Filed under: women for women | Tags: africa, aid, bosnia, charity, congo, democratic republic of the congo, dnc, donations, economics, feminism, Half the Sky, herzegovina, international aid, nicholas kristof, oprah, poverty, relief, sheryl wudunn, the oprah effect, volunteering, washington dc, women, yl wudunn, zainab salbi
So I mentioned earlier how Oprah’s episode last week focused on poverty relief through women.
Not convinced yet? In that case, you might want to go and check your pulse. In the meantime, check this out too.
- I’d be dancing too, if I graduated from a W4W program in Rwanda.
You know that saying, “Put your money where your mouth is?” Well I don’t have money. And this is a blog. So tonight, I put my time where my blog was… or something like that.
Tonight, my boyfriend and I attended the volunteer orientation at Women for Women, Int’l. Featured on the Oprah show (see previous post), they enjoyed a SPECTACULAR 10,000 additional sponsorships to help that many women in the developing world attend a year-long program that empowers them through education and vocational training.
That’s about a tenth of the previous amount of women that W4W has helped since their inception in ’93 by the gloriously beautiful and equally brilliant Zainab Salbi, an Iraqi immigrant who started the program in Bosnia and Herzegovina (is it just me or are Persians unfairly and ungodly attractive? Didn’t think so. Latinas too. I digress).
On top of that, they got over $7K, yes, $7,000, in donations. That’s enough to sponsor an ENTIRE program (1 year) for and entire class of women (20 students)! Thank you Oprah!!
To boot, Half the Sky (you still haven’t bought it? Even after watching Oprah?) got the “Oprah bump,” and was catapulted to the no. 2 position on the Amazon bestseller list. Behind Glenn Beck. No comment there – that’s a whole ‘nother blog.
At the HQ of W4W, we watched a lovely video on W4W’s work, and my Mr. Wonderful teared up a little, I am proud to say. He’s so cute. I did a bit too, I admit it. It was quite moving.
After a tour and a hundred questions about how the programs work, we got started on our volunteer work. We organized folders with brochures and literature for the sponsors in America to read when they receive information about their sister overseas. Just some tedious but calming work that is too mundane for the sparse staff to deal with – I’m more than happy to donate my time so the .org can do it’s thing!
I felt really normal when I was there, like there was no other place I needed to be at the moment. Eventually, I hope to do bigger and better things, but I can’t believe I waited so long to volunteer for this organization. I mean, I don’t have any shortage of volunteer experience, but this one is particularly relevant to me. Rehabilitating wild critters is great, but I’m not majoring in it, I’m afraid.
Volunteering is an incredibly rewarding experience. Just two hours of my time on a weeknight + a little administrative work = happiness. And that’s the equation to remember. Though, I have to admit, feeding baby squirrels was way cuter than stuffing folders. But still.
Just in case time is what you don’t have, donations are needed too. W4W is having a fall matching campaign where your dollars are doubled. Just think! It would be a nice gift to a young college woman in your life, for example, to sponsor a woman in her name, allowing her to connect with a different kind of student with similar hopes and dreams. What a motivation for midterms – at least she doesn’t have to walk 3 hours to get to school in a post-conflict region of the DNC!
I’m lucky enough to live a few subway stops away from our nation’s capitol, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t volunteer at or for an organization that helps women. Almost every state or county in America has women’s centers and shelters, and they probably need help with all kinds of things. In fact, there are a lot more places than county shelters – visit www.volunteermatch.org/ to check out opportunities in your area!
With the holiday season only a few weeks away, it’s about time to get into the spirit of things. In fact, it’s about damn time, period!
Filed under: Badass Babes | Tags: ben affleck, care, congo, democratic republic of the congo, development, drc, economic development, economics, feminism, global feminism, global poverty, Half the Sky, hiv, international development, microfinance, microloans, nicholas kristof, oprah, oxfam, poverty, rape, secretary clinton, sexual violence, sheryl wudunn, un, united nations, violence against women, women, women for women
It’s called “The Girl Effect” – what happens when you invest in a young girl in a developing nation. She multiplies the dividends.
You buy her a sewing machine, and next thing you know, she’s the local fashion tycoon. Then her husband stops beating her, there’s no more talk about a second wife to bear a son, and he’s happily employed in his wife’s business. Her daughters are empowered and dream of going to college, and choose to postpone marriage so they can start a business too. She protects herself and her daughters from HIV. The business lifts the local economy, thereby the nation’s, thereby the world’s.
Sounds like a fairy tale – but it’s not.
This happens everywhere that you invest in a girl. But in some places, it’s harder to reach the women who need help the most. This is the case in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, systematic rape and stigmatization have been used as weapons against women for years. The debilitating consequences ruin lives.
Not disgusted enough to get involved yet? Watch Ben Affleck report back from the front lines of sexual violence. And if you have a strong stomach, dare to view Oxfam’s video.
The UN just acknowledged rape as a war crime, enabling international prosecution of Congolese officials, and Secretary Clinton presided over the initiation of a program to combat the use of rape in conflict in the DRC. But that’s not enough.
Change and progress start within – and that’s why it’s so important to give women a “handup, not a handout.”
There are so many places to help, but Oprah made it super easy. Check out www.oprah.com/forallwomen. On Thursday, she dedicated a show to “The Girl Effect,” featuring organizations that educate and empower women with microloans. A small loan of $45USD, yes, only $45, can change a woman’s entire life – from hopeless to victorious.
As if that weren’t enough, according to Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer-winning authors of NYTimes bestselling Half the Sky, did you know that “a woman in the developing world is more likely to invest in her family than a man?” The Girl Effect, a non-profit that invests in women with microloans, says that women reinvest 90% of income in their families compared to 30-40% for men.
For example, just $10 buys vocational training for a rape victim in the DRC, providing her with the skills she needs to make a living, so she can take care of herself and her family. You can also provide HIV treatment and prevention; provide counseling, hospital care, a safe house, and more. And it’s so easy. Watch a moving video of a woman who was inspired to do something, and ended up changing two lives; the Congolese woman’s, and her own.
Extend your hand to these women who have so much potential – make an investment in women, today, right now. They will literally thank you for it. Maybe even on Skype.
La Azote Negra 