Half the Sky Movement will be giving out weekly prizes to individuals participating in the challenge, and we’re excited to announce this week’s four prizes.

Prizes available until May 2 at 12 p.m. ET.

Prize #1
Anybody who donates at least $43 to any of the Raise for Women charities between now and May 2 at 12 p.m. ET has the opportunity to win a poster signed by Half the Sky Movement’s very own Olivia Wilde. You can read the official rules here.

Prize #2
Anyone who donates between now and May 2 at 12 p.m. ET has the chance to get a shout out from @Half. You can read the official rules here.

A second group of prizes will be given away from Thursday, May 2 at 2 p.m. ET to Monday, May 6 at 12 p.m. ET

Prize #1
If you give at least $37, one lucky winner has the chance to win a Half the Sky Movement poster signed by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. You can read the official rules here.

Prize #2
If you start a fundraiser right now, you have the chance to get a Twitter page makeover from Half the Sky Movement’s very own graphic designer. You can read the official rules here.

This was long before cell phones, the Internet, and mobile readers exponentially increased people’s access to information around the world. Today, USAID is working to make sure a whole new generation of women (and men) are exposed to life changing stories and media that have a positive impact for them, but also their families, communities, and countries.

USAID joins Half the Sky, the Ford Foundation, Show of Force, and Games for Change to launch the Half the Sky Movement Media & Technology Engagement Initiative, an integrated media campaign to create behavior change toward gender issues in India and Kenya. Photo credit: Half the Sky

USAID joins Half the Sky, the Ford Foundation, Show of Force, and Games for Change to launch the Half the Sky Movement Media & Technology Engagement Initiative, an integrated media campaign to create behavior change toward gender issues in India and Kenya. Photo credit: Half the Sky
That’s why I’m thrilled that USAID is a part of a new alliance, along with the Ford Foundation, Show of Force, and Games for Change, called the Half the Sky Movement Media and Technology Engagement Initiative. This new alliance builds on an initiative developed with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, authors of another incredibly inspiring book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

If you have not yet read Half the Sky, it shares powerful stories of women who have lived through horrendous but also horrendously commonplace experiences of forced prostitution, maternal mortality, devastating injuries in childbirth, abuse, and extreme forms of discrimination. Yet it makes an equally powerful argument that women can be, should be, and are agents who transform the world for the better.

At USAID, we know that gender equality and empowerment not only advance our development goals, they’re essential to their long-term success. No community or country can realize its full potential without women and girls having the freedom to be all that they can be. However, in many low- and moderate-income countries, women and girls continue to struggle for equal access to healthcare, education, the justice system, and professional opportunities.

In India, one of two key focal countries of the initiative, there is strong evidence of continued son preference. Girls are underrepresented in births and overrepresented in child deaths. Today, the literacy rate for females is barely 50% and men are twice as likely to be employed. India is home to 40% of the world’s people living in extreme poverty—think about how this problem could be eradicated if girls and women were educated.

In Kenya, the second key focal country of the initiative, a 2008 study shows very low female representation in post-primary education, formal employment, enterprise ownership, and political decision-making processes. Kenya is placed well to be a part of the Africa renaissance, but will only succeed if it embraces the power of its girls.

Over the next two years, together with Nick, Sheryl and our partners, we will work to inspire and create lasting change for women and girls in India and Kenya through an integrated media campaign. The campaign will use a combination of traditional and social media, a powerful approach for shifting gender-related norms and behavior.

To get an idea of the kind of messages and approaches the initiative will implement, I encourage you to check out videos released as part of previous collaborations between USAID and Half the Sky Movement partners. One of my favorites is the story of Pooja, who gains her family’s support to defy convention and continue her education. If this young girl can be brave enough to forge a new path, it is the least we can do to support others in following her lead to become part of the movement.

Maura O’Neill is Chief Innovation Officer at USAID. 

Huffington Post is providing the megaphone, Skoll is giving $75,000 in cash prizes to the NGOs that raise the most money, and we’re mobilizing everyone who cares deeply about empowering women (that’s you!) to make RaiseForWomen a success. We’re asking you to create your own fundraising team on CrowdRise, invite your friends to join, share Huffington Post blog posts about the campaign on social media, and help these folks continue their great work.

The campaign runs for the next six weeks, until June 6. Every week, there will be exciting prizes for the individuals who raise the most. Check out some of the prizes here and stay tuned for more!

Creating a fundraising team is super easy–– it takes 10 minutes. Just choose the organization you want to fundraise for from the list below, click “Create Your Fundraiser” and “Join the Team,” and follow the directions from there. For tips on fundraising, check out this handy toolkit.

To get started, check out our participating partner teams. We’ve made it easy by grouping them according to issue:

Women’s Health: Friends of Edna, The Fistula Foundation, Pathfinder International, Every Mother Counts

Education: Room to Read, Afghan Institute of Learning, Shining Hope for Communities

Economic Empowerment: Women's World Banking, Kashf, Fonkoze, BRAC, Heifer International

Sex Trafficking and Forced Prostitution: GEMS, Somaly Mam Foundation, New Light, Apne Aap, International Justice Mission

Gender-Based Violence: CARE, International Rescue Committee, Tostan

To check out the other participating NGOs, click here.

You helped us raise more than $300,000 for our first CrowdRise campaign. With your help, we’ll raise more this time –– and accelerate our progress to a freer, fairer world.

The campaign will use social media , including tweets (using #USA4WOMEN and #USA4GIRLS hashtags) Facebook and other online platforms to encourage U.S. policymakers to pursue public policies that make the empowerment of women and girls a priority in foreign policy.

The campaign will focus on the following areas, each given its own week:

- Ensuring Quality Education for Women and Girls    
- Putting Women and Girls at the Center of the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda
- Preventing Violence against Women and Girls
- Ending Early and Forced Marriage
- Achieving Peace and Security for Women and Girls
- Improving the Health of Women and Girls
- Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women and Girls
- Protecting Human Rights & Promoting Leadership and Participation of Women and Girls

To raise awareness about the 50 Days of Action, the campaign has started a Thunderclap, which allows individuals to dedicate their status on Facebook or Twitter on April 18th to the cause. You can sign up for the Thunderclap here. We are also asking everyone to share content related to the campaign on social media to amplify our message and make sure that we are heard by the U.S. government.

If you are interested in participating, please see this toolkit put together by the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC) that explains the campaign in more detail, provides sample tweets and posts, and provides resources you can share for the first two weeks of the campaign.

Megan Reynolds beads jewelry for her company Flawed Perfection Jewelry. 

“I didn’t blink an eye when I started my business at 18. I thought it was no big deal. I could do whatever I wanted. Then after reading and watching Half the Sky, and doing additional research, I realized a lot of people don’t have that opportunity... I want to help empower these women and give them a chance for better lives,” Megan said in an interview.

As of March 13, 2013 — 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 ten percent back. Over time if you are giving back it does come back to you,” she reasons.

While watching the Half the Sky Movement documentary, Megan was most inspired by Urmi Basu, the founder of New Light, an organization that provides education to at risk girls in the red light district of Kalighat in India. She felt moved by Urmi’s “passion, the risks she takes, and the idea that even doing a tiny bit of good for a couple of girls makes it worth it.” On her website, Megan provides a synopsis of the book with quotes and statistics that resonated with her. She has even posted a video of herself talking about some of the issues covered in Half the Sky and urging her customers to take action.

