Half the Sky.

Last night I was messing around on the computer and Matt was watching TV. He came across a programme on PBS about Viet Nam and ended up in tears watching mothers selling their 2 or 3 yr. old baby daughters to brothels, and another woman who is literally stealing these kids, if she can, so that they can be brought up properly and educated. Education is the primary focus of a group called Half the Sky. I ended up watching some of it, and it turns out that this group is endeavouring to make sure girls in poor countries are able to obtain education and they demonstrated what a difference this can make to the countries, educated girls become mothers who educate their children in turn. The horrible thing is many of these girls are parented by men who consider it their right to beat them and exploit them as they wish and in one case, it wasn’t proved, but I got the impression the father might be having sex with his kids. I was so moved by the whole programme, there are more in the works apparently, that I wanted to donate, but financially I can’t do that. The next thing I can do is to raise awareness of what these people are doing and hope that others will be able to help. Some of the girls are struggling by themselves to obtain education whilst working all the hours possible. However, in countries where girls are considered useless it is very difficult for them. The conditions in which many of them live are appalling as well, but still many of them carry on and work at getting themselves educated on top of everything else they have to do. A quote from their web site “Women and girls across the globe face threats — trafficking, prostitution, violence, discrimination — every day of their lives.” This really is a dreadful situation.

Through Half the Sky one can buy jewellery and other items and the money goes to support the cause. We women in the western world really ought to do what we can.

This is not usually my thing as you know, but I was so moved by this programme and the plight of these young girls and women who live in ostensibly safe areas who still get raped and attacked. Its something you know about in the back of your mind, but it really brought me face to face watching the programme last night.

Hope you have a good day