Book Snippets: Half the Sky

This Thanksgiving week, I have been listening to Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. It has been really flooring me, to the point that I have to stop listening for a while to take in everything I have just heard.

On this day when people in this country waited in lines miles long to get a good deal on a new flat screen TV, we need the reminder that there are more people in forced labor and sex slavery today than there were people enslaved at the height of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. While college students enjoy sleeping in today, we need the reminder that many children in the world do not have the opportunity to attend any school ever. While we gather with our families and neighbors this weekend, we need the reminder that honor killings and rape as warfare are still happening in our world.

Can I ask a favor of you, readers? As you start your holiday shopping, would you consider giving a gift to someone you don't know? Would you check out one of these organizations and think about giving them a very basic privilege that we take for granted? In the midst of the craziness our economy and Occupy Wall Street, it's easy to forget that the 99% of us here in the US (even those of us who are careful each month to make sure that ends meet), are some of the wealthiest in the world.

These are some resources I find really awesome. Would you think about it? Let me know if you gave a gift to someone through one of these organizations - I want to hear all about it.

World Vision (I love this one because they have an entire gift catalog. You can choose to give malaria nets to children in Africa, clean water to a rural village, or a small business loan so that a mother can support her children.)

Love 146 is working to end child sex slavery through prevention and aftercare. You can donate directly or order one of their nifty T-shirts.

The Half the Sky website will direct you to a ton of resources to to help women in the areas of education, preventing violence against women, stopping sex trafficking, maternal health and economic improvement.



Have an amazing weekend, friends. I will be back next week with lots of books reviews, promise!