by Jennifer Burden | Dec 22, 2012 | 2012, Uganda, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
At World Moms Blog we’ve been so “Go! Go! Go!” that I haven’t had time to reflect on our year, and now that I have, it was really “WOW!!” Here are some amazing and memorable highlights!
World Moms Blog contributors and editors met up for the first time in Washington, DC in January, around the UN Foundation’s Volunteer Summit for Shot@Life. I was also invited to speak at the event on grass-roots fundraising and party planning for social good during the summit.
In March, our Indonesian contributors, Maureen and Shaula Bellour, also met for the first time ever in Jakarta for coffee. (more…)

Jennifer Burden is the Founder and CEO of World Moms Network, an award winning website on global motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. World Moms Network writes from over 30 countries, has over 70 contributors and was listed by Forbes as one of the “Best 100 Websites for Women”, named a “must read” by The New York Times, and was recommended by The Times of India.
She was also invited to Uganda to view UNICEF’s family health programs with Shot@Life and was previously named a “Global Influencer Fellow” and “Social Media Fellow” by the UN Foundation. Jennifer was invited to the White House twice, including as a nominated "Changemaker" for the State of the World Women Summit. She also participated in the One Campaign’s first AYA Summit on the topic of women and girl empowerment and organized and spoke on an international panel at the World Bank in Washington, DC on the importance of a universal education for all girls. Her writing has been featured by Baby Center, Huffington Post, ONE.org, the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life, and The Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists.” She is currently a candidate in Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in the Executive Masters of Public Affairs program, where she hopes to further her study of global policies affecting women and girls.
Jennifer can be found on Twitter @JenniferBurden.
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by World Moms Blog | May 6, 2012 | Motherhood, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood

GLOBAL TWITTER PARTIES!
Ever wonder how mothers around the world do things?
Our international contributors will be signing into Twitter to discuss:
“Differences in Motherhood
Around the World”
Thursday, May 10, 2012
7-8am EST (US/NYC)
AND
7-8pm EST (US/NYC)
Go to tweetchat.com hash tag: #worldmomsblog
Not sure what time that is where you live? Go to the World Clock to be on time!
World Moms Blog is an award winning website which writes from over 30 countries on the topics of motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. Over 70 international contributors share their stories from around the globe, bonded by the common thread of motherhood and wanting a better world for their children.
World Moms Blog was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 & 2013" and also called a "must read" by the NY Times Motherlode in 2013. Our Senior Editor in India, Purnima Ramakrishnan, was awarded the BlogHer International Activist Award in 2013.
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by Melanie Oda (Japan) | Dec 21, 2011 | Holiday, Japan, Motherhood, World Motherhood
Christmas in Japan is pretty much an unadulterated Gimmee Fest. Santa is everywhere, baby Jesus? って誰?Who’s that? I like to call it Christmas, Inc.
A good comparison would probably be the American version of Valentine’s Day. I mean, sure, there’s a religious tradition in there somewhere, but it’s been so warped that now it’s really just a chance for kids to exchange cards and yours truly to eat too much chocolate. (Valentine’s Day in Japan is totally backwards, but I’ll save that for February.)
Here most people celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th. They eat fried chicken and “Christmas Cake,” which is usually a strawberry and whipped cream topped vanilla sponge. Interestingly enough, Kentucky Fried Chicken (known in Japan simply as Kentucky) is strongly associated with Christmas. (more…)
If you ask Melanie Oda where she is from, she will answer "Georgia." (Unless you ask her in Japanese. Then she will say "America.") It sounds nice, and it's a one-word answer, which is what most people expect. The truth is more complex. She moved around several small towns in the south growing up. Such is life when your father is a Southern Baptist preacher of the hellfire and brimstone variety.
She came to Japan in 2000 as an assistant language teacher, and has never managed to leave. She currently resides in Yokohama, on the outskirts of Tokyo (but please don't tell anyone she described it that way! Citizens of Yokohama have a lot of pride). No one is more surprised to find her here, married to a Japanese man and with two bilingual children (aged four and seven), than herself. And possibly her mother.
You can read more about her misadventures in Asia on her blog, HamakkoMommy.
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