If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
A lack of gender equality is limiting our ability to achieve sustainable development, as we consistently underuse and undervalue the contribution of half of the population. Mothers know this.
The battle to eliminate new HIV infection in children is being won, family by family, facility by facility, nurse by nurse, and country by country.
On International Women's Day, my daughter asked me why the world was run by men. I had the answer to my daughter's question in my hands -- anchored in the notion that women empower women in so many modern ways.
As a professional basketball player, I have had amazing opportunities to use my talents, to play with the best players in the world, and even to represent my country in the Olympics. All of those opportunities began at home.
Today's Global Mom Relay post comes to you from around the world. Members of India's Self Employed Women's Association, an organization of low-income self-employed women workers led by Reema Nanavaty, and Anna Ingwe.
Women as a whole have made great strides towards equality, but the fact remains that too many girls in the developing world live in circumstances that are unfair at best, and dangerous at worst.
There is no federal program to assist low-income families with diaper purchases. That's right: You can't use food stamps to buy diapers. Some states even charge sales tax on diapers.
If I really stop and think about it, water has been an important part of my life ever since my conception. Inside my mom's womb, it was part of what nourished me. As I entered the world, it helped ensure a hygienic delivery. It was part of my baptism. It was a source of limitless childhood fun. Today it defines my days.
For mothers around the world, preparing the family meal is a daily ritual and an act of love. But it's also a grave risk for approximately three billion people who cook with open fires and inefficient stoves. It shouldn't have to be this way.
There is great hope that we can finally stop infants from getting infected with HIV by their mothers. But first, countries with high rates of HIV infection must work out how to deliver reliable health programs to protect babies form their mothers' infected breast milk.
It's time to demand that local laws be held to the standard of state and federal law. Doing so may be a start to fixing how local law enforcement treats commercially sexually exploited and trafficked people of all ages.
Badakhshan came in the limelight of both national and international media in 2002, when the Ministry of Public Health Afghanistan discovered that Badakhshan had the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world: 6,500 out of every 100,000 women die during child birth.
The focus on violence is desperately needed -- one in three women will be beaten, raped, abused, or mutilated in their lifetimes. The enormity of this problem demands that both governments and civil society develop new strategies to protect women and girls from violence.
In the last few years, we've witnessed seismic shifts in the political, economic and social landscape of the Middle East and North Africa. Through it all, Arab women did what women everywhere do best: They multi-tasked.
If you are ever down, or lose faith and feel that we are living in terrible times and are in a terrible place, you only need a few minutes talking to these girls to feel ready to take on the world again.
Will we ever reach the point where HIV is just a bad history lesson? That's the goal and if we all keep working together, we believe someday soon, mothers, babies and healthcare workers will no longer worry about exposure because we will have achieved an AIDS-free generation.
Last year, when our daughter turned five, I entered a community of parents who can celebrate their child's fifth birthday. It's a community missing millions of mothers around the world.
My collaborator and co-author Michael D'Antonio and I travelled the world and conducted personal interviews with global political and business leaders as well as NGOs and start-ups to find out how these traits can be applied in real world situations.
Because of my mother, it has always seemed self-evident that girls could do anything they set their minds to, as long as they were given the chance to get an education. Unfortunately, many girls in the developing world are never afforded that opportunity.
One of the biggest mistakes that advocates make is their failure to embrace and publicize success. After making the case for change and building the political will to pass legislation, advocates sometimes forget to circle back to celebrate wins and reinforce success.
