Roughly one year ago I was seated inside a three-story building in the heart of one of Delhi’s many slums, on the floor of an all girls school, one of the first in the slums that focused on helping girls who have been sexually abused, to emotionally heal and go to school. As a mother and a global advocate, the scene inside the school was heartbreaking. For these girls were the same age as my own daughter yet had already seen more hardship than imaginable. Yet somehow these girls had one common dream: The dream of an education and lifting themselves out of the poverty and daily struggles of life inside a slum.
As we entered the Protsahan school, girls were meditating to help them prepare for their day of school.
My experience in India reminded me of the uttermost importance of education especially for girls. The statistics around the world are dire yet also full of hope and opportunity for the future. More than 57 million children worldwide are denied the basic right to go to school (33 million of which are girls) and Nigeria where girls have recently been violently kidnapped from school, is home to the most out of school children in the world.
What is even more shocking is that 250 million girls and boys – nearly 40% of the world’s children of primary school age – can’t even read a single sentence.
This is a tragedy but there is hope. World leaders will be convening this June to discuss the replenishment of the Global Partnership for Education, a international fund that has already helped support quality education for 22 million children in some of the world’s most challenging environments.
Education in Afghanistan Girls at Ayno Meena Number Two school in the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan, which was built in late 2008 with support from GPE funding. Photo Credit: GPE/Jawad Jalali
I have very exciting news! I am honored to announce that I will be one of nine new media journalists heading withThe International Reporting Projectto Ethiopia in June to report on newborn health. The announcement was made yesterday and I can hardly wait to start researching and learning all I can about Ethiopia.
Just in time for Mother’s Day, Save the Children released its 15th annual State of the World’s Mothers report this week revealing the best and most difficult places to be a mother. This year’s report focuses on saving the millions of mothers, newborns and children living in fragile communities due to conflict and natural disasters, and their everyday struggle to survive.
Being a mother is a tough job. I can attest. But imagine what it is like being a mother in a war-torn country or in a place that has been struck by a natural disaster. Caring for your family becomes a daily race for survival. It is something that no parent should have to imagine. I applaud Save the Children for their amazing work and dedication to saving the mothers and children of our planet. These are the voiceless. It is time to give them a voice.
A mother holds her baby suffering from spina-bafida malformation in the special Baby Care Unit at Turai Yaradua maternal and children Hospital, Katsina, Northern Nigeria. Photo Source: Pep Bonet/Noor for Save the Children
Following is a summary of the highlights in the report and five key urgent actions required to help save mothers and children around the globe. All information below is taken directly from Save the Children’s 2014 State of World’s Mothers report.
Save the Children’s 2014 State of World Mother’s report
2013 proved to be a challenging year for mothers and children faced with an extraordinary amount of humanitarian crises. Sudan, Syria, The DRC and the Philippines have all experienced severe hardship while even here in the United States families have been displaced and children threatened after the Oklahoma tornadoes and dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The 2014 State of World’s Mothers Report documents the progress we’ve made as well as the critical steps that must be taken to ensure that all moms and children are safe.
Being on a people to people tour in Cuba meant that every day of our week on the island was filled with cultural interactions. We met with Cubans in the arts, explored historical sites and museums, and also learned about some of Cuba’s community projects and government initiatives. Coming from a Communist regime, of course a lot of what we were seeing and hearing was the good side of Castro’s policies. Although overall communism in Cuba clearly does not work, there are a few things that are working exceptionally well such as Cuba’s Universal Health Care System.
During my week in Cuba, I had the opportunity to meet with a Cuban doctor at one of Havana’s clinics, visit a center for elderly Cubans, and hear lectures on the Cuban health care system, giving me fascinating insight into a few of the progressive policies initiated after the Cuban revolution.
The blue sign tells people that it is legal to rent rooms from a private house, a new profession that doctors and other highly educated people in Cuba are taking on in order to earn more money.
I have always been someone who is strongly connected to nature and the amazing world we live in. As we head into the next several decades and I watch my children grow, I become increasingly concerned about the fragility of our planet and our inability to protect what is most sacred: Mother Earth. Without fresh water or food to feed a growing population that is expected to reach 9 billion, what will we have? We are already seeing the devastating impact of global climate change yet not much has changed to stop it. There are even people who still don’t believe it is real.
So today on Earth Day, I wonder what will become of our planet? Will we have a place so full of beauty and life that we do now? Or will it all be gone?
Taking a break and breathing in the fresh pure air of the French Alps.
I’m not trying to sound pessimistic but I take the effects of global climate change seriously. I even take it perhaps a bit too far to overcompensate for what we are doing to our planet. I recycle as much as possible, I try to cut down on waste, I stop the water tap instead of letting it run and I always bring reusable bags for shopping. I realize that I am often the only one in line at the store with my reusable bag while everyone is putting even one tiny item into a plastic or paper bag that they don’t need. It is all such a waste.
