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Hello there! I'm Kim Bauman, Founder of the One Love Movement. Thank you for reading my story. Here's why One Love was created.....

In 2012 I went on a humanitarian trip to Haiti as the result of raising over $21,000 in 6 months for Off the Mat, Into the World's Global SEVA Challenge 2011. Upon raising the money I got sponsored to go to Haiti and witness first-hand these funds being used to rebuild Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. It was the most remarkable experience. We volunteered in tent camps home to thousands (meaning 40-60,000 people) and orphanages where many of the kids were either displaced from the earthquake or because Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, had been in the orphanages all along. 

I can still feel what the moment was like. We were at one of the orphanages, playing with the kids, helping out, and I had learned that some of the older kids had been here since infancy. Thinking about their story, their lives, is why my own circumstances dawned on me. I was an orphan as a baby in Korea, adopted into a very loving family. This was the first time I had ever realized how blessed I was in life. Up until this moment, I had never been exposed to such rawness to appreciate where I had come from and to have me realize all that I had. It was the time spent with these kids in Haiti that struck me to want to help kids who I could have easily been.

I saw myself in these kids and there's no reason growing up in an orphanage couldn't have been my life too. Nobody gets to choose what they are born into. I oftentimes ask myself "why me, why did I get picked for a better life?" Because of this blessed life I get to live, I see it as my duty to touch as many people possible that I see myself in, and make a difference in the dignity and humanity of their own life.

Haiti 2012