This scroll band cluster ring was handmade by Megan Reynolds. 

The young entrepreneur has always gravitated toward feminist issues and finds the use of jewelry to help women’s causes fitting. “Jewelry is universal. Almost every culture has it,” she says. “I like that people have a story with it… When you wear it, it’s something you know how you got, when it was given to you, et cetera.”

Since announcing her involvement with the Half the Sky Movement, Megan has noticed a boost in website traffic, and she has received a lot of positive responses from both new and returning customers. One of her favorite bits of feedback came from a client, who told her that she was “helping spread good feminine energy in the universe.”

While Megan hasn’t set any specific monetary goals yet, she does have clear objectives. In the near future, Megan hopes that the business will support itself and she’ll be able to employ other local women. Long-term, she would like to set up her own charity focusing on either economic empowerment or mental health services, and to potentially employ women abroad.

Megan’s pieces are made from natural gemstones, pearls and sterling silver. Her tagline states, “From natural flaws… to design perfection.” Items range from necklaces to rings to bracelets and run from $7.00 to $130.00.

To learn more about Flawed Perfection Jewelry, visit the official website, like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Have you been inspired by Half the Sky Movement? Share your story. 

Ambassadors Host Screening at Women as Agents of Change Program in Panama City

Ana and Ashante met on the Half the Sky Movement’s Facebook ambassador page. Lilia, a student at Universidad de Monterrey in Mexico, was a student coordinator for the leadership program and wanted to include other ambassadors. “She posted about a program called: 'Women As Change Agents: Global Leadership Exchange' and I immediately knew I had to sign up,” said Ashante, of Westminster Choir College of Rider University in New Jersey.

The program included academic courses, cultural activities and community service, and one of the activities was a screening of the 40-minute version of the film and a discussion facilitated by the two ambassadors. Ana and Ashante share an interest in Half the Sky Movement issues, and it was a natural fit for them to host the screening and discussion, which included questions from the discussion guide available on Half the Sky Movement’s website. 

“The reaction of the audience was great…many of them were angry, confused and surprised about this reality,” said Ana.  “Some of them even asked how to became a Half the Sky Movement Ambassador on their campus.”

Each of the participants took a photograph making a commitment to act after watching the series on Half the Sky Movement.

To learn more, visit http://www.globalleaders.info/womenandleadership/

More people live in slavery today than at any other time in human history, 27 million according to the United Nations. This is more than the populations of New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut combined. Half these slaves are children. These are not people in low wage, unfulfilling jobs, but individuals in forced unpaid physical labor who are literally bought, sold, and owned by others. And yet, few people know about or discuss it. Can Passover be an opportunity to make sure people know about slaves today so that we may raise our voice for their freedom and in so doing exercise our own?

Growing up, at seders, we talked about those who are metaphorically still enslaved, by poverty or sadness. I had absolutely no idea that as we ate our matzoh balls, more than 13 million children like myself were still shackled. In fact, the respected British medical journal, the Lancet, estimates that 1 million children per year are sold, just into sex slavery, beaten drugged, and raped by as many as 20 customers per day. By comparison, at the height of the transatlantic slave trade, in the 1780’s, 80,000 slaves per year were shipped across the Atlantic for sale.

If the slave trade were a company, it would be #105 on the Fortune 500 list, above McDonald’s, Xerox and Nike. Though slavery is no longer the law of any land, it thrives because law enforcement and politicians are looking the other way. This is where we can come in. The first step in raising our collective voice is engaging our collective awareness.

What can we as Jews do? We can speak out—at our seder tables, in our communities, and through public policy that pressures our government and others to take a hard line on modern slavery, what we euphemistically call “human trafficking:” Here are some resources for doing so:

Raise the issue of modern slavery in your congregation:

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression to Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Host a screening and discussion. This 4-hour PBS documentary is divided into segments, one of which introduces the issue of child slavery, highlighting the work of Somaly Mam. Despite it’s content, the segment is uplifting and empowering, especially when coupled with the Take Action Guide available on the film’s website.

Introduce the issue at your seder table with these resources:

Invisible, The Story of Modern Slavery: A Social Justice Haggadah from the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism (RAC), the social justice arm of the American Reform Jewish movement. This printable haggadah is engaging, beautifully illustrated, and covers the traditional ground of the seder, infused with inspiring quotations and enlightening facts about our responsibility and opportunity to fight slavery as it exists today.

A Haggadah Companion, from Renée Cassin, a UK-based human rights NGO that uses the experience of the Jewish people, and positive Jewish values, to campaign and educate on universal human rights issues such as discrimination, detention, and genocide. Pick and choose from facts, discussion questions, and textual references to enrich your seder with a modern relevance.

Take Action:

Half the Sky Take Action Guide: This is a general guide to take action on issues facing women and girls in extreme poverty. There are many tikkun olam gems in here around slavery and related issues.

Post hotline flier in your congregation for those who might suspect forced unpaid labor.

Eugenie Rosenthal is outreach consultant for Half the Sky Movement. She is working with colleges and universities to spread the Half the Sky Movement far and wide while advising the team generally on marketing and social media strategy.

The newly comprised three-member JS Verma Committee, whose sensitive and comprehensive report was submitted in a record time of 30 days, has raised the bar of punishment for a wide range of existing and proposed sexual offences. That in the process they welcomed suggestions from a cross-section of society — women’s organizations, religious leaders, politicians, students and the common people on the streets — with an open mind and a will to work on all aspects in minute details was heartening. They discussed aspects of gender-based violence that Indian politicians have historically shied away from: marital rape, acid attacks and the issue of armed force personnel, police personnel or elected representatives who are in a position of power to perpetuate such crimes. After the submission of the report, they engaged with audiences on national television and brought these sensitive issues openly into national consciousness.

In its bid to assure the nation that it was proactive and serious about the issue, the government managed to present an ordinance based on the report. The cabinet approved and cleared the ordinance, which was presided over by the prime minister. Two days after the clearance by the Union Cabinet, the President has assented to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2013. The ordinance recommends death penalty in cases where rape leads to death of the victim or leaves the victim in a ‘persistent vegetative state’. It also proposes to replace the word ‘rape’ with ‘sexual assault’ to expand the definition to other types of sexual crimes against women. However, the government has been criticized by activists for leaving out the controversial issue of marital rape, and women’s groups, in agreement with the Verma Committee report, did not support the death penalty.

We must accept that this is a small step in the right direction and an ordinance or law will not suffice to remove this malaise from our society. A lot more debate is necessary before future law is based on this ordinance. But what use is a law if not reinforced with administrative action, judicial reform and police reform? What remains high priority is that we ensure a high conviction rate for sexual crimes and we see our courts bring about swift justice. Every case is important – every act of violence needs to be heard and dealt with. As a nation, we must take these vital steps to assess how India combats gender violence and patriarchy.

