Tag Archives: Girls

May 3, 2013

What Every Mom Deserves on Mother’s Day

Categories: Commentary
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Mother’s Day is coming up soon and there is no better time than now to recognize the mothers in your life. There’s a reason those coupons you made for Mother’s Day when you were little were such a big hit. No matter what her challenges, every mom deserves a little extra love.

We have some cards that you can send out today and a few stories that we want to share with you. Give them a read and send out a card!

Giving moms a whine-free day:

Jeanine’s kids would have severe stomach aches a couple of times a month. The water from her village’s contaminated well made them so sick, going to school was impossible. PSI showed the mothers in her village how easy it was to use an inexpensive water purification product. Now the kids are dressed and ready for school before sunrise without complaint.

April 29, 2013

Family Planning as a Tool of Empowerment for Women

Categories: Global Health Beat
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When a woman is in charge of her reproductive destiny, she is healthier and more resilient. And the benefits for a sustainable world ripple on. Empowering women is a powerful achievement. Fast Company’s Ben Schiller highlights the findings of the study noting the negative impact of care-giving on economic participation.

A report from Booz & Company shows that employing women in equal numbers to men could raise the United States’ GDP by 5%, Japan’s by 9%, the United Arab Emirates’ by 12%, and Egypt’s by a jaw-dropping 34%. “Even small increases in the opportunities available to women, and some release of the cultural and political constraints that hold them back, can lead to dramatic economic and social benefits,” it says.

Read the full report here.

March 13, 2013

DC Residents: See Documentary Girl Rising in April

Categories: Global Health Beat
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Check out a special screening of the documentary film Girl Rising on April 17 in Georgetown. Girl Rising tells the stories of 9 extraordinary girls from 9 countries, written by 9 celebrated writers and narrated by 9 renowned actresses.

Here is a review of the film from the New York Times earlier in the month:

If “Girl Rising” is wholly a vehicle furthering the cause of girls’ education across the globe, it’s more of a multicolored bus to worthy destinations than a pace car. In this twist on the social-issue documentary, girls act out stories adapted from their own lives by writers from their own countries, including Edwidge Danticat, Aminatta Forna and Manjushree Thapa. The hybrid results feature occasional bold strokes alongside ad-pitch eye candy and sleeve-tugging.

The first tales hit strongest, before the stylish flourishes peter out and the statistical bulletins (presented in a green field by a fleet of kids and Liam Neeson’s voice) overwhelm. In Ms. Danticat’s Haiti story a stubborn grade schooler keeps going to class after the 2010 earthquake without paying the tuition; in Cairo a rape victim’s account to the police is artfully transmuted by her superhero fantasy, rendered in animated segments. A raft of actresses (Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Selena Gomez and more) supply in-your-head narration in tones that are intimate and defiant, but not pitying.

Women and Girls: What Is Her Fate?

Categories: In The Field
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By Caster Dougherty - This originally appeared in the July 2010 edition of Impact Magazine. We are bringing back articles on women and girls to continue the momentum from International Women’s Day.

Once a subject of mainly academic interest, the role of girls and women in development has attracted interest far beyond specialist circles. Best-selling books and high-profile international conferences are now devoted to figuring out the best way to put The Second Sex, as Simone de Beauvoir once called females, at the center of efforts to improve health and welfare.

This growing public attention to girls and women in the development field has highlighted how intrinsic this gender-focused approach is to PSI’s work. At times, whether in the field or at headquarters in Washington, the main challenge is to refine PSI’s long-standing mission, a task that starts with awareness of exactly how central women and girls are to PSI’s work.

“We are doing a lot of work for women without recognizing what we are doing,” said Krishna Jafa, director of HIV, tuberculosis and reproductive health at PSI. “Often, until we think about the ‘girl effect’ we do not consciously realize that we are doing it. But we are absolutely doing it, and I think we are doing it well.”

