SWAN (Serving Women Across Nations) is a family-based humanitarian organization that was born when author Liz Adair and daughters Ruth Lavine and Terry Gifford published Lucy Shook's Letters from Afghanistan as a tool for raising funds for outreach projects. 

Lucy  Shook was mother to Liz and grandmother to Ruth and Terry.   In 1965 she accompanied her husband, Jim, to Afghanistan to work for the Agency for International Development (AID).  Jim worked on an irrigation project outside of Lashkar Gah.  Lucy was hired to run the 'Staff House' which was a hotel/restaurant for the American contingent there.  In a country where women were hidden from public view, Lucy found herself boss-lady to fifteen Afghan men.  Her letters home were wonderfully descriptive of the people, sights, sounds, and adventures that she experienced over her five-year stay in Afghanistan.  Liz Adair and Ruth Lavine edited and prepared the letters for print, and in the summer of 2003 Lucy Shook's Letters from Afghanistan came off the press. 

Throughout Lucy's letters is displayed her empathy and desire to give aid to the people that surrounded her.  Many letters share heartwarming, and sometimes heartwrenching, stories of the people in need and the simple ways she tried to help.

In an effort to carry on that same spirit of outreach, Terry Gifford set up SWAN Foundation to channel proceeds from Lucy Shook's Letters from Afghanistan to help women and children in need. Terry is mother of six and lives in Sedro Woolley, Washington, with her husband, Matthew, who practices dentistry.  When she was twenty-one, Terry spent a year and a half as a missionary in Bolivia.  Since then, she has yearned to help the plight of the poor.  Her grandmothers letters have opened up the avenue to better the lives of women and children in stifling poverty.  Terry is the driving force for SWAN Foundation

Liz has raised seven children in Ferndale, Washington with her husband Derrill Adair, who works in construction management.   Liz spent years teaching remedial reading and overseeing a tutorial business.   She took time off to be a full-time mom, and during that time ran her own bakery adjacent to her home which produced delicious pies, cinnamon rolls and carrot cakes for restaurants and delis in two counties.  Presently, she is fulfilling a lifelong dream of writing.  She has four mysteries published through Deseret Books. 

Ruth also lives in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, with her husband, Richard Lavine who is in management for Grocery Outlet.   They have two daughters. The eldest is named after her great-grandmother, Lucy Alice, who wrote Letters from Afghanistan.  Ruth gained her computer and business skills while attending college and working as secretary for an industrial construction company.  She now works from home so as to be with her small children.  Ruth was indispensable in getting the book ready to print.

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