B Allen

Along with the work Beige Allen does with WWPN, she is an accomplished artist in her own right.

Below are some example's of Beige's unique graphic collages:

Romany taibhsear, artisan
Contacts-Australia, Wales, England, United States (AZ, CA, NM, GA, MN, IA, )
E-mail Beige at: Beige68@cox.net

My name is Beige Allen. I am a married, mother of two wonderful sons. I was raised by my kumpa'nia in the Roma traditions. Very early on my family noticed that I collected facts the way some kids today collect Pokemon cards. It may have helped that mother was a librarian, and father was a carny that loved tall tales. Mother told me that not only could I be anything I wanted to be, but anything I wanted to be I could find out how to be it at the library. All I had to do was read the right books. I remember asking her how I would know the right book, and her laughing and saying "By reading all the wrong ones first!" A lot of people have trouble finding their way along a Pagan path because of how many "wrong books" there are. Hopefully with WWPN we are able to help folks find the "right" ones.

Pagan Relief came about as a result of a Pagan friend in need who could find no help. Christians charities were loathe to help him, and he didn't know where to find Pagan charities. So I began searching. As I did, I noticed that a great many of the small Pagan communities had a very effective barter economy going on from within that would cover most minor hardships that their members could draw upon. Though I knew that it would not be an easy task to compile such an extensive database, I always said "If it's easy, its not my life."

Here's hoping we find a lot of help along the way!

Projects founded:

Worldwide Pagan Network I quickly noticed how many bad sites there were as opposed to good sites, what took a little longer to notice is that the bad sites would fade out after about six months. When I first began compiling the site, I worked on it for about six months before I talked to anyone about it except for my friends, family, and the gang I hang out with in Yahoo chat. Then I spent one night linking Worldwide Pagan Network to every site I could find. That set the stage for Worldwide Pagan Network's development. I work on it for six months and then fill the coffee pot and go on a mad linking jag.

Pagan Relief For the charity aspect of Pagan Relief, we had to focus on first the problems with standard charitable organizations. Two of the biggest were how to decide which cases were deserving, and how to prevent the system from being taken advantage of. In our research of charitable organizations we have found that there were many pagan aware and pagan friendly groups. We created literally hundreds of files of bookmarks and used it for our research database. We also put out a variety of methods by which people could seek assistance from us. Most of the requests were far beyond our limited means, but whenever we found one we could assist, we did. Those that we couldn't help, we would try to find links to people who might be able to. A lot of the times we were able to help in that we gave people places to look to start helping themselves. From time to time, a pagan in need would be linked with another member in need in their area so that the two might help one another. This would only be done with the approval of both members.

Example:
Rhiannon, a young mother of two, lives in a small town in Oregon. She knows few people there. One day, her car breaks down and she cannot get to work. In the same town is Lugh, who goes to work near Rhiannon and goes by her house every day. If they were both members of the network, Rhiannon could request that we find her someone to carpool in her area and we would ask Lugh if he would mind helping Rhiannon out with a ride in exchange for...what? Well maybe Lugh is always eating fast food because he does not know his way around a kitchen, but Rhiannon is a great cook and would have no problem serving Lugh some home cooked meals for the rides to and from work. Rhia gets her ride, Lugh gets some food, they both get some friendship. Everyone wins.

No one was asked to give more than they could afford to give, or even to go out of their way. In the above example, Lugh only had to stop on his normal route and pick Rhiannon up. Rhiannon was already cooking big meals for her and the children, so all she had to do was set an extra place. The money Rhiannon saved, she put away and soon was able to get her car fixed, and Lugh learned some cooking from Rhiannon so he was able to save money by not eating out as often. Now we are able to look back ahead a few years and find out what happened with Lugh and Rhiannon.

Rhiannon saved the money to get her car fixed, kept the job she had for a couple of years and got a promotion or two. Lugh became so interested in cooking that he took the money he saved by cooking his own meals and was able to go to cooking school. Recently he got hired on as a head chef at a five star resort near where he lived making about 3 times what he used to. The two of them not only became friends but married recently. Both of them, wanting to return the favor that was shown to them will be planning a pagan run soup kitchen. We will bring you more on this when it opens.

Rides to work, help finding a job, help finding someone to learn from, all of these are minor requests that make a major difference in peoples lives and take only word of mouth to make happen, sometimes what seems like an insurmountable problem turns out to be solved with a series of minor efforts as above; over time, many of the people that were helped by us have gone on in a small way or large way to help others. Though each does so separate from WorldWide Pagan Network, they return the favor we did them by taking future referrals from us and keeping us up to date on their offerings.

Many charities ask you to send money and take it on faith that all the money will be spent on what it is needed for. We do not ask for a dime. All moneys raised are done so through the individuals. All we do is let you know who they are, how they can help, and introduce you. Not all of the groups listed within these pages are member groups, but they all help in some way, even if only by their existence.
How do we fund such a venture?

Though we do host events to benefit a variety of charities, we do not collect any fees from doing so. The entire venture is founded by the core group of WorldWide Pagan Network, currently about 10 people that have the money to spend and the willingness to make a difference and is operated by using a series of bartered agreements with other groups and individuals who operate similar ventures. Through our unique network of individuals we strive to make the impossible, possible.
We are not a nonprofit charity. We are a privately funded group that is spending our own money to try and help others in ways that we know can make a difference. It is our way to pay back all the people in our lives that helped us along the way.

Pagan Relief has been a bit slower in the growing. The main reason is that I am rather choosy about what charities we list. Just as I don't want to carry the same articles everyone has, I also don't want to carry the easy to find charities. Thus I have refused at this time to list any groups whose sole forms of charity come from the following types (though if they do other charitable works in addition to any or all of these three, you will find them listed within our pages):

Assistance for incarcerated pagans: There are way too many of these groups for the actually number of incarcerated pagans. Frankly, I think the only activity that should be allowed in jail is reading, and to heck with letting them pick the books, send them non fiction only. Whatever else they may be out of jail, once convicted, they are criminals who are supposed to be atoning for the crime they committed.

Legal assistance for defense against religious persecution: Not only are there way too many of these for the number of reported cases of persecution (workplace, housing, educational, custody issues, etc) but there are definitely way too many for the actual number of valid complaints filed. For those that know they have a valid case, we have compiled the information people need to defend themselves.

Assistance for gay/lesbian/neutered/transgendered/transsexual issues: For those that like mixing their sex and their religion, there are plenty of groups that cover these issues.

Projects assisted:

Pagan Internet Ethics Committee

Alliance Of Pagan Voters