Shomira Sanyal is a Half the Sky Movement campus ambassador. She joined the program because she saw that violence against women was universal and wanted to be a part of a global movement highlighting and taking action to resolve these issues on a local level. She is currently a student at Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi and has had internships in rural India, which has given her the opportunity to interact with women working at the grassroots level and making a difference to communities.

Shomira served as judge on the Students Rebuild Awards this month alongside Sheryl WuDunn, America Ferrera, Olivia Wilde, Eileen Fisher, Jeffrey Sachs, Zainab Salbi and Maggie Doyne to award five women $10,000 to support their efforts to empower women and their communities.

     
Vinay Charul and Shomira at One Billion Rising                     Women hold up Half the Sky

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.

But to tackle an issue effectively, you need to understand it — and it’s impossible to understand an issue by simply reading about it. You need to see it firsthand, even live in its midst.

I had spent the past 5 years working in marketing for luxury brands in NYC, living in Greenwich Village and thoroughly enjoying dating the city I love. Life was near perfect, but I couldn’t let go of this feeling that I needed to be a part of what Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn were doing. I knew I had no real excuses, and I had all the support imaginable.

After researching dozens of organizations, I decided to volunteer for The Girls Foundation of Tanzania (TGFT). TGFT sponsors about a dozen secondary school girls’ tuitions and provides housing and a support network for the girls when they are on long breaks from school. For four months, I would live with them in a village near Arusha, Tanzania, and teach them computer skills.

Holly teaches computer skills to two students at the Girls Foundation of Tanzania. 

When I arrived in the country, I immediately felt like I was completely in over my head. Regardless of the rollercoaster of emotions and personal challenges I was experiencing, I sought out to teach the girls how to navigate computers in general and, specifically, how to use Excel, Word and PowerPoint.

I got the girls set up with email accounts and introduced them to the power of the World Wide Web. After about month, most of the girls were learning quickly and starting to explore computer programs on their own. They wrote poems on Word, transcribed their report cards on Excel, and created elaborate slide shows set to their favorite songs. From time to time, some of the girls would interrupt my day (even going as far as to slide over my lunch and plop down the laptop in front of my face!) to ask specific questions. At first I was slightly annoyed, but I grew to love these interruptions. It showed how much they wanted to learn. 

Before winter break last December, each girl gave a PowerPoint presentation. It turned out that every single girl went above and beyond what I had taught them — they had explored PowerPoint on their own and added to their presentations outside of our regular classes. Coming from a corporate background, I had no idea teaching could be so personally rewarding. 

I trust these skills will stay with the girls throughout their lives regardless of how often they are able to get online. Even though personal computers are not common here for most Tanzanians, I trust completely in their determination to propel themselves forward.

I return to New York City in mid-February. I’m not sure what my next step is, but it will not be consistent with my former career. I’d like to say that my experience with the girls has shifted my goals, but it was really just a book that did the trick.

I leave this country knowing that in the lives of a group of girls in Tanzania I have made a small difference. The hardest part of this whole journey hasn’t been being half way around the world from the city I adore, my friends worth their weight in gold, the world’s most supportive boyfriend, a boss and team of coworkers that felt like a family or even a stable electrical grid and consistent supply of running water. The hardest part has been trying to convince the girls of a new truth in their lives: that they will always have me, just one click away.

Read more about Holly’s adventures in Tanzania here.

Have you been inspired by Half the Sky Movement? Share your story. 

"We'll not measure success by donations," Asi Burak, co-president of Games for Change said. "I think we'll measure success by getting to people who would never think about women and gender-based issues, getting to them with a new platform.”

The game begins by introducing Radhika, an impoverished mother in India who is faced with difficult choices, beginning with how she will get medicine for her sick child. Players are presented with options of how Radhika should respond to different situations, which can lead her on different trajectories within the game. As the game progresses, Radhika travels to  Kenya, Vietnam, Afghanistan and the United States on various missions, including obtaining books for her community, collecting mangoes to sell at market and starting small businesses.

Half the Sky Movement hopes that the game will create new inroads in social cause gaming and expose new audiences to some of the challenges facing women and girls.

You can play the game on Facebook, at Half the Sky Movement: The Game.

There are a large number of women whose life-changing work goes unrecognized. In an effort to support and highlight these individuals, Half the Sky Movement partner organizations who operate in these five countries nominated women they see making a difference. There are fourteen finalists nominated by Acumen Fund, Apne Aap International, BRAC, Edna Adan University Hospital, Heifer International, the International Rescue Committee, New Light, Somaly Mam Foundation, the Boma Project and Opportunity International.

The judging panel includes America Ferrera, Olivia Wilde, Eileen Fisher, Jeffrey Sachs, Zainab Salbi, Sheryl WuDunn, Maggie Doyne, Half the Sky Movement campus ambassador Shomira Sanyal of India, and a vote from the public. To cast your ballot, visit http://studentsrebuild.org/awards/vote.

The award winners will be announced the week of March 18th. Please tune in!

Jamie was aware of many of the challenges facing women and girls before college, but it was the book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide and a 2008 New York Times Op-Ed by Nicholas Kristof, “Terrorism that’s Personal,” highlighting the use of acid attacks to subjugate and intimidate women that made these challenges especially real for her.

Jamie Mittelman holding a copy of Butter Tea & Banana Soup: Food as Identity

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn were commencement speakers at her graduation at Middlebury College the same year. “They told us two things,” Jamie says, “to get out of our comfort zones and not to worry about the big picture –– but instead to focus on helping a few people.”

Emboldened by their words, Jamie headed off to Bangladesh –– having never been to Asia –– to teach English at AUW. Jamie contracted dengue fever after one semester and was forced to return home. Though she was thousands of miles away, she wanted to share the stories of the women at AUW in a unique way. Jamie explains that she was influenced by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s ability to “use storytelling to spread a message, and secondly, to use an empowering tone through writing and photographs that capture women as leaders and not victims.”

Having witnessed the students at AUW cooking together in the dorm’s kitchen and bonding over their shared desire for a broader selection of menu items in the school cafeteria, Jamie and now former provost, Mary Sansalone, agreed on the idea to create a cookbook that would use the shared love of food to connect the young women and highlight their stories. All of the students were invited to submit their recipes and stories with assistance from the teachers and Dean at the school’s writing center. Jamie edited all of the stories and tested the recipes. “I had to go through and make the recipes because sometimes the students would write a ‘grandma’s pinch of’ rather than the number of teaspoons,” Jamie says.

The students in a circle with Jamie, shot taken from below

The book uses “food as a conduit of identity for women to celebrate who they are,” Jamie explains. The pages are littered with bright eyed, young women, who share stories that range from funny to poignant. They include stories like those of Saren Keang from Cambodia whose favorite recipes are beef soup with burning papaya and another beef vegetable soup. Her narratives include a lighthearted description of her mother’s soup business in Cambodia and the realization that her father could out cook her mother in a soup making competition, as well as a powerful anecdote titled “A Girl is Like This” about others’ expectations of how she should behave as a young woman and her desire to break those stereotypes.

Jamie hopes that featuring these young women in the book will boost their sense of self-esteem and their value in their communities. “The women are often the first in their families to go to college. So when she goes home, for example, and shows her father and her community this book, it will show that she is valued. Many people don’t see the value in female education and it takes something concrete for them to recognize it.” Each student now has a copy of the book that they can keep and share with others.

