Inhabitants in more developed and privileged countries have a tendency to focus and invest most in changing unjust laws. The problem is that in poor countries the legislation is often regarded as irrelevant in the rural areas and outside of the capital. Instead, the investments and the focus should be on changing the cultures/societies, which can primarily bee achieved through education as well as supporting grassroots movements. For example, it was non of the Amendments after the civil war that brought equal rights to the dark skinned in the U.S., it was rather the grassroots civil movements that accomplished that.
There is a need to focus in changing the reality and not just the laws.
However, you do not need to go to the other side of the world in order to make a difference regarding these issues, you can contribute from your home. The awareness regarding women’s empowerment and the importance of everyone’s possibility to education, worldwide, needs to increase in the West. The local change agents in these countries and societies needs to get support to stand up for their cause, they need supportive roles. That is something we can achieve by increasing the awareness concerning these issues
There are so many injustices in the world that all deserve attention and support. My personal commitment and dedication is towards women’s empowerment and education for everyone, since the latter is a solution for the former. They walk hand in hand in order to change the world.
If you share my dedication and want to contribute but don’t know where to start, I have written down some advise below:
If you are interested in people-to-people, meaning that they will link you directly to someone in need that you can support, these websites will give you a lot of opportunity to either invest solely in one project/person or in multiple:
- You can go to www.globalgiving.com. There you can find many grassroots project that you can help sponsor. There are active in many different countries and in more than just education, for example also among others health and disaster relief. The webpage is properly form and easy to use.
- http://globalgrassroots.org/get_involved.html is also an organisation where you can support grassroots movements, but this one is more focused on women in Africa.
- If you want to do a microloan to an individual entrepreneur, go to www.kiva.org. There you can lend or donate money to those who appeal to you.
- Sponsor a women or girl at http://www.womenforwomen.org or http://plan-international.org (where you can sponsor children, girls campaign and volunteer as well).
- Join CARE Action Network, http://www.care.org/get-involved/advocacy/care-act, which is based in the U.S., were you can communicate, learn and become a part of a global movement that advocated for the rights of women, children and poor families around the world.
You may also become a change agent by spreading awareness about them in your community. To learn more about why empowerment of women is such a critical issue you can do the following:
- I strongly recommend the module “Human Rights and Women’s Health” provided online by Stanford University. It is an eight week course with focus on different subject each week. Interviews, reading material, forums where you can meet people all over the world and discuss the subjects and more advise for how you can contribute. (https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/GlobalHealth)
- http://globalgrassroots.org/get_involved.html also wish to achieve more awareness in the West (they also have courses online).
You do not need to go to the other side of the world in order to make a difference regarding these issues. Just do whatever you can in order to contribute.