*Disclaimer - there are no pictures in this post, but a lot of food for thought, so grab a cup of coffee or tea and sit a while.
Today, Saturday, March 8, is the International Women’s Day celebration. This day is dedicated to raising awareness about the global plight of women and girls. If you are a woman, if you have a daughter, this should mean something to you. There are a ton of statistics that you can read that tell you about the prejudices against women, the daily hardships that they bear, and the unthinkable acts of violence that are committed against them. Since I try to focus on thinking positively in this blog, I would like to share some success stories. Stories that show women making a difference in their communties, programs that are offering girls hope for a positive future, and examples of how important education is for the empowerment of women.
Four international organizations focused on helping women and girls have come together to create The Global Impact Women & Girls Fund. You can read about their success stories here.
This article on modernfarmer.com showcases woman who are helping their families, communities, and the world by farming, learning new production techniques, and sharing their knowledge with others.
Girl Up is an innovative campaign of the United Nations Foundation, which addresses the needs of adolescent girls in developing countries. They "give American girls the opportunity to become global leaders and channel their energy and compassion to raise awareness and funds for United Nations programs that help some of the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls." Empowering girls to help other girls in need - everyone benefits.
I also thought I would share a couple of books that I have read that focus on issues dealing with women.
A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison is a work of fiction about the very real issue of sex trafficking. This was one of those books where I wanted to read it as fast as I could to see how the ending turned out, but I also didn't want to finish the book because it was so good! A fantastic story. I thought about this book for several weeks after I finished reading it. Having a little babe, so innocent in this world where such awful things happen, makes me want to be aware of these issues and to think about what I can do to help raise awareness about them. And even though this is a work of fiction, my hometown is mentioned in the book as a pitstop in the international web of human trafficking. Very scary and brought the story to a much more personal level.
A really good non-fiction book is Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords, And One Woman's Journey Through Afghanistan by Fariba Nawa. Written by an Afghan-American woman, it provides us the cultural insight of both the East and the West, the Middle Eastern Muslim world and mainstream America. While investigating one subject, child brides, the author provides us with Afghan history, her family's personal journey of moving to America, the political and economic situation in modern Afghanistan, and the heart wrenching real stories of these young girls who are traded like currency.
To end on a positive and personal note, I wanted to share the story about my hero - a woman named Irina. I have talked about Irina before in several posts, but I thought that on this day of discussing and raising awareness about women's struggles, I would share the struggles that Irina faces on a daily basis. While Irina herself is not in a life-threatening situation, she is making a positive change in a dark corner of the world.
Irina lives in Romania, which is not a third world country, but it is a poor country that is still struggling to get on its feet following a Communist regime. There is a lot of poverty. Like a lot of other struggling countries, Romania has a problem with stray street dogs. Tens of thousands of dogs are living and dying in the city streets, in the trash dumps, in the empty fields, and in the government run "shelters", which are actually just holding tanks until the dogs are killed.
Irina and her mother care for over 70 dogs. Just last Fall they moved these dogs across the country to a family homestead because they were being evicted from the current location where the dogs were located. Irina did not intend for her whole life to be consumed with dog rescue, but Irina has a huge heart that is full of compassion and love and she cannot leave a helpless soul to die. What started as just helping a few animals in her neighborhood, turned into an all encompassing job, as there was no one else who would help these dogs - helpless ophaned puppies, dogs with life-threatening injuries, old blind dogs, and those being abused by people as they tried to survive.
Irina works tirelessly to make sure that her dogs are well cared for - building shelters by hand with scrap materials, hauling water to frozen buckets in the snow, treating injuries and medical issues by herself. And what is truly amazing about all of this is that Irina does it with a smile and a sense of humor. So even if you aren't a dog lover, you still can appreciate a woman who is pouring her heart into something that she believes in. Irina is making the world a better place, one dog at a time.
Irina does not have a fancy website, but she does have a Facebook page. She also has a wonderful group of ladies in England who are working endlessly to raise funds for Irina. She could not survive without them. If you are located in England and would like to get in touch with their organization, here is their Facebook page. They are a diverse group of women who manage to have a lot of fun while raising money for a serious cause that they all belive in. Irina is trustworthy and grateful for any donation that she receives for the dogs.
Donations can be sent via PayPal to Irina at i.neblea (at) yahoo (dot) com