Posted in Stirring The Fire on Jan 7th, 2010
Hadia, age 11 Out-of-School Girls Program, Kabul, Afghanistan
By 2000, UNICEF reported that only 4 to 5% of Afghan children were being educated at the primary school level. Fewer still had access to secondary and university-level education.
According to the World Bank, “Since 2002, more than 6 million students and teachers have returned to school.”
The organization, Ayni Education [...]
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Posted in Stirring The Fire on Dec 31st, 2009
In sub-Saharan Africa, 61% of all people living with HIV are women. Young women (15–24 years) are three to six times more likely to be infected than men in the same age group.*
Unfortunately, 800,000 Zambian children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and others are left to care for themselves because their parents [...]
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Posted in Take Action on Dec 2nd, 2009
In 2002 National Geographic conducted a survey accessing the geographic literacy of 18 to 24 year olds in 9 industrialized countries. The United States came in next to last—85% could not find Afghanistan on a map; 56% could not find India and 30% could not find the Pacific Ocean. Last year less than 1% of [...]
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Posted in Take Action on Nov 18th, 2009
“Donor Illusion” is a currently a hot debate.
In my work I have had the opportunity to see many of the issues women face in the developing world up close and personal. I realize that many people that want to help women and girls have not had a face to face encounter with those they would [...]
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Posted in Stirring The Fire on Nov 11th, 2009
When I read in the book Half the Sky (Kristof/Wudunn, [New York: Knopf, 2009], xx-xxi) that the Joint Chiefs of Staff now consider the education of women and girls important to our military goals in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and consequently to our security here at home, it gave me hope that US military thinking has [...]
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