July 2010
48 posts
“Give to the world the best you have, and the best will come back to you.”
–
Madeline Bridges
“What you have learned from experience is worth much more than gold. If you have...”
– Somaly Mam
WatchSunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.
A Life in the Day: Somaly Mam
The 34-year-old Cambodian leads the AFESIP association, which rescues girls and young women from brothels in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. She is separated from her husband and lives near Phnom Penh with her children: Melissa, 14, Adana, 9, and Nicolai, 3
Interview: John Follain
I go first to our shelter where the girls we’ve rescued live. They can be hard to manage — they...
Out of the ruins, a new role for Haitian women
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
PORT-AU-PRINCE — Cendra Guillaume walks into the dusty depot of manly machines, passes fellow female workers, and steps into the front office with a familiar look of determination.
Not one to sit around and wait, the wife, mother and heavy equipment operator gets right to the point: “Where to today?”
In the months since the Haiti earthquake claimed...
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are...”
–
Marianne Williamson
‘Media important in gender fight’ (Swaziland)
By LUNGA MASUKU
MBABANE – Women and the Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), the Swaziland Chapter, yesterday morning held a workshop where they taught media stakeholders about the importance of the media in the struggle against HIV/AIDS.
Making her presentation, Zakhe Hlanze said the objective of the workshop was to share and look at social attitudes and policies that might be perpetuating the...
“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity....”
– Amelia Earhart
WatchIn this passionate talk, Eve Ensler declares that there is a girl cell in us all — a cell that we have all been taught to suppress. She tells heartfelt stories of girls around the world who have overcome shocking adversity and violence to reveal the astonishing strength of being a girl.
Africa must focus on maternal health: ex-Irish...
FREETOWN — Ex-Irish president Mary Robinson urged African leaders Wednesday to boost support for maternal health, during a visit to Sierra Leone where mortality rates are among the highest in the world.
“If the African Union succeeds in fulfilling its commitment to maternal health, it will benefit the economies of countries to have healthy populations,” she said at a news...
I am an emotional creature
The following excerpt is from the new work “I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE: The Secret Life of Girls around the World”, which debuted in book form (Villard/Random House) on February 9.
I AM AN EMOTIONAL CREATURE
I love being a girl. I can feel what you’re feeling as you’re feeling it inside the feeling before. I am an emotional creature. Things do not come to me ...
“Study after study has taught us that there is no tool more effective for...”
– Kofi Annan
Strong woman in history: Marie Curie
Marie Skłodowska Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a physicist and chemist of Polish upbringing and subsequent French citizenship. She was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity and the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes[1]—in physics and chemistry. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris.
She was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw (then in Vistula Land,...
“A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not...”
– Marge Piercy
'Little Woman' from Canada raises big funds for...
OTTAWA — When Alaina Podmorow was a shy nine-year-old, her mother asked if she’d like to go with her to a speech about how girls and women were treated in Afghanistan.
“At the time I thought, ‘I’m not quite sure what this is about but I get to stay up late so I think I’ll go to it,’” she says.
Four years later, having raised nearly $300,000 to help...
“If we implemented the gel in a way similar to the trial we could prevent 1.3...”
– Salim Abdool Karim of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, or CAPRISA, who co-led the research with his wife, Quarraisha.
Standing ovation for HIV gel breakthrough at AIDS...
From L-R: Research scientists from the Centre for AIDS Programme Research in South Africa, Doctors Koleka Mlisana, Leila Mansoor, Janet Frohlich and Senge Sibeko, pose following an announcement of an important breakthrough in the quest for a vaginal cream to protect women from HIV.
VIENNA (AFP) – The world AIDS forum set aside rows about politics and funding on Tuesday, as delegates...
“Now, there are certainly easier paths these women could have taken. Much...”
– Michelle Obama
Strong woman in history: Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth, born in about 1797, was a woman of remarkable intelligence despite her illiteracy. Truth had great presence. She was tall, some 5 feet 11 inches. Her voice was low, so low that listeners sometimes termed it masculine, and her singing voice was beautifully powerful. Whenever she spoke in public, she also sang. No one ever forgot the power of Sojourner Truth’s singing,...
“That little man in black there say a woman can’t have as much rights as a...”
–
Sojourner Truth
“When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision,...”
– Audre Lorde
Strong woman in history: Juana Inés de la Cruz
Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz was born, Juana de Asbaje, at San Miguel de Nepantla in Mexico. From childhood she showed literary ability and some of her poems are considered the product of the years prior to her entrance into the convent in 1667.
In Sor Juana’s time, the convent was the only refuge in which a female could properly attend to education of her mind, spirit, body and...
WatchSunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.
Communique of The G(irls)20 Summit
Preamble
We, the 21 delegates of the first ever G(irls)20 Summit, know that girls and women have the potential to play a pivotal role in building communities and countries and being catalysts for economic progress around the globe.
We come together in the days before the gathering of the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations at the G-8 and G-20 meetings to be the voice that reminds the...
Discovering success at MIJ
by Heather MacDonald on July 23, 2010
With a little help from jhr, Archibald Kasakura has excelled in human rights reporting
Two years ago, Simona Siad began her jhr internship at The Daily Times in Blantyre, Malawi. After a few months, her efforts extended beyond the newsroom to a classroom down the road at the Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ).
“The classroom was a really unique place...
Strong woman in history: Yoshiko Uchida
Yoshiko Uchida was born in Califonia. During World War II, she and her family were sent to an internment camp along with other Japanese Americans. Uchida was eventually allowed to leave the camp to study at Smith College. In 1952 she received a fellowship to go to Japan and collect folk tales. Her travels deepened her respect for her...
“Every day in Malawi, 16 pregnant women die in villages or in the hospital during...”
– Dorthy Ngoma
G20: A strong female voice from Malawi
Submitted by Dorothy Ngoma Dorothy Ngoma is the Executive Director of the National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi and a member of the W8, a parallel organization to the G8 featuring women community leaders from developing countries. In Malawi, we nurses see many women and children who are living marginal lives, in places where they feel little hope, and where they are surrounded...
“Hi Simona, hope you are okay. You probably you don’t remember me. I am ...”
– Vanessa Mdala
Equal Rights for Women? Survey Says: Yes, but ... →
People around the world say they firmly support equal rights for men and women, but many still believe men should get preference when it comes to good jobs, higher education or even in some cases the simple right to work outside the home, according to a new survey of 22 nations.
African Studies Give Women Hope in H.I.V. Fight
By CELIA W. DUGGER, , photo by Joao Silva for The New York Time
Women who used a vaginal microbicidal gel containing an antiretroviral medication were 39 percent less likely over all to contract H.I.V. than those who used a placebo.
After two decades in which researchers searched fruitlessly for an effective vaginal microbicide to block H.I.V., South African scientists working in two...
WatchInvesting in women can unlock infinite potential around the globe. But how can women walk the line between Western-style empowerment and traditional culture? Kavita Ramdas of the Global Fund for Women talks about three encounters with powerful women who fight to make the world better — while preserving the traditions that sustain them.
The End of Men? →
Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to...
“Basically, all my life I’d been told you can’t do that because...”
–
From Untouchable to Businesswoman
Photo by Kirsten Luce, Article by Guy Trebay for The New York Times
Ms. Parmar’s tatooed hand holds a mirror fragment, which she uses to decorate the pillow covers she sells in Gujarat, India.
At a practical level, Ms. Parmar’s trip required a series of unusual conveyances, among them a bullock cart, a trishaw, the flatbed of a Jeep and the open-topped shuttle bus she rode to reach an airport...
