Thom Hartmann: Ellen Ratner with the Talk Radio News Service, TalkRadioNews.com is on the line with us and Ellen you are at the Liz Claiborne annual event this year, aren’t you?
Ellen Ratner: We are, and this is an event you’ve participated in and …
Thom Hartmann: I have.
Ellen Ratner: And as you know it’s to really focus on the issue of domestic violence. Today I have Malaak Compton-Rock married to Chris Rock as well and she’s got a great organization I’m sorta put the card up, let’s see if I can get the card up there, and you can see it. Angel Rock, there you got it. And you’ve been really involved. So I’m gonna put her on the phone and then I’m gonna move the Skype over so you can actually see her, here she is.
Thom Hartmann: Okay, great.
Malaak Compton-Rock: Hi there.
Thom Hartmann: Hi Mal. Um, for some reason I’m hearing double audio in my ears here. I’m not sure what it is. Um tell us, apparently you founded your organization after participating with UNICEF. Tell us about you know how you got into this and what this organization is doing.
Malaak Compton-Rock: Well the Angel Rock project is an online Evillage, having everything to do with service, giving back, volunteerism, sustainable change. Um encouraging people from all walks of life, all ages, all backgrounds to serve any way they can. Whatever feels comfortable to them. Finding their authentic giving platform. But I started my role in non profit 15 years ago from working for UNICEF. I left the entertainment field, made a huge change. Um, and really found my authentic self working for UNICEF and I’ve been in the non profit industry ever since.
And you know I get lots of calls and lots of email and lots of letters from people saying that they want to give back but they don’t know how or um saying that they want to donate money but they don’t have a lot of it and I wanted to um stop all the myths about that. That fifty cents, a dollar, $5 can make a difference in so many people’s lives. Um and that if you don’t have a lot of time to volunteer, volunteer once a month, volunteer twice a month. You know, whatever works for your schedule. And so I’m here today because I joined the board six years ago, of Safe Horizon, one of the nation’s leading um non profit organizations, DV, child abuse, stalking, rape, and uh you know the issue of domestic violence. And shedding a light on it is another passion of mine.
Thom Hartmann: That’s marvelous. In addition to the Angel Rock project, uh the online evillage that you were just talking about, apparently, we’re talking with Malaak Compton Rock, apparently you also founded and coordinate Journey For Change, empowering youth through global service and managed the Champions for Children Committee, is that what you were just talking about a moment ago or is that something different?
Malaak Compton-Rock: That’s something different. Journey for Change, um is just a really phenomenal experience, journey that I’ve been going on, through for the last year and a half. And that is that I take youth, 12 to 15, from at risk neighborhoods in Brooklyn, uh to South Africa. And I have them serve and give back in the shanty towns in Diepsloot and Soweto serving with primarily orphan led families and granny led families and that is due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa, um people who live on a dollar or less a day, and then bring them back and have them serve in our country, um with a new understanding that they’re part of this global world and also new understanding that even though they might be poor, live in the inner city of America, that they have a ton of inherent blessings from being in the United States of America and also with this new sense of self esteem and self confidence due to travelling and leaving their neighborhoods for the first time.
Thom Hartmann: Yeah. I think international travelling, particularly when our kids were young we took them into the slums of Bangkok. We took our youngest daughter across India. I worked with an NGO and we took over a blind children’s community and a leper colony and she was feeding lepers. And I mean this changes children’s lives and it’s marvelous that you’re doing this.
Many of our listeners may be thinking, okay, Malaak Compton-Rock and Chris Rock, they have a lot of resources, isn’t it wonderful what they’re doing. But you know what can I do, I’m having a tough time just you know paying the rent here. And yet as you said there are opportunities. What are, in your opinion, the best ways for a person to give some of themselves. And let me just add I think this is one of the most therapeutic things that all of us can do in this era of, you know, concern and depression and difficulty, is to give of ourselves, it’s an enormously useful thing.
Malaak Compton-Rock: It’s enormously useful. Um it makes the world go round. I believe so wholeheartedly that service is the rent we pay for living. And you know I wasn’t always Chris Rock’s wife, and I went into non profit way before that. And you know, the most important thing I think, and I spoke about it a little bit before, is finding your authentic self in giving. What do you care about? Is it the elderly? Is it homelessness? Is it HIV/AIDS? Is it international issues? Um is it the environment? What is it?
From there what’s really cool about our Internet age now is that there’s wonderful web sites that you can go to, Volunteer Match, Points of Light. Put in your zip code, your city, and the area of interest that you have in mind and it will pop up on the screen hundreds of volunteer options in your own area. And again, you can volunteer once a month, you can volunteer twice a year. You can decide you’re gonna volunteer on the holidays. Are you gonna cook with your children and take home made meals to a soup kitchen? Why don’t you collect cans of food for homelessness. We all know that many many people are going to our soup kitchens who weren’t going before. You know, working people. And then in terms of donations, I mean my god if you think globally you understand that so many people in the world live on less than a dollar a day you’ll understand that $5 and $10 really can do a lot.
Thom Hartmann: Yep. You can do a lot. Malaak Compton-Rock, you’re doing marvelous work. Thanks so much for being with us today.
Malaak Compton-Rock: Thank you, bye bye.
Thom Hartmann: Great speaking with you.
Transcribed by Suzanne Roberts, Portland Psychology Clinic.
