Hello all, I've been a member of the DKos community for a while now, reading the excellent diaries, commenting in some of the threads, and passing mojo to those I feel deserve it. I've only written one diary before this so despite my "age" I'm still wet behind the ears.
During my time here I've seen a lot of great things come about. I've seen brilliant action ideas created and fleshed out. I've been inspired to contact members of Congress to tell them just how I feel about their policies and decisions. I've even seen the community come together to help those in need. It's this last one that brings me here today. Someone very special to me needs a little help getting on her feet and I thought I'd turn to some of the best political and activists minds I know to see if anyone can help.
A year ago, I met the woman of my dreams. I was recently out of a relationship and I took up a summer job to get me through the three months before I started my senior year in college. She was essentially my supervisor (shady, I know), same age, but getting paid a little more to tell me what to do.
Over the course of those three months we grew closer and I found out that she was so much more than a pretty face (and boy is she a pretty face). I discovered that she was a passionate human rights activist who had helped to found an Acting on Aids branch on our campus, she volunteered with Project Angel Food here in LA, and she expressed (and by expressed I mean hammered home) her interest in devoting her life and energies to ending the atrocities in Darfur and changing US foreign policy with regards to how we as a nation respond to governments who commit such atrocities. She was also personally affected at a very young age by HIV/AIDS, as she watched the parents of her best friend wither away, and thus feels that this disease is something else she needs to help eradicate.
She has since interned at ICG and the State Department (don't hold that last one against her), and graduated Magna Cum Laude with two degrees, one in Spanish and one in International Studies. She has also since become my girlfriend (cheers to that, huh?).
Now that all of that history is out of the way, the reason I am asking for your help is that she's now stuck working full time at a coffee shop, a job which she absolutely despises. She's been trying to look for work at various career building websites and asking everyone she's worked with for any advice or contacts. I told her I'd be more than happy to help and have thus been searching for NGOs, Think Tanks, and non-profits in the LA and Santa Monica areas.
She'll be out here in LA for at least the next year and unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of these organizations whose focus is on international relations, especially with regards to Africa. I'm not asking for any extraordinary favors, I am just wondering if any of you Kossacks out there have any recommendations, advice, tips, contacts, or job openings that you could send my way to pass on to her.
Thanks to all of you who took the time to read this. I appreciate it very much. Have a great weekend one and all.