How do we work to empower, rather than oppress, women and girls worldwide? The answer to that question, and its impact on addressing global poverty, is the basis of a new book, “ Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide ”. Did you know … … girls between 1-5 years old in India are twice as likely to die than boys? … women account for only 1% percent of the world’s landowners ? … that approximately 1 million children are currently in the sex trade in Asia? Access to and emphasis on education and health care can work to change these conditions. “ The Women’s Crusade ” essay by the book’s authors in the Sunday New York Times Magazine told a powerful story about a Zimbabwean woman named Tererai Trent who was drawn to education at an early age. Her father would send her “indifferent” brother to school, but would not send her, the child with a thirst for knowledge. Married off at a young age, her husband also thwarted her efforts to practice her self-taught read...
A blog published by the (now dissolved) Literacy 'n' Poverty Project