Some of the women are from countries and ethnicities that have been at war or experienced tense relations, and Jamie also hopes that the cookbook will be another “drop in the bucket” in bringing together students of different cultures and highlighting their shared traditions. She gives the example of tensions between Tamil and Sinhalese students who enrolled at AUW during the civil war in Sri Lanka and between Indian and Pakistani students. Lastly, Jamie hopes the cookbook will serve as the foundation for some new and more diverse options at the school cafeteria.

“We were so busy from the start –– from 9am until it was too dark to continue. None of the manicurists left our seats due to the lines of ladies waiting for their nail art. As the sun went down, manicurist Devynn attached all of the final 'bling' in the dark –– lit only by a flashlight on her iPhone!” said Jae’tte. By the end of the day, six manicurists had given 112 manicures.

“ALL of the manicurists at the event wore various blue sky nail designs. It created a fantastic form of promotion and helped the guests get into the spirit,” Jae’tte said.  “I feel so fulfilled to be able to have helped create excitement and enthusiasm at the event. It gave us pleasure and a sense of hope that these guests would help in the cause!”

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.

Malala did not discover the gender gap in education when she was pulled from her school bus in October 2012. She has been living this struggle and fighting against it for years, but how many of us were paying attention? It is a fleeting moment when the world unites for a single cause and that is exactly what happened in the days after the attack against Malala. We wanted to extend that moment. We wanted it to last and use it to make strides for women’s education. When the news broke, it wasn’t just Malala who had the world’s attention, it was the entire issue of the gender gap in education. This issue is no longer a series of statistics on a page, but is symbolized in the face of a 15-year old girl who represents 32 million other girls around the world.

Through Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Twitter, we set up a space for people to express their hope. This space has created an opportunity for connection by simply posting a picture. When we saw someone from Colombia commenting on a picture posted by someone from Sri Lanka, we knew that this wasn’t a project anymore. #GIRLWITHABOOK was transforming into a movement.

 
Lena & Olivia, who started the #GIRLWITHABOOK project to support Malala Yousafzai 

Part of what makes #GIRLWITHABOOK so powerful is that it is so simple. The terrorists have shown that they are afraid of a girl with a book, so we stuck it to them by inviting people to post pictures of girls with books. And it’s not only girls. It’s men and boys, brothers, fathers, and husbands standing with their daughters, sisters, and wives. Not only has the response from individuals to this project been overwhelming, but it has also received support from organizations such as the Half the Sky movement, the Global Education Fund, the United Nations Education First initiative, as well as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon himself. Additionally, the UN reached out to their Messengers of Peace, and we were honored to receive photos from Midori, Jane Goodall, and Paulo Coelho.

Within one month of our project, we received over 400 pictures from around the world and compiled them into a book for Malala. These books are representative of the global outpouring of support Malala has received and would not have been possible without Shutterfly, which so graciously donated copies of the book to us for free.

Furthermore, we wanted to thank: Half the Sky Movement, National Women's History Museum, and dreamfly for their encouragement from the very beginning of this project.

On February 16, 2013, we announced that #GIRLWITHABOOK is aiming to raise $15,000 to build a library at one of The Citizens Foundation’s schools. TCF is a non-profit organization in Pakistan that has built 830 purpose-built schools since 1995. Those wishing to donate can go to our Crowdrise page, and the first 25 people to donate $100 will receive a copy of the photo book.

Girls’ education benefits all members of society, and our prosperity as a global community depends on this progress and on fighters like Malala.

Join the movement. Send us a picture at girlwithabookmovement@gmail.com.

Connect with us on Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter (@_girlwithabook).

Olivia Curl is an Oregon native and a senior at American University studying International Relations and Arabic. She is passionate about exploring the intersection between women’s issues and security. She blogs on LivOnAMission.wordpress.com. You can also tweet at her (@LivOnAMission).

Lena Shareef has a bachelor's degree in Film and Media Arts and a minor in International Studies from American University. She is currently working at an advertising agency in Michigan, and is looking forward to pursuing a master’s degree in Journalism, focusing on digital media. She blogs on lenashareef.wordpress.com. You can also tweet at her (@LenaShareef).

I started promotion for the event on a ground level using social media, and received a few local retweets. I also contacted my local Yelp community who featured my event page in their newsletter.

Spots in class were reserved using CrowdRise. Once someone made a donation, I would use the CrowdRise "thank you" system to thank them for their donation and confirm their spot, as well as pertinent details about the day of the event –– including the address, where to park, what to bring and my contact information.

Students in Flex for Women's Health pilates class

The day of the event started with me speaking to the group, first to thank them for their support of the Somaly Mam Foundation, and then going into summarizing what Somaly Mam is about and why I was inspired to fundraise for her specific cause. Setting the tone and reminding everyone why they were all there made the event that much more meaningful for everyone involved. We discussed how we have so many rights that we can't be complacent or forget to fight for the rights of women in other countries that do not have the same freedom.

After the class, I handed out handwritten thank you cards to each guest, with another little paragraph about Half the Sky Movement, Somaly Mam and other websites so they can learn more about international women’s issues. Many were asking questions about Somaly Mam and already asking about when the next event would be. It was a successful event, and I was inspired by the support. We sold out, and even got donations from people who could not come to class, but were moved to contribute. After this event, 29 percent of my fundraising goal for the first part of the year had been met.

I Heart Fitness XO pilates instructor Sara Kapuchinski with student 

If I had to sum up the entire experience, it would be "women empowering women." I plan on continuing the Flex For Women's Health theme for my next few events, organizing donation-based fitness classes with the leaders in the industry in Los Angeles as an outlet to spread awareness around Half the Sky Movement and Somaly Mam.

Click here to become a Half the Sky Movement community ambassador or learn more about the program. You can follow Joy on Twitter at @M0TH2FLAME.

Students at the Kibera School for Girls play in their new playground 

I myself visited over 70 houses (and these were just the finalists!) and was reminded once again how important our school is in serving Kibera's brightest girls who, without it, would never have any chance. I also really enjoy this time that I get to spend in all corners of Kibera (as we try to take students from every single village, it can take me hours to walk between all of the houses). In this time I get to talk to people about Shining Hope for Communities and their hopes for their daughters, and I am reminded of both the hope and the incredible obstacles of life in the slums. There was one girl whose story I can never forget whose father died, and when her mother remarried her stepfather raped her. Through the work of our gender department, he was put in jail, but the trauma the family sustained is substantial. This little girl, along with her peers, started preschool this week and the joy is palpable. I wish you all could have been here to see the first time they played on our playground. It was really amazing. The new students are also always amazed that they can eat lunch and breakfast at school –– and ask for seconds! Most of them have never been able to do that before. Now they don't speak any English and are a bit confused about what this new school thing is –– but in just a month they will be jabbering away and filled with confidence. I am always awed by the transformation.

