La Azote Negra

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.