, as I have come to call it, we here at Daughters of Sheba Foundation observed our fourth month in operation. Two of our Directors are based in Kingston, Jamaica and I, the author of this blog, am based in Alberta, Canada. Daughters of Sheba Foundation is a registered Canadian nonprofit since August 2020.
For the most part, we all passed December on lockdown. We did manage to hold a Board Meeting at the beginning of the month to plan our agenda for 2021. More about that later in this post and in the weeks to come.
Accountability – What We Did In December
Social Media
As we do every month, we published updates, inspiration, tips and even news to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We continue to see our social media presence and our following tick up. As a matter of fact, would you mind heading on over to these profiles or at least one, and give us a Like and a Follow? We would greatly appreciate that.
DOS Shop
The Shop opened towards the end of November and as reported then, the inventory was minimal. Stocked only with a few of the donated items we received for Christmas auction, we managed to sell just about all of it. For that, we are most grateful to the individuals who purchased those items. There are a couple of bracelets remaining so do visit and see whether either would make a birthday gift for a family member, friend or even a co-worker.
One of the things coming out of our Board Meeting is procuring inventory for our Shop. Our preference is for products made by women, however, we will stock items from any one, artisans in particular, in keeping with the overall theme of the Organization. We have entered into discussions with several such craftswomen and craftsmen and finalising arrangements with them to stock their products in our Shop.
This is very exciting for us and we look forward to rolling these out by mid-January.
Our Clients
For the month of December, we did not start any major new project. The only activity that we launched was a Christmas basket giveaway.
She Deserves It Christmas Basket Giveaway©
You can read more about this Giveaway here – the rules and guidelines that we used to select a deserving mother for a ‘basket’ of grocery. We had hoped to gift two such baskets to Jamaican mothers with at least two children each. However, in the end, we selected one mother, nominated by a friend/co-worker. Due to the stringent rules and checks and balances, it seems people were hesitant to follow them and/or wanted the giveaway for themselves.
Read more about the Winner, Roushae, here who was presented with her basket of groceries, valuing C$150. It was presented to her by Clara Brown, one of our Directors.
Other Activities
Throughout the month, we continued processing Requests for Support, albeit fewer. All such requests are on hold and will be processed according to our programming for 2021 and whether they match our criteria.
Given the need to increase traffic to our website, we returned to a schedule of at least three blog posts per month. Michael H. Ballard, a motivational speaker and Resiliency Consultant, has given us permission to republish some of his articles. We will start doing so as of January 2021.
We also started publishing Audiobooks on the home page of this website. The titles are FREE to listen and are mainly classical ones. They are renewed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Do check it out.
Clara’s Pandemic 2020 Reflection
Following my personal reflection on the year that is ending, Clara did the third and final part in the series. She shared some of the lessons and blessings of 2020, yes this year, that she experienced. You can watch it below, again or in case you missed it. 
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As well, please follow our social media profiles – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – to keep up to date. Check out our Shop, more products are coming in the New Year.
Thank you for your continued support. Have a wonderful day and a Happy New Year’s Eve night!
Peace and Love,