One of the girls happily swings from the monkey bars

At the end of December each girl "graduated" up to the next class –– and there was a huge celebration with parents to celebrate. The girls also performed the culmination of their latest social studies topic focused on "communities." The girls mapped what makes a community? Shops/commerce, hospitals, schools, religion, etc –– and did in-depth studies of the different components of the Kibera "community." Each class went to a mosque and a church to understand and respect the rituals of each religion. It was really moving for me to watch –– in a country and a community where there can be religious difference –– this respect and curiosity for different belief systems. When the girls performed the Muslim celebration song they learned, all of the parents (Christian and Muslim) were singing along. There is definitely a culture of respect and tolerance that exists at KSG. They also presented poems and amazing plays about Kibera and its formation and politics. 

Students chase each other around the new playground

Kennedy Odede is the founder of Shining Hope for Communities and the Kibera School for Girls. Connect with Shining Hope on Facebook and Twitter and donate on CrowdRise. 

Georgina’s philanthropic standards weren’t easy to meet. She wanted to find a way to help a specific village, Beklo Manekya, which she had passed through while traveling in Ethiopia. She wanted to work with the locals there and find out their most pressing needs. And she wanted to empower the community members to take a project on as their own while she worked on fundraising from Australia.

“That’s one thing the book really highlighted for me — having the communities control the projects and not just coming in and imposing an idea,” Georgina said in an interview. So, that’s what she did.

Georgina and Sophie visit students from the Eshet Amba Elementary School. 

After traveling back to Ethiopia and meeting with locals and officials in Beklo Manekya, Georgina learned the group consensus: They wanted financing for the construction of a school. With nine primary schools and only one secondary school in the area, more than 1,000 kids are denied access to the only high school within reasonable distance.

In 2011, Georgina and her friend Sophie Coleman founded a non-profit, School’s a Gift, and began fundraising while their partners on the ground began designing. School’s a Gift has raised over $50,000 Australian dollars in the past year, more than enough to finance the construction of the school.  

“People have just really trusted me and my passion for the cause and they've been so generous,” said Georgina. “And it means there are an extra 500 students who can attend secondary school this year.” In September 2013, the new Beklo Manekya Secondary School classrooms will open their doors and government-assigned teachers will run the show. The government finances the school’s operations while School’s a Gift is charged with providing annual funding for building management, which is expected to be less than $5,000 yearly.

The Beklo Manekya Secondary School will open its new set of classrooms in September 2013. 

With one school under her belt, Georgina is now focused on School’s a Gift’s next project: improving the learning conditions of Eshet Amba Elementary School. As it stands now, the school is constructed with mud and has no desks or chairs, Georgina explains. It’s also dark and cold. She’s determined to build new rooms for the school to improve the learning environment and encourage attendance.

“You don't have to be Bill and Melinda Gates to make a difference,” Georgina reflects. “If this all that I do in my lifetime, that's still amazing. Although, I'd love to be Bill or Melinda Gates.”

You can connect with School’s a Gift on Facebook or donate to the Eshet Amba Elementary School project here.

Have you been inspired by the Half the Sky Movement? Share your story.

To put things into perspective, U.S. maternal mortality is 21 per 100,000 live births with an infant mortality of 5 per 1,000 births.

I had read the statistics. We all have. I knew about the problems and the need. What I did not know was how generous the people are with their loving kindness –– and their laughter.

Awakening the first morning in Hargeisa at the Edna Adan Ismail Hospital to the sound of the Muezzin call to prayer, I peeked out the window where I sleep in the hospital. Beautiful women walking into the courtyard of the hospital greeted my jet-lagged eyes. Multicolored flowing robes and head coverings. Like a large group of colorful nuns.

Nursing students after being up all night in the Neonatal ICU

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.

One nurse confided to me that her dream after completing her courses here is to go to medical school and become a pediatrician. Another had no idea how much she would like taking care of the newborns until we started the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Now she wants to specialize in neonatal nursing.

Although they are well versed in caring for these critical babies now, all of them were scared of preemie care at first. Babies that small do not usually survive here.

What I also did not know is how much I would love the babies. And the moms. And the grandmothers.

It is very different practicing medicine here. You make things work with the supplies available. There are no ventilators. We make bush CPAP contraptions for the premature babies from bottled drinking water –– this skill was passed on to me by a volunteer midwife, Geraldine Lee, from Seattle who was so attached to the babies that she recruited me to care for them the minute I met her (she was leaving the next day). Two incubators / four preemies: we fill bottles and gloves with warm water to try to keep their temperature up the best we can. I had no idea how much work it was to do the NICU nursing until I took over myself when they were short staffed one day because the students had an exam. I'll never take the nursing care for granted again! Especially here where everything takes longer and we do not have all the bells and whistles available in hospitals in industrialized countries.

Somehow, hearing all the statistics and the push for women's empowerment in Somaliland, I expected downtrodden women. Now I understand that it takes a tough cookie to make it here. These women (and men) are for the most part smart, beautiful –– and very feisty. This in spite of the fact that a woman cannot even sign for her own procedure, but rather requires her husband's consent.

And then there is Edna. A force of nature. When I first emailed her asking if there was anything I could do if I came as a volunteer doctor, I warned her that I am 58 years old. She laughed and said that she was older than that when she started this hospital. And I came.

So many stories. So many happy stories. The preemies who get stronger and stronger. Their mothers. Their grandmothers. The baby boy who was transferred to us from another hospital here with seizures and aspiration pneumonia as well as no urine output and failing kidneys, who eventually became well and went home with his family.

Hassan who had aspiration pneumonia with poorly functioning kidneys and seizures from birth held by his mother

My first (and only) premature baby death was completely unexpected. She was a newborn, and the baby I was least concerned about in the unit. I happened to be right there in the room when she stopped breathing, and the anesthesiologist happened to stick his head in right while I was suctioning and beginning the resuscitation. Both of us working on her could not bring her back.

I went to the next room where her mother was recovering from her caesarian section to tell her that her little baby girl had died. She put her arm on mine and told me not to cry. She took the time to console me. Or maybe we consoled each other. Not so much as doctor to patient, but as mother to mother. I think that was the moment that I fell in love with this country and its people.

Young mothers bonding with their premature babies.

Then there are the deliveries. The very real danger that each woman goes through each and every time she becomes pregnant. Each expectant mother knows other mothers who have died in childbirth. They all know the risks they are taking. And yet with the infant mortality as high as it is, the average woman becomes pregnant 10 times in her lifetime with the hopes that she will bring two or three children to adulthood.

The Ethiopian woman who travelled so far with her five and six-year-old in tow, leaving her three-year-old in the care of her blind mother. Coming so many miles with the desperate hope that someone might fix her broken life. Crying as she held my arm after I examined her in the operating theater, as more of her story unfolded. She went into labor with her fourth child, but three days later she was still in labor and only then taken to a hospital where the dead baby was removed surgically. Immediately afterwards, the urine began to leak continually from her vaginal area and down her legs as her now seven-month relationship with her vesico-vaginal fistula began. As if that wasn't enough, she already had a deformity in her left leg and foot and after the obstructed labor she found she had a foot drop in her right "good" foot. Prior to this she could walk with a limp, but now she cannot walk without great difficulty, and only while holding on to someone. Her husband left her and their three children to fend for themselves. Destitute and broken, we are her last hope. 

