History
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Right now, SowHope is working around the world to improve the conditions for thousands of women.
Mary Daily Brown - Founder
Mary Dailey Brown, Co-Founder, President, and CEO of SowHope, grew up on a dairy farm in Illinois. She attended Southern Illinois University where she double majored in Photography and Psychology. After graduating, she became a summer intern at the White House and was soon hired as a White House Photographer, serving both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.
Mrs Brown was inspired by the way that President Carter Mrs. Carter treated all people, regardless of whether they were a head of state or a maid. She observed as the President and First Lady greeted everyone they met, even on elevators and in back hallways. Mrs. Brown was impressed that two such important people took time for everyone and it modeled to her the value of each and every person.
Later in life, Mrs. Brown became the Director of Missions at a large church and was able to travel to dozens of countries within the developing world. During this time, she noticed that women seemed to be doing all of the hard labor. Local leaders of the communities confirmed this fact to her and told her it would not change anytime soon. Emboldened, Mrs. Brown set out to look for an opportunity to work for a multinational organization dedicated to the holistic care of women.
In 2005, after her long search came up empty, Mrs. Brown and her husband, Doug Brown, were compelled to start a nonprofit. In 2006, they, along with many supportive friends, founded SowHope with the mission to inspire women around the world by promoting wellness, education, and economic opportunities. The idea was simple: devise a model that was easy to duplicate and other organizations could copy it. This idea could grow into a world-wide movement that would serve millions of impoverished women, and consequently their families and communities would also benefit.
The strategy to partner with local leaders solving local problems using local solutions became the best way to serve local communities – funding projects that the people truly wanted and needed, using the ideas they dreamed up themselves. Eighteen years later, however, SowHope continues to be one of the only multinational organizations solely dedicated to the holistic care of women.
With the help of its donors and the passionate work of more than 100 partners, SowHope has impacted over over 136,000 women in 25 countries while funding over 350 projects in the areas of women’s healthcare, literacy and vocational training, microfinance, and many other locally conceived ideas.
Need A Speaker for Your Event?
Several years ago, Mary Dailey Brown founded one of the only global organizations dedicated to basic holistic care of women. Her dream was to inspire impoverished women around the world promoting wellness, education, and economic opportunities.
SowHope, has changed the lives of over 136,000 women in some of the most difficult places in the world to be a woman. Want to hear her story and to be inspired? To book this dynamic storyteller, contact the SowHope office: 616.433.1575 or email info@sowhope.org.