But sadly the little things that I am doing isn’t enough. We need everyone to come together to protect our world before the world we know is gone. So on this special Earth Day 2014, let us each think of one small thing we can do to reduce, reuse and recycle. To cherish, protect and save our planet.
As a mother of two children ages 7 and 9, there are times in life that my heart breaks when I hear about tragic injustices being done to children. This is one of them.
Last week I was contacted by a new powerful campaign called “La Alianza Ayuda” spearheaded by LatinWorks and La Alianza, the Central American branch of US-based Covenant House to raise awareness about the unspeakable: The rampant sexual abuse that is plaguing young girls across Guatemala. Tragically, the issue of sexual abuse committed against girls in Guatemala has become one of the most serious social issues in the country as thousands of adolescent children are sexually abused by relatives.
Disclaimer: This post is a part of a sponsored awareness program and campaign by Seventh Generation to raise awareness and demand change to the Toxic Substances Control Act by April 30, 2014. All the research for this post was provided by Seventh Generation but all the views below are my own.
As a mom, advocate and someone who cares deeply about our planet, I have joined an exciting new campaign sponsored by Seventh Generation, a leading producer and distributor of environmentally-safe household products, to raise awareness about the hundreds of toxic chemicals in our products that are hurting our families and our world.
Toxic chemicals are a great concern of mine. I take pride in the fact that I read product labels carefully and always try to buy environmentally friendly and safe products to use in my home. This applies to every product I by: Food, household products and toiletries such as shampoo, conditioner and soap. I honestly thought I was doing a good job by keeping nasty, toxic chemicals out of my body, my families bodies and the environment.
Yet like most consumers, I was wrong. I was unaware that of the 85,000 synthetic chemicals introduced into the American market since the Toxic Substances Control Act was passed in 1976, only a mere 10% of them have required testing by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). Therefore, that means thousands of synthetic chemicals are currently being used in our products that we have no idea whether or not they are safe to our bodies and our planet.
Author’s note: A modified version of this post was published today as well on Elephant Journal. To see this post click here.
This Saturday, March 22, is World Water Day– a day delegated by the United Nations to recognize the importance and need of safe water around the world. In honor of this important day, I am thrilled to be working with the Mom Bloggers for Social Good and WaterAid to help raise awareness of the desperate need for safe drinking water and sanitation around the world. Safe water and sanitation transforms lives and is one of the keys to bringing people out of poverty.
What it’s all about. A Day. A Message. A Vision for Change. “Every drop Every Day”.
Every day, millions of women walk miles to fetch water, often carrying a child too. When the child gets too heavy to carry, they are left at home, often unsupervised. Photo credit: WaterAid.
Did you know that 783 million people do not have access to safe drinking water?
Step back and think about this statistic for a moment. What would you do if you were not able to simply turn on your faucet and fill up your glass or pot with clean, safe water? How would you manage and care for your family?
To most of us in the Western world, the thought of not having instant access to clean, safe drinking water is literally unimaginable. However, for 11 % of the world’s population, this is a tragic reality. When you combine having unsafe drinking water with poor sanitation, it leads to diarrhea which kills 2,000 children every single day. Something completely unthinkable to many of us.
Millions of people are trapped in a world in which clean, fresh and safe water is not even a remote option and sanitation is also lacking. In fact, 1 in 3 people worldwide or 2.5 billion people – do not have access to a safe, private toilet. Not having safe water and sanitation lead to dire consequences and sadly reinforces illnesses, disease and death while significantly contributing to poverty.
In honor of bringing attention to the importance of safe water and sanitation for all, WaterAid has asked that we share our #WaterStory. When I was in India this past May with Mom Bloggers for Social Good, I saw firsthand how safe drinking water and sanitation needs impact people living in extreme poverty. I spent a scorching afternoon with temperatures climbing almost to 120 degrees Fahrenheit touring one of WaterAid’s work sites. Here is my story.
My Water Story:
Behind the beautiful, lavish parts of Delhi always lies the most abject poverty imaginable. I have read several books on the slums of India and thought I’d know what to expect when I saw them in person. Yet nothing I’d ever seen in all my years of travel could have prepared me for the stark reality of desperation, misery and despair of walking through a real live slum in the heart of India’s capital.
Women sitting outside the American Embassy near the Vivekananda Camp, an unauthorized slum in Delhi, India.
In the background of the lush green, beautiful grounds of the American Embassy lies the Vivekananda Camp, one of many unauthorized slums that surround every single part of Delhi. We visited this slum as part of our tour with WaterAid, a global NGO that provides safe drinking water and sanitation to areas around the world that do not have access to it.
The stark contrast between the neighboring American Embassy and the Vivekananda Slum were almost too hard to morally comprehend. These two places represent the immense contradictions and inequalities that can be found all throughout Delhi and India as a whole. One of the greatest inequalities ever seen anywhere in the world is right there staring into your face, making it impossible to not feel deeply distraught.