Yes, there is great tragedy, great suffering and great need. Yes, there is much work to do together for empowerment of women here, to create opportunities that engender freedom and equality. And yes, there is a unique soul to the people of Somaliland that burns brightly and warms the embers of your heart when you visit. May it burn ever more brightly, and may these bright, brave and strong women see their own little girls grow to be educated and healthy self sufficient loving mothers and grandmothers.

Eve Bruce, MD –– herself a mother of four and grandmother of nine –– is volunteering at Edna Adan Hospital in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Support her work by donating to the CrowdRise fundraiser for incubators.

Although the problems seem vast, there are maternal health advocates working now to help women who suffer from obstetric fistula, and to help ensure that mothers around the world receive the care they need to safely deliver their children. We’re 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. Documentary filmmaker Perri Peltz will moderate the discussion and field questions from you!

The speakers bring a range of perspectives from their backgrounds as maternal health advocates. Edna Adan,  who was highlighted in the book and PBS television documentary series Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, was forced to undergo female genital mutilation at the age of eight, which set her on a path to become a passionate advocate against female circumcision, including during her career at the World Health Organization. Edna used her life’s savings to open a hospital for women in rural Somaliland because of the overwhelming need in her native country of Somalia, which was devastated by civil war –– leaving it with one of highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the world. She’s on a mission to train and dispatch 1,000 midwives throughout Somalia and to fight the longstanding practice of female genital mutilation.

Every Mother Counts, a nonprofit started by Christy Turlington Burns, shines a light on and builds support for organizations like Edna’s. Widely known as a successful international model, Christy was compelled by her own experiences as a mother to use her fame as a platform to raise awareness about the lack of basic maternal care for women in the developing world. In 2010, Turlington directed No Woman, No Cry, a documentary exploring the obstacles to maternal health around the world and shortly thereafter founded Every Mother Counts. The organization helps educate people about the maternal health challenges faced by women around the world and provides an answer and outlet for those wanting to know how they can get involved.

Kate Grant has been CEO of The Fistula Foundation since 2005, when they supported one institution providing critical care to women suffering from fistulas after childbirth in Ethiopia; its current global reach extends through 42 sites throughout 19 countries. The foundation provides funding to build hospitals, equipment, medical staff and fistula surgery treatment, and has been a long-term partner and supporter of Edna. The Oprah Winfrey Show and Nicholas Kristof have featured The Fistula Foundation’s great work.

Moderator Perri Peltz recently directed the highly acclaimed HBO documentary, The Education of Dee Dee Ricks, which profiles the disparities in the U.S. health care system as seen through the lens of an unlikely friendship between two very different women battling breast cancer. Both in and outside journalism, Perri has pursued her passion for public health and medicine.  Working at the Robin Hood Foundation, she developed volunteer programs to assist organizations in their fight against poverty.

We hope you will tune in to the Google+ Hangout to learn more from these incredible women! Leave your questions for the panelists in the comments section, and they will be answered in real time! Please RSVP here and we will send the link ten minutes before we start.

In fact, of the 675 out of 100,000 women who die in childbirth in Malawi each year most have not even reached their 20th birthdays. They likely look like you, your daughters, your sisters — but they have lost their adult lives before they even began.

Teen girls are at a far greater risk for maternal mortality for a number of reasons. They often keep their pregnancies secret out of shame and fear, and thus don’t get the kind of prenatal medical attention that helps prevent problems later on. Additionally, those who live deep in the country (over 80 percent of Malawi’s population is considered rural) often don’t get to medical clinics in time to get help.

And this leads us to the question: Why do teenage girls in Malawi, and countries like it, get pregnant at such high rates? In part it is because so few of them have access to secondary education (a.k.a. high school), which is not free in Malawi.

As The Girl Effect, 10x10 and so many girls and women advocates have emphasized over the past decade, educating a girl is the best investment to reverse almost every “wicked problem” our world faces. In this case, educate a girl, and she is less likely to get pregnant at a young age and less likely to suffer from a pregnancy complication, like fistula, or even death.

She is also more likely to learn about and access contraception, which means she is more likely to have a smaller family (the current average is 5.7 children per mother in Malawi presently), which means she is putting less pressure on the already overstressed climate and natural resources.

Maternal mortality is linked to girls’ education is linked to access to contraception is linked to climate change… As John Muir has said, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it is tied to everything else in the universe."

The good news is that Malawi is currently being led by Joyce Banda, the second woman to rule an African nation after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia. Banda has created a Presidential Initiative on Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood, which aims to reduce the maternal mortality rate from 165 per 100,000 women to 115 by 2015. Her work is supported by the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health led by former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson.

Mary Robinson and Joyce Banda. Photo credit: John Cary.

Keep an eye on this extraordinary leader and this special country. It could become a model for the rest of Africa for how to reduce maternal mortality, empower girls and heal the environment.  

 Author and strategist Courtney E. Martin, along with The Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, visited President Joyce Banda and her cabinet for an official consultation on their work around family planning and safe motherhood.

Like many social enterprises, the idea for WAM Theatre was based on Kristen’s own experience — in her case, in theater. She acknowledges, “I didn’t have the resilience to be on the frontline of human trafficking, but I knew I could create an entertaining moment in the theatre.” She reached out to her friend Leigh, a fellow actor and director, to co-found a new professional theatre company that would create opportunity for women in the theatre as well as benefit women's organizations in their local communities and abroad.

Members of WAM Theatre Donate 25 percent of proceeds from 'Old Mezzo' to an NGO Beneficiary

With initial support from friends and family, the project has grown to include five mainstage events, often exploring a complex female lead, such as a woman struggling to rebuild her life after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Kristen says, “Our play last year was about three sisters who lose their parents and have to come together to redefine their futures together. These are poignant and inspiring feminist tales that everyone can enjoy.”

Twenty-five percent of each ticket sale is donated to organizations investing in women on the ground, which has included Women for Women International, Edna Adan’s University Hospital as well as Shout Out Loud Productions, a local organization raising awareness about sex trafficking of children, and another local organization working to prevent teen pregnancy. Kristen and her co-founder Leigh describe their theater as “double philanthropy”: providing opportunities to female artists and re-investing a portion of ticket sales into causes that benefit women.

The plays and special events have covered a breadth of social issues. WAM hosted a festival of women’s solo work — O Solo Mama Mia Festival — in Spring 2011, which explored women’s empowerment through topics such as bullying, coming out, dealing with depression and finding therapy.

The idea of women helping women is reflected in the theatre’s name — WAM — or Women’s Action Movement. However, the acronym has grown to include “Women and Men”, a reflection of the diverse appeal of the theatre’s philanthropic mission to support female causes and the arts. WAM Theatre supports female artists in particular.

Kristen is quick to point out that gender inequality is a problem in the theatre industry. Quoting the playwright Theresa Rebeck, she explains that "Over the last 25 years, the number of plays produced that were written by women seems to have vacillated between 12 and 17 percent. So, it would be fair to say that under 20% of all plays produced in North America are by female playwrights.”

WAM aims to help address this inequality. In 2012, the theater provided nearly 30 paid contracts to theater professionals and over 75 percent were for women. Among them is Susan Dworkin, one of the original writers of Ms. Magazine – a landmark feminist magazine founded in 1971 — who was the playwright of The Old Mezzo,’ about the political awakening of an opera singer, which debuted at WAM Theatre last year.

