Blog
Jackie and Mike Bezos Donate $25,000 to the RaiseforWomen Fundraising Challenge
Posted on May 07, 2013, by Half the Sky Movement
Jackie and Mike Bezos have donated a personal gift of $25,000 to the RaiseForWomen challenge, a fundraising initiative supporting organizations doing work to empower women and girls around the world. The donation, combined with $75,000 from The Skoll Foundation, brings to $100,000 the total in prizes going to the causes that raise the most funds. Read More »
Week One RaiseForWomen Update: $126,000 Raised!
Posted on May 01, 2013, by Half the Sky Movement Team
We are thrilled to announce a very successful first week in the RaiseforWomen Challenge, with over $126,000 raised! We would like to thank everyone who has participated in the challenge so far. We have under five weeks left –– until June 6 –– to raise as much as possible! Read More »
Half the Sky: Building a Movement Through Media & Technology
Posted on April 29, 2013, by Maura O’Neill, USAID
I remember reading Betty Harragan’s Games Mother Never Taught You when it first came out over thirty years ago. As a woman entrepreneur, that book had a huge impact on me—both in how to navigate at work, a new universe that felt like I had been dropped onto Mars, and how I saw myself as an agent of change Read More »
Ready, Set, Raise!
Posted on April 25, 2013, by Half the Sky Movement
We’re delighted to announce the launch of RaiseForWomen, our new initiative with Huffington Post, CrowdRise and the Skoll Foundation that will raise money and bring attention to amazing organizations that are helping women and girls around the world. Read More »
50 Days of Action for Women and Girls
Posted on April 16, 2013, by Half the Sky Movement
Starting today and for the next 50 business days, until June 21, the Half the Sky Movement will be joining forces with over 20 organizations led by the International Women’s Health Coalition for an online advocacy campaign called 50 Days of Action for Women and Girls. The goal of the campaign is to build on Hillary Clinton’s legacy of advocating for women and girls worldwide as the former Secretary of State. We believe that now is the time to rise together and speak out about the oppression of women. As Hillary Clinton so eloquently stated, “The 21st century is about ending the pervasive discrimination and degradation of women and fulfilling their full rights.” Therefore, we will be calling on Secretary of State John Kerry, the State Department, the White House and the relevant government agencies to make the rights of women and girls a continued priority in U.S. foreign policy. Read More »
Flawed Perfection Jewelry Follows the 10% Rule
Posted on April 03, 2013, by Louisa Mardirossian, Half the Sky Movement
As of March 13th — Megan’s 22nd birthday — ten percent of Flawed Perfection Jewelry sales each month are donated to Half the Sky Movement partner organizations through CrowdRise. “My mom raised me to always give 10% back. Over time if you are giving back it does come back to you,” she reasons. Read More »
Ambassadors Host Screening at Women as Agents of Change Program in Panama City
Posted on April 02, 2013, by Half the Sky Movement
Ana Lilia Aparicio and Ashante Taylor, two Half the Sky Movement campus ambassadors, hosted a screening of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide in Panama City as part of the Leadership exChange Program Women as Agents of Change from March 7 to 17. The program was sponsored by the University of Monterrey Mexico and the United Nations Information Centre Panama, bringing together fourteen women from Mexico, Peru, Ireland, and America for the intensive four week academic program centered on women as agents of change in promoting gender equality, as outlined in the 3rd Millennium Development Goal. Read More »
The Relevance of Passover: Slavery is More Prevalent Today Than Ever
Posted on March 25, 2013, by Eugenie Rosenthal, Half the Sky Movement
Somaly Mam was just 14 years old when a man claiming to be her grandfather took her from her village and sold her into slavery in a Cambodian brothel. After years, she escaped and has since secured freedom for tens of thousands of other young girls enslaved Southeast Asia’s brothels. She has been called the “modern Harriet Tubman.” Might she be considered in some ways, a modern Moses? Read More »
A Ray of Hope
Posted on March 13, 2013, by Shomira Sanyal, Campus Ambassador, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, India
The brutal and horrific gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedic student in a bus in Delhi in mid-December grabbed headlines in the national and international media. It served as a catalyst to generate public debate and political action on an issue that rarely finds its place on the public stage. That a tardy government awoke to take concrete steps and succumbed to the pressures of those who elected them is but a tiny ray of hope. Read More »
Taking the Leap
Posted on March 12, 2013, by Holly D. Wesselhöft
