Crossing Borders Project
Executive Director Sue Edwards Wants to Empower Women
There are many people in need all around the world, and many relationships just waiting to happen. Sue Edwards, executive director of the nonprofit organization Crossing Borders Project, has a deep-rooted understanding of this, and has made it her mission to aid and empower women and children both 2000 here and throughout the world. She is not at all daunted by the large number of organizations out there with similar missions, because according to her, “There’s a lot of organizations, but there’s also a big need.”
Edwards grew up in Idaho with four siblings and a single mother struggling to support all of them. Since she was a child, she’s been driven to help people. “I would line up all my stuffed animals on my bed," she recalls. "Then I would line up my younger siblings to sit with the animals and I’d pretend they were little kids from Africa and I’d teach them English and math. I had this need in me to help people.”
It was a tough upbringing, seeing her mom working as hard as she could to support five children. “She struggled, trying to work two or three jobs to keep us fed and off of food stamps," she explains. "Without anyone helping us, my mom had mental issues because of all the stress she was going through. She passed away two years ago but the legacy of her children is powerful. I have such respect for my mom and what she did.” This helped inspire Edwards’s drive to work with women and children, but from early childhood she was interested in traveling as well as helping everyone and anyone. “Idaho’s known for its non-diversity,” she says with a laugh. “I had this big idea of going into the world and seeing everything.”
If Edwards didn’t quite see the entire world, she came pretty close. Through teaching dance and pantomime to children, she traveled everywhere from the Philippines to England to Japan, and spent a harrowing year and a half in Cali, Colombia during an intense period in the civil war between governmental forces and the FARC guerrillas. “I went to bed hearing gunshots. Bombs went off around me that would shake our house and light up the sky.” According to Edwards, her time in Colombia is a big part of what inspires her work with Crossing Borders Project. “It was very life-changing to go to bed every night hearing screams. I came home with a really different perspective about the value of people, the value of life, and how much we need each other.”
Edwards did not originally intend for the Crossing Borders Project to be a nonprofit, but she knew she wanted to make a difference for women around the world. She took inspiration from immigrant women and families who have become her neighbors and friends. “You treat people different if you label them as an outsider-type. But if you say ‘my neighbor’ or ‘my family’ then that’s a whole different kind of relationship. So these people became my neighbors, they became my friends, and so I thought I would make this documentary, We Are Women Among The World, to show their story.”
For help making the documentary, Edwards got in touch with a filmmaker friend in Seattle. “It just kind of blossomed from there and I found other filmmakers who wanted to help me,” she says. As she got in touch with more and more people with different strengths, including lawyers and writers, the original intent of a documentary blossomed into the even bigger vision of a nonprofit. “A lawyer on our board of directors said, ‘Sue, why don’t you go nonprofit?’ I’ve always wanted to work in a nonprofit. So about six months ago we made Crossing Borders Project a nonprofit organization. I love it because it extends to everything. It’s not just focused on one thing; it can evolve and grow.”
In the few months this nonprofit has been on the map, it’s reached out to all different levels of people in need. Crossing Borders Project recently partnered with the women’s studies program at Portland State University. “One of my strongest points besides creativity is being a networker,” Edwards says. “Networking is a natural thing that happens with me because I look at it as building relationships. It’s not me getting something from you; it’s both of us giving.”
Another characteristic of the nonprofit that Edwards holds dear is that everyone should be allowed to come up with their own ideas and make their voices heard. She celebrates diversity within Crossing Borders Project just as much as the diversity of the world. “This world is so big, with so many interesting people, that to me it’s exciting. I love to have the opportunity to meet someone knew and to learn from anyone and everyone.”
Crossing Borders Project continues to reach out to the Portland community to spread awareness. They have a Facebook page with important bulletins; they recently launched a blog that deals with culture, women’s issues and events in the organization; and on June 4th they held a fundraiser at Dingos Mexican Restaurant on Hawthorne Blvd. “I think if we just continue meeting people and other organizations who are already doing stuff and working with them, then our name will move out there.”
Another organization Edwards hopes to form a relationship with is World Pulse, a fellow Portland nonprofit that empowers women and brings them together. Aveda in Pioneer Place will be offering workshops on makeup and beauty. Seminars will be offered about identity, resume building and how to manage a budget. And in the meantime, blogs will continue to go up and relationships will continue to form with others.
“I’ve noticed that people here in Portland are very giving and very open to embracing people, all people,” Edwards says, happy with the community in which she works. Many immigrant and refugee women she is already in contact with for her documentary live right here in the Portland area. When asked if that surprises her, she says that it does not. “I think it’s just the heart of this city," she muses. "I think the people here have displayed their passion and humanitarian hearts over and over again, it's like no place else.”
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