Help Women Feed the World

“We want women to have more control over their lives and the decisions that affect them. We need to view women as both beneficiaries and agents of change, not just one or the other" - a Haitian women activist

After a packed two weeks in Haiti, the Women Thrive team has returned to DC encouraged by the women and groups we met with and eager to get to work! Among other activities, Women Thrive led local women's groups and smallholder farmers in an advocacy training and capacity-building workshop. Check out our website for the full update on our trip. 

I also wanted to let you know about a great opportunity to give the moms you love a gift that makes a difference this Mother's Day. Make a gift in honor of someone you love to Help Women Feed the World and GlobalGiving will send her a card letting her know! What's even better, GlobalGiving is matching $5 for every donation for every tribute made until Mother's Day!

Thanks for your continued support. Together, we are helping women feed the world!  

Thank you so much for your continued support of Women Thrive Worldwide's Help Women Feed the World campaign. Thanks to you, we were able to reach our initial fundraising goal! 

I wish I was writing to say "the work is done!" but that is far from the truth. In fact, there's still a long way to go. Last month, Prof. Olivier De Schutter sounded the battle cry for women and food security in "The Feminization of Farming". Prof De Schutter said it well: The most effective strategies to empower women who tend farm and family — and to alleviate hunger in the process — are to remove the obstacles that hinder them from taking charge of their lives. We were so happy to see this article that we posted a letter to the editor and were featured in the New York Times! 

At Women Thrive, we believe this conversation needs to continue. And so does the work. This week members of our team our left for Haiti to work with Haitian women and grassroots leaders, the international development community, and the U.S. Government. With critical issues like food security at stake, it is incredibly important that these women are empowered to rebuild communities that thrive politically, socially, and economically. You can follow the trip in Haiti on Twitter using the hashtag #ThriveinHaiti. 

So, with this report, I would like to announce that Help Women Feed the World will continue to raise funds to help women lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Women and girls still need our support. It isn't over until it's over. Let's continue to help women feed the world!

Links:

• Women Thrive's letter featured in the New York Times!
• Follow us as we work in Haiti

Please tune in to CSPAN's Washington Journal with Steve Scully this Sunday February 3, at 9:15 AM EST. Ritu will talk about the situation of women and girls around the world - including critical issues such as land rights and food security, Secretary Hillary Clinton's efforts to make their concerns central to our nation's foreign policy, and Women Thrive's hopes for what we can expect in the next four years of this Administration.

If you miss the show, please visit our website www.womenthrive.org  and we will have a link to the show online as soon as it becomes available.

It promises to be an exciting conversation so we hope you can tune in and let us know what you think!

Right now, I happen to be far removed from the flurry of activity that dominates this time of year. I’m writing to you from the other side of the world in Sri Lanka, where I’m undertaking my fourth $1 a Day experience. Just like I’ve done before in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Burkina Faso, I’m living side by side with one of the many millions of women in the world that manage to survive on a $1 a Day.

While most Americans were enjoying a second helping of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, I was eating a modest cup of rice and beans with roti (unleavened bread) on the other side of the world. The meal cost 15 cents and was all I could afford, having blown most of my daily budget on a handful of cashews earlier in the day. I went to bed with a grumbling belly and a headache I couldn’t treat for lack of aspirin. Rarely do I have to suffer this type of discomfort, but it’s a feeling my host, Malani, knows all too well.

Soon I’ll be sharing my photos and personal notes about this trip with you. But in the meantime, let me just say that if you could stand where I’m standing and meet the incredible women that are able to do so much with so little, you would not hesitate to do all that you can to help us get policies in place to make their lives a little bit easier.

While I have your attention, I want to let you know about two exciting match campaigns that will kick off December 1st:

Throughout the entire month of December, GlobalGiving will match all new monthly recurring donations 100% up to $100 per donor. GlobalGiving has $25,000 in matching funds available, and matching will last until funds run out or December 31st at 11:59 pm EST.  

Additionally, a generous Women Thrive donor has offered to match donations made in December up to $8,000. 

I'm really excited about this opportunity because it gives you the chance to triple the impact of your donation: new recurring donations made in December will be matched by both GlobalGiving and our anonymous donor! 

If you plan to give, please give generously. Your support truly helps us advocate for policies that empower women like Malani living in poverty around the globe.

Sincerely,

Ritu Sharma

Women in the World Today Published on: October 17, 2012 In 1995, 189 countries came together for the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing to outline a Plan of Action to improve the conditions of women and girls worldwide. Seventeen years on, the State Department reports on the progress that's been made since that historic gathering. This report includes an in-depth look at our partner organization in Honduras, COMUCAP. Women Thrive has worked with COMUCAP and its founder Dulce Marlen Contreras for years, to make sure that they have the tools they need to make their coffee cooperative a success and offer members of their community a path out of poverty. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, writes in the book's preface: In the years since Beijing, advocates, activists and governments around the world have used that plan to advance opportunity and progress for women. The good news is that we have accomplished a great deal. More girls are enrolled in school, more women hold political office, and more laws exist to protect vulnerable populations. Unfortunately, we have a long way yet to go. Sometimes by custom, sometimes by law, millions of women worldwide are still denied their rights. They are excluded from public life in their societies, subjected to violence or barred from getting an education, taking a job or driving a car... At the State Department, we believe elevating the status of women and girls in their societies is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do. Women and girls are often a community's greatest untapped resource, which makes investing in them a powerful and effective way to promote international development and our diplomatic agenda... Women in the World Today shows how far we have come since 1995. Each chapter reflects one of the 12 points in the action plan we developed in Beijing. It also explores what we need to do now, so that all countries can fully benefit from the wisdom, compassion and energy women bring to every aspect of society. I hope the stories you read here inspire you to take action in your community and help move us closer to that goal.

Links:

• To view the full report please visit our website