I’m not the first person to leave a comfortable life to move to a developing country in an effort to make a difference — though I may be one of the very few people who made this decision based entirely on a line of text in a book. In 2011, I read Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. There was one sentence that stuck with me in particular; I would hear it repeated in my mind constantly. Read More »
Half the Sky Movement: The Game Launches
Posted on March 05, 2013, by Half the Sky Movement
Half the Sky Movement: The Game launched yesterday, bringing the message of the Half the Sky Movement to a new audience that is heavily engaged in social media gaming. Inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, the Facebook game raises awareness and funds to empower women and girls around the world. Read More »
Half the Sky Movement Partners with Students Rebuild to Award Visionary Young Women
Posted on March 05, 2013, by Half the Sky Movement
Half the Sky Movement has partnered with Students Rebuild to award $10,000 to five young women who are empowering young women in their communities. The finalists are from the five countries highlighted in Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide the series — Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Somaliland, India and Kenya. Read More »
Butter Tea & Banana Soup, A Collection of Recipes and Stories
Posted on February 27, 2013, by Ann Wright, Half the Sky Movement
The cookbook, Butter Tea & Banana Soup: Food as Identity, is more than just a book of recipes. The participating women at Asian University of Women (AUW) have also shared a description of the personal significance of the recipe to their identity, family and culture. Jamie Mittleman was inspired to create the cookbook after teaching and mentoring at AUW. Read More »
Nail Artist Creates Half the Sky Movement Inspired Designs for Pre-Oscar Benefit Party
Posted on February 26, 2013, by Renée Muza, Half the Sky Movement Team
Jae’tte Burneo, owner of Cosi Fan Tutte Nail Lounge in Laguna Beach, California, and her staff donated their time and energy to create custom Half the Sky Movement inspired nail art for a pre-Oscar party Feb. 25. Read More »
#GIRLWITHABOOK: In Solidarity with Malala
Posted on February 19, 2013, by Olivia Curl and Lena Shareef
We were disgusted by the Taliban’s attack against Malala, but also inspired by her courage to stand up to these extremists. In response, we created a project called #GIRLWITHABOOK. This is where we invite people from all over the world to submit a picture of themselves reading a book. It's nothing genius, but we wanted to create a space where people could show their solidarity for Malala and their support for girls' education. Read More »
Community Ambassador’s Flex for Women’s Health Event a Success
Posted on February 18, 2013, by Joy Bitonio, Half the Sky Movement community ambassador
I am lucky to be connected to the best of the best in the fitness community in Los Angeles by virtue of my love of fitness! For Half the Sky Movement’s Flex for Women’s Health week, I approached Sara Kapuchinski, owner of I Heart Fitness XO, the pilates studio where I am a regular member. After speaking with her about Half the Sky Movement and Somaly Mam, she was happily on board to host a donation-based class benefitting the Somaly Mam Foundation. Read More »
Kibera School for Girls Update
Posted on February 15, 2013, by Kennedy Odede, Kibera School for Girls
Things are going wonderfully in Kibera –– we just accepted 40 new students after months of rigorous academic assessments and in-depth analysis of their home situations and need. (The criteria for acceptance to The Kibera School for Girls is outstanding potential and also the highest need. We take the most vulnerable, who might also have the biggest impact.) Read More »
Half the Sky Movement Sparks New Schools in Ethiopia
Posted on February 05, 2013, by Lizzie Presser, Half the Sky Movement
In early 2010, Georgina Fenton was working as a genetic counselor in Sydney, Australia, identifying patients with a high risk of developing cancer. After a trip to Ethiopia and an afternoon reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, she changed the course of her career. Now, Georgina is the proud founder of a secondary school in Ethiopia and she is working with locals to prepare for the upcoming school year. Read More »
Edna Adan Hospital Update
Posted on February 01, 2013, by Eve Bruce, MD
Eve Bruce, MD is volunteering at Edna Adan Hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland. This is a teaching hospital. Classes are in session every day on the second floor, and there are nursing students and midwifery students taking on most of the work on the wards. Young men and women studying, working hard, and filled with hope. Read More »
Half the Sky Movement Hosts Google+ Hangout on Maternal Health
Posted on January 25, 2013, by Ann Wright, Half the Sky Movement
Half the Sky Movement is delighted to host a Google+ Hangout this coming Monday, Jan. 28, at 1:30 p.m. ET / 10:30 a.m. PT with several leading advocates for maternal health: Edna Adan, founder of Edna Adan’s Maternity Hospital in Somaliland, Kate Grant, executive director of the Fistula Foundation, and Christy Turlington Burns, founder of Every Mother Counts. Read More »