By Mei Powers | Manager, Organizational Advancement
Today, with your help, we’ve hit an exciting mile marker on our Help Women Feed the World project. With $5,000 in donations we’re halfway to our goal of $10,000! And we couldn’t have done it without you! Thank you!
Your generous support helped us serve as 24/7 advocates on Capitol Hill for women and girls living in poverty worldwide. We did so by raising their voices; and instead of demanding separate aid programs for women, we advocated for the incorporation of women and girls into every foreign assistance project.
Earlier this month at our International Women’s Day Breakfast Briefing, Siham Salman, Program Manager for Islamic Relief Worldwide in Iraq, gave an example of a project that does just that, combining agricultural training with efforts to decrease violence against women. “In Iraq [poverty is] reason number one behind violence against women,” Siham explained, “If you give [families] the chance to work and to have some income, I’m sure and positive that the violence rate will reduce.” Indeed, in the project she described rates of violence against women and girls have decreased by 60% in the communities where they work—all while helping women feed the world through their agricultural program.
Successful stories like these helped us push the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) to create and release a new policy on Gender Equity and Female Empowerment. This new policy means that every USAID project must be designed, implemented, and judged with the needs and empowerment of women and girls in mind. This is a big deal, and means that we will see more effective programs like Siham’s that improve the living conditions and status of women and girls around the world. Your support not only helped us advocate for the creation of this policy, but it also helps us make sure that the policy translates into concrete change for women and girls on the ground.
Together, we’ve achieved a lot for women and girls, but there is still more to be done. If you like what we're doing, please tell a friend about our campaign. Encourage your friends and family members to join our cause and support women as they strive to feed the world.
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