Amazing...
http://www.girleffect.org/
I am also reading an incredible book right now dealing with this issue.
http://www.halftheskymovement.org/
There are 600 million adolescent girls living in poverty in the developing world. By giving one of these girls a chance, you start the girl effect. When girls have safe places to meet, education, legal protection, health care, and access to training and job skills, they can thrive. And if they thrive, everyone around them thrives, too.
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by poverty. Parents in many cultures don’t want their daughters to be educated. Research shows that an educated girl will invest 90% of her future income in her family (compared to 30-40 percent for males), yet less than a penny of every international development dollar is spent on her. 70 percent of the children out of school are girls. Many laws are discriminatory. Sexual violence is a big problem that is greatly underestimated. 75 percent of adolescents with AIDS are female, and they’re contracting the disease not from boys but from older men.
A young girl who has a baby before the age of 20 she is five times more likely to die in childbirth than if she is over 20. So family planning is important. In many countries women need their husband’s approval to get a passport, own property, get divorced, and do other things, including even the right to work.
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/managementiq/archives/2009/01/the_girl_effect.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maria-eitel/letting-everyone-in-on-a_b_181538.html
THREE CUPS OF TEA
ReplyDeleteGreg Mortenson is the founder and director of the Central Asia Institute www.ikat.org and founder of Pennies For Peace www.penniesforpeace.org. He is the co-author of Three Cups of Tea www.threecupsoftea.com, which has been a New York Times nonfiction paperback bestseller for three years, and published in 41 countries, and the author of Stones Into Schools, Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan www.stonesintoschools.com.
Since a 1993 climb of Pakistan's K2, Mortenson has worked in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan to promote education and literacy, to establish 131 schools, especially for girls, which provide education to over 58,000 students, including 44,000 females.
Three Cups of Tea is mandatory reading for all senior U.S. military commanders, and U.S. Special Forces deploying to Afghanistan. The book has been a freshman or common book read in over 100 universities and colleges, and a 'One Book' read in over 240 communities. His second book, Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books Not Bombs in Pakistan and Afghanistan debuted at # 2 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list.
In 2009, Mortenson received the Sitara-e-Pakistan, which is Pakistan's highest civil award for his humanitarian efforts, While not overseas, Mortenson lives with his wife and two children in Montana. In his spare time, he likes to 'hang out with his family, swim, cross-country ski and is a prolific reader.
More detailed biography on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Mortenson
Mortenson is on Twitter gregmortenson and Facebook, Greg Mortenson