March 8, 2013

10 Social Entrepreneurs Who are Improving the Wellbeing of Girls

Categories: Global Health Beat
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10 organizations were announced as the finalists of a competition hosted by the advocacy organization Women Deliver. The the girl-focused organizations will receive scholarships to the upcoming  Women Deliver 2013 Conference in Malaysia. There, they will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges who will determine the 2013 “Global Solution Award.” The semi-finalists for the competition came from around with world with eight based in Asia, four in sub-Saharan Africa, three in the Middle East and North Africa, two in Europe and North America, and one in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“All around the world, inspiring social entrepreneurs and small business owners are taking new and creative approaches to making the world a better a place,” said Jill Sheffield, Women Deliver Founder and President in a press release. “On International Women’s Day, it is important to remember that individuals worldwide and organizations, in every sector and of every size, all have a role to play to improve the health, education and welfare of girls and women.”

Meet the finalists:

March 7, 2013

How the UK is Advancing Women and Girls

Categories: Global Health Beat
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An event held in advance on Friday’s International Women’s Day saw the head of the UK’s Department for Intentional Development (DfID), Justine Greening, unveil new ways that the body will prioritize women and girls. “Investing in girls and women works — it’s becoming increasingly a core business strategy yielding real investor returns,” she said. “Locking out women isn’t just bad for an economy, it’s bad for a society. It seems common sense, but it’s still happening. From the very start girls lose out.”

Greening discussed how the UK sees Afghanistan as strategic priority for advancing the protection of women and girls in order to build upon the nation building efforts over the past decade.  She also unveiled a list of ways that DfID will support women. Devex lists:

- An 11.5 million pounds ($17.3 million) support for the World Bank’s Gender Innovation Lab project, which will focus on research highlighting “what works in terms of giving girls and women control over their economic lives in sub-Saharan Africa.”
- More funding to provide 3 million contraceptive implants and 17 million female condoms, and for a so-called Leadership for Change program, which will help promote and enhance women’s leadership skills.
- A high-level conference sometime in September whose aim is to galvanize action on violence against women and girls in humanitarian emergencies. The event will be participated by donors, aid agencies and gender advocates, among others.
- The establishment of an expert advisory group, which, according to Greening, will include leaders from human rights groups, the private sector and civil society.

January 29, 2013

Join the Discussion on Breakthroughs in Global Women’s Health

Categories: Global Health Beat
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Women around the world continue to face an uneven playing field in education, employment, earnings and decision-making power. A World Bank report from 2012 presented evidence that ensuring that the world’s 3.5 billion women have equal opportunities can be global economic boon. The Seattle Chapter of the Society for International Development (SID) is partnering with the SID Washington, DC Chapter for a special bi-coastal event that will discuss the intersection between health and women’s economic empowerment. A video feed will link the audiences and two speakers in each location. PSI President and CEO Karl Hofmann is scheduled to join the conversation from Washington DC with other global health experts and activists.

Click below for further details on the event if you want to attend the even to see how global health initiatives are working together with increase economic opportunities to both improve the well being of and empower women.

January 25, 2013

Even From Davos, Family Planning Gets a Fresh Look

Categories: Global Health Beat
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2012 may be remembered for many things good and bad, but one undeniably positive story is the way in which family planning and women’s reproductive choices and rights came back into the sunlight after too many years in the shadows of the global health and development agenda.

The July 2012 London Summit on Family Planning featured pledges of new resources to help some of the 220 million women in the world who want the means to plan the timing and size of their families, but aren’t able. But even more crucial than new money was new advocacy. Presidents Kikwete of Tanzania, Museveni of Uganda and Kagame of Rwanda took the podium personally to embrace the cause of saving women’s lives through access to modern contraception, as did Melinda Gates, whose powerful leadership voice will resonate for years on this topic.

January 11, 2013

Malawi’s President on Supporting Health to Empower Women

Categories: Global Health Beat
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Malawian president Joyce Banda sat down with CSIS to chat about how to support women’s empowerment in Malawi. She points to the importance of ensuring that women are healthy and have adequate services as a key part of supporting their empowerment.

“It is only when a women is economically empowered that she begins to make critical decisions about her health…I have found in the many years I have worked with women that when a women is economically empowered that she can negotiate at household level with her husband about the number of children that body of hers can have,” explains Banda.