In the Vivekananda Camp, a slum of approximately 500 households, there is no running water, no sewer lines and people live in absolute dire circumstances. Thanks to WaterAid, improvements to sanitation have been made by the building of a Community Toilet Complex (CTC), a compound containing 20 toilets for women, 20 for men and a few for children as well as a couple of showers, providing some sort of dignity in a place where dignity hardly exists.
The Community Toilet Compound (CTC) inside the Vivekananda unauthorized slum.
The entrance to the CTC which is a pay per use system costing 1 Rupee ($0.02) per use for women, 2 Rupees per use for men and free for children. The charge is used to maintain the facility.
Inside the women’s CTC. This one is a clean facility. Others have run into problems with clogged sewers. Each CTC is managed and monitored by a community worker from FORCE, a local NGO. Therefore, when there are issues with a CTC it can be resolved.
This concrete wall was added to the women’s toilet and shower area to provide privacy from the peeping Toms.
A Vivekananda women using the CTC (left) and a FORCE Project Coordinator on the right.
Vivekananda Slum.
Less than a third of people ( 772 million people) have access to sanitation in India, and 90 million people in India do not have access to safe water per WaterAid. Over 186,000 children under five die from diarrhea every year. With 17% of the world’s population (over a billion people), the water crisis in India is only getting worse and is becoming life or death for millions of people.
This post was written on behalf of my meeting with WaterAid India and our tour of the Vivekananda Slum. All statistics are sourced from WaterAid. All photos are mine.
We’ll be meeting up with inspirational women and girls who are eager to share their own #waterstory: a telling example of how smart investments around safe water and toilets can drive entrepreneurship, empower women and improve the health and wellbeing of entire communities.
Follow the journey on Jennifer’s blog and on social media using #WaterAidNica, then join us for a special World Water Day Twitter chat on Friday, March 21, 1pm ET, where Jennifer will be sharing her experience and welcoming your questions about all that she’s seen.
As a mother and advocate who cares deeply about our planet and is extremely concerned about global climate change, the debate about palm oil is extremely important to me. Earlier in the year, I wrote about palm oil on behalf of Rainforest Action Network in the following post here and argued that large food manufacturers must put an end to using conflict palm oil in their food. Sadly, palm oil is found in nearly 50 percent of the packaged foods on our grocery store shelves, and it is also the leading cause of orangutan extinction and rainforest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia.
After learning about the negative impact of conflict palm oil, I made a personal choice to ban buying any products or brands that use conflict palm oil in their products. Like my issue with chocolate (read my post “The Dark Side of Chocolate”), ethically I feel it is a decision I had to made. I said goodbye to my favorite peanut butter and also stopped buying Cheese-Its for my kids. When they asked me why I explained what conflict palm oil is doing to our environment and why it is critical that we speak up about it.
Speaking out against conflict palm oil has definitely lead to some exciting changes. Earlier this week, Mars Inc. a 30 billion dollar US snack food company, heeded the pressure of advocacy groups such as Rainforest Action Network and announced a sweeping new responsibly palm oil procurement commitment plan that promises to eliminate rainforest destruction, human rights violations and climate pollutions from their supply chains or be dropped by 2015. (Read full press release here).
Given the new developments in the palm oil debate, I wanted to feature a guest post about palm oil along with a recent US Scorecard released by the Union of Concerned Scientists about the recent push for debate about conflict palm oil.
Last week Global Impact, a leader in global philanthropy, launched the Women & Girls Fund in partnership with four of the best-in-the-business charities to help improve the lives of women and girls around the world. The Women & Girls Fund is unique in that it harnesses together four of the most respected charities in the field, CARE, World Vision, Plan and International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), to help change the world by investing in women and girls.
The plight of women and girls around the world is heartbreaking. Of roughly one billion people in the world who live in extreme poverty, the majority of them are women. I have written tirelessly about the struggles of women and girls because it is a cause I am truly passionate about.
Saturday, March 8th is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the advances and successes women have made around the world. In honor of this special day I am reposting last year’s summary of what this day means to me. The more I see the world and learn about the struggles women in the developing world face, the more inspired I am to make a difference. Thanks for reading and please spread the word.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”. – Alice Walker
A few months ago I watched a brilliant documentary called “Miss Representation“. Written and directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the award-winning film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. I have been meaning to write about the documentary for months yet had left it in the back burner until the Olympics began and some of the media coverage of the women althetes outraged me.
Two recent articles in particular (“Medals aren’t enough: Women athletes still have to sell sexiness” and “Scantily Clad Russian Olympians Are Making Us Uncomfortable“) made my anger flair and made me realize that as a society if women’s rights are ever going to improve, me must stop looking at them as sex objects. Certainly one can argue that it is in our biology and nature. Men will always covet and admire women and their bodies. Yet what I want to argue is that it is fine to admire a woman’s beauty but our powerful media does not need to continue to objectify women. It has come to the point where it is so commonplace that one often turns a blind eye to it. Let’s face it sex sells.