Kristen says, “Thanks to the support of our community and the inspiration of the Half the Sky Movement, the model of using theatre to benefit women and girls is working.”

On March 15, WAM theatre and Sisters for Peace will be hosting a screening of the PBS television series Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide with guest speakers to follow. To find out more, visit their website at http://www.wamtheatre.com. Follow WAM Theatre on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/WAMTheatre.

Good Morning Breakfast (@gmb_official), a pop group that donated their song “Summersound Fesitval” tweeted about their involvement Thursday: 

“Just joined #musicforgood now half of my song sales are donated to @HALF - show your support - http://rvrb.fm/UR6iNk”

Absolutely Daniel (@absolutedaniel) also tweeted:

“#AbsolutelyDaniel just joined #musicforgood now: half of his song sales are donated to @HALF - show your support - http://rvrb.fm/12rmoU5”

Many thanks to the many artists who chose Half the Sky Movement as their beneficiary!

Browse the selection and purchase a song at ReverbNation (@ReverbNation) today!

After talking to her friends and family about the book, she says that she “felt helpless but desperately wanted to take action.” Meera did some research and was inspired by the mission of Dining for Women –– an organization whose members hold monthly dine in meetings and donate the money they would have used to dine out to a grassroots non-profit organization helping women and girls in the developing world. Borrowing the idea, Meera started her own Dine IN Vancouver project. 

Meera and other members of Dine IN Vancouver

On the third Saturday of each month, Meera invites her friends over to her house in Vancouver for a women’s only potluck dinner. Diners donate what they can to a partner non-governmental organization (NGO) of the Half the Sky Movement. Before starting the project, Meera carefully determined which issues to highlight and selected NGOs to fundraise for throughout the year. She reached out to each of them beforehand. “I like to feel connected and to have a relationship with the organizations, and of course, have a level of transparency through those relationships.” When she reaches out to an NGO, she asks about how her dine-in group can support them and how their contributions can make a difference to their work.

A therapist by trade, Meera has experience working with women who have been abused. She also sometimes volunteers at a drop-in center for women in the sex trade in Vancouver that is based on values of non-judgment and harm reduction. Because of these experiences, Meera felt an affinity for Apne Aap –– an organization founded by 21 former prostitutes to end sex trafficking in India. This year alone, with the help of individuals like Meera and her dine-in group, Apne Aap has offered vocational training to 730 women, giving them an alternative livelihood to prostitution, and helped 100 women get access to safe and independent housing.

One issue that she had no knowledge of prior to reading the book was fistula. Meera was shocked to learn that such a preventable childbirth injury had such devastating effects on the lives of young women in the developing world.

With her network of friends and neighbors, she has raised money for many of the organizations from the book, including Mukhtar Mai Women’s Rights Project, Sister Somalia and the Hamlin Fistula Hospital –– for a total of $2,500 to date.

Meera says Dine IN Vancouver has “created a stronger community, where women can come together to discuss and contribute to these issues at the same time enjoy good food and each others company.” She’s excited to continue and expand the program next year. Though it’s a women’s only event, Meera says they would make an exception for one man: Nicholas Kristof.

If you have any questions for Meera, she has kindly offered to answer via email at m_winsor@shaw.ca.

What has the Half the Sky Movement inspired you to do? Share your story.

“I thought of what my life would be like if I didn’t have school,” said Olivia in an interview. “We were thinking of stuff to do and my mom thought people could bring one dollar to school. I said, ‘Why don’t we do it every month on the first of every month?’”

Olivia Christian publicizes Girl Power Day at King Edward Public School. 

And so Girl Power Day was born. Since the launch, Olivia has collected more than $300 from her peers at King Edward Public School for the organization Room to Read, which supports literacy and gender equality in schools in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa. At least two other schools in Windsor County, Ontario have recently signed on to the initiative as well.

“Seeing Malala’s story really made me feel like we have to do something. Now, I want to make the Taliban feel ashamed for what they did. There is no reason for anyone to hurt little girls,” Olivia said. Malala Yousafzai, who has gained international recognition for her brave advocacy of girls’ education, was shot in the head and neck on October 9 by a member of the Taliban.

Olivia and her mother have been sending letters to schools in the area asking them to join Girl Power Day. “I met with the school board director and he gave me $32 and told me it was a good idea and he’d help me with it,” said Olivia. She is hoping the campaign will grow to various schools around the world.

If you’re interested in joining Olivia’s campaign, you can reach her through her mother’s email address at vanessachristian7821@yahoo.com. She is aiming to raise more than $200 on January 1, 2013, and would love your support.

Soon after their conversation, Jhumpa offered up a negative from her trip to Kolkata, India, of men sitting outside of a bookstore. With its first donation in place, Shutter to Think — a recently formed organization dedicated to raising money for girls’ education across the globe by selling photographs taken by prominent individuals in the arts — was officially under way.

On the “Learn” page of the Shutter to Think website, Tracy reveals her inspiration for starting the organization by including a quote from Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, which states, “In the nineteenth century, the central moral conflict was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was a battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century, the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.”

Tracy Middendorf

Tracy was struck by this message and anxious to effect change. She started heavily researching the topic, and concluded that education was the core solution to many problems that girls in developing countries face. “I felt like I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what I could do as an actress,” she said. “Originally I wanted to have artists donate artwork, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a huge contribution a painting was.”

After a few years of tweaking her plan, Tracy settled on the idea of having well-known actors, writers, directors and musicians donate personal photographs. Contributors include ER actor Anthony Edwards, Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance and New York Times bestselling author Frank Wisner, among fourteen others.

“These are people that are constantly traveling and working on different locations,” Tracy said. “I was curious to see what they find beautiful, and to get a bit of their soul and spirit rather than what’s written about them in tabloids.”

Shutter to Think launched December 1, and will donate 100 percent of each photograph’s profits to one of the eight globally-recognized partner organizations that the buyer chooses, such as such as Room to Read, CARE and Camfed.

Tracy hopes to collect at least 80 images — 16,000 prints — each year to create education funds for at least 16,000 girls. “I’m sort of flying blindly,” she said, when explaining her future plans. “I’ve never done anything like this, and the art world is very arbitrary as far as what people will pay for.”

For those that want to support the cause but cannot afford a print, Tracy has included a “Bags into Books” page on her website. Through this campaign, the sale of each customized Shutter to Think tote bag will provide a girl with a year’s supply of textbooks. For bigger budgets, Tracy has included a “Master Collection,” through which specific prints include personal letters of authentication from the photographers.

Both Shutter to Think and the Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide documentary incorporate celebrities in order to gain viewership and generate interest. “I went after directors, writers, etc., because it’s who I know — they’re my friends,” Tracy said. “I personally would watch the documentary, or be interested in the photographs without the celebrities, but a lot of Americans wouldn’t… It’s more important to get the word out and if that’s what it takes to do so then I think that’s fine.”

To learn more about Shutter to Think and to see the photographs, visit their website, like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

If you’ve taken action because of the Half the Sky Movement, please take a minute and, in front of a camera, tell us what you’ve done this year. We want to hear about all types of actions — anything from signing a petition to starting your own organization. If you held an event and have video footage, we'd love to see that, too! Alternatively, you can send photos and descriptions of what you’ve been up to. Please submit your videos and photos by next Monday, December 10 to actions@halftheskymovement.org. 

