Make Social Change A Reality

During the decade I recently spent in East Africa, I spent the majority of my time experimenting with disadvantaged communities to explore ways that participating in the Internet could influence their lives in positive ways. What I learned is that empowering the poor through the Internet is much more complex than teaching people where to click to find information. There are fundamental perception issues at play that serve to keep Africa’s engagement in the online world lower than it should be. One widespread misperception is that enabling Africa to access information from the rest of the world is going to empower African people - as if Africa’s problems would be solved if the average semi-literate African woman could simply find, read and digest what the rest of the world has to teach her. Fundamentally, however, empowering people means helping them believe that they matter, and that what they have to offer has value . Unfortunately, foreign information and culture pushed at Africa o...

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...

Social change is a must Not just for humankind But it can stem from just one human mind. With one thought we will find we can do right But imagine if we all join thoughts and unite . There's no limit to the change we can bring Enough to make the whole world sing in such harmony That we don't have to worry bout the next man harming me What a sight we can see But how can this be? My thought would be through philanthropy So our children could inherit a world of humanity That thought moves me fondly Let's follow in the words of Mahatma Gandhi And BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE in the world. Those words he lived and imparted before he died To show that change must come from inside . Don't hide behind the blinds in your mind Reach down in your heart and you'll find that Social change is a beautiful thing Imagine the change it will bring. From a world of poverty and stress To one of literacy wealth and success. Just taking the time to show I care As a people...we have to s...