Save your photos in the highest resolution possible. If the file exceeds 10MB, you can send it for free via wesendit.

A few tips on filming yourself: 

• Make sure you’re in a quiet, well lit room. Place your recording device on a stable surface and make sure you’re in focus. Keep the video to two minutes if you can. You can use your smartphone, computer camera or digital camera and save the video as a Quicktime .mov file. If you want to show off your tech savvy, you can use the following formats: a Quicktime .mov file with h.264 compression, preferably at a 5 mbps data rate. Audio should be 48k and AAC compression or better.

What to say:

• Tell us your name and where you’re from.
• Personalize the statement: “Half the Sky Movement inspired me to _______.”
• Sum up your action in a complete sentence or two. You can elaborate further after that. For example, what was the impact of your action? What are your plans going forward?
• Tell us what inspired you. Maybe you watched the film and wanted to help combat sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. Maybe you read about Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan and wanted to advocate for girls’ access to education. Whatever the reason, we want to know!

We know the Half the Sky Movement supporters to be some of the most passionate, creative go-getters around, and we can’t wait to see your submissions!

“My sister and I lived in India together when I was 19 to train to become yoga teachers, so it’s special place to us… After I watched the movie, [which includes a segment on forced prostitution in India,] I called her and we talked about it, and decided that we had the same feelings,” Emilee said. “She found the Global Seva Challenge through Off the Mat Into the World, and we immediately signed up.”

Emilee in her day job as a doula and infant massage instructor.

The Global Seva Challenge is raising money this year for six organizations that assist survivors of sex trafficking in India, including Apne Aap (Delhi), Kolkata Sanved (Kolkata), and Clean Himalaya (Rishikesh), but the ultimate goal is to raise awareness about the industry as a global issue.

The challenge has been sponsored by Off the Mat Into the World (OTM) since 2007. OTM teaches its participants to take their yoga “off the mat,” and bring its principles and power “into the world” to inspire activism and conscious social change. The challenge focuses on a different issue and location each year, raising awareness and funds to combat worldwide problems and support local communities. In the past, the Seva Challenge has raised more than $2 million to support projects in Cambodia, Uganda, South Africa and Haiti.

Emilee explained the connection between yoga and activism, saying, “When you practice yoga, you’re training your body, getting healthy and clearing your mind. I can tap into my compassion and sense of service so much more easily from a clear-hearted space that comes from a yoga community.”

As a community ambassador, Emilee’s objective (as well as her sister's) is to raise $20,000 by the end of December that will go to the partner nonprofits. If she reaches her goal, she will get to join the founders of these organizations in India to engage in leadership training programs, so that she may better educate and engage her local communities.

While Emilee has only recently joined the campaign, others have been actively raising money since the beginning of the year. The yogi explained that she has cleared her schedule almost entirely, and has made this her primary focus. Recently, she recorded herself explaining what sex trafficking is and asking viewers to donate in support of her cause. She sent the video to 1,200 of her Facebook friends, and requested that they watch it and circulate it among their networks. So far, she has reached almost a quarter of her goal.

New to the charity world, Emilee is figuring out her plan as she goes. Throughout the next month, she hopes to host screenings and fundraising events, as well as travel to Los Angeles in an effort to reach out to various businesses.

“I've been helping women and children since I was a teenager, primarily through the birth world as a doula and infant massage instructor, but I had never been given any real education or thought about global women’s oppression — the Half the Sky movie did just that,” Emilee said. The most profound message that she took away from the film was simple: “The oppression of women can stop and so it must.”

Click here to donate to Emilee Benner’s campaign, or watch her video on YouTube.

To learn more about the Global Seva Challenge 2012, visit the Off the Mat Into the World website, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

For updates on Emilee's journey and fundraising process, visit her blog.

In the beginning, AWARE helped organizations that specialized in such areas as violence against women, teen pregnancy and women in poverty. However, as members of the group started changing careers, getting married and having children, the group lost its momentum. Rachel went to graduate school and received a degree in social work.

Last year, members of a book club that Rachel belongs to read Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The book had an immediate impact on her; she kept asking herself, “What’s next?” Many of the book club members had been in AWARE and were inspired to revive the organization.

For their initial beneficiary, the newly reformed group selected Barrier Free Living Freedom House, the first nationally recognized shelter that serves disabled domestic violence victims and their families.

AWARE’s approach to helping is three-tiered, focused on fundraising, volunteering and educating. The roughly 45-member group held its Desserts, Drinks and Dancing fundraiser Oct. 18, with wildly successful results: They raised more than $25,000 through auction items, raffles, ticket packages and donations. One person who canvassed for auction items received 40 donations in a single day. Those funds purchased the shelter a disabled accessible oven, allowing the women to cook their own Thanksgiving meal for the first time.

Next up, AWARE plans to hold a carnival in the spring for the women and children helped by Barrier Free Living Freedom House. For the education component, they’re planning a health fair for the women to teach skills such as how to do a self-breast exam and dental hygiene. Many of AWARE’s are doctors or nurses, which will let them put their medical skills to use.

Rachel says that they’re always looking for New York-based organizations that can benefit from AWARE’s multi-faceted approach. Want to recommend one? Contact them through their website and connect with them on Facebook. 

Muneera at her storefront in Kamalia, Pakistan.

I had heard about Kashf Foundation from others, but had never felt the need to access the credit. I was afraid at the beginning, but when I saw my household suffering due to the lack of resources, it gave me the courage to come up with a business idea and ask Kashf Foundation for a loan. I had heard many stories of bad treatment at the hands of banks and formal institutions for clients with low-volume transactions. This concerned me because my loan was only around US $100. The staff members at the Kashf office, however, were very nice. They treated me with respect and assessed my business need. They not only gave me the loan, but also gave me advice on what kind of inventory to place at my grocery store.

After my grocery store was set up, we realized that there was a lot of competition in our area. When we learned that there were virtually no stores in the adjoining villages, we took another loan from Kashf Foundation and changed our business model. Now, while we still have a grocery store, we use most of the space inside as a “warehouse,” and my son uses his motorbike to deliver supplies to nearby villages. We supply some direct users and some small-scale shops with our merchandise. Our idea was a success, and we have significantly improved our household income. Moreover, my son, who was previously unemployed due to the lack of job opportunities, is now gainfully employed by my business.

Muneera at her store in Kamalia, Pakistan.

I took my first loan in 2008, and am a returning client to Kashf Foundation. Overtime, Kashf has made Financial Education and Financial Literacy mandatory for us. They have provided training, which have helped us better understand our businesses (especially our cash-flows), and have given us more confidence in making financial decisions. Once or twice a year, we also get the opportunity to enjoy theatre performances that Kashf undertakes in our areas on relevant topics, such as daughters’ education and mainstreaming women in the economy. This has made me more aware of issues that we face. Since I am more knowledgeable now, I don’t blindly take advice, and I question things that I previously accepted as reality.

Muneera Bibi is a client of the Kashf Foundation. For more information on the Kashf Foundation follow them on Facebook and Twitter.