After an extended absence in the world of bloggers (seven months goes by quite quickly—yikes!) I’m prepared to make my (triumphant?) return to this blog. Graduate school for International Development Studies in Washington D.C. isn’t quite as interesting as world travel, so I’ll forgive my readers if some of you decide to no longer follow me. However, despite my hectic schedule of graduate school classes and searching for internships, I do still have an interesting thought or two that crosses my mind that I’d like to share with you here. So if you will allow me, I’ll make my return by sharing with you all this amazing video on The Girl Effect. This video made me cry the first time I watched it-- mostly with the feeling "if only it were that simple". It's clearly not this simple. But it's still a great video.
One of the latest trends in international development is focusing on girls and women as the vehicle of change in society. Not only are girls 50% of the population, they often are the most marginalized and also tend to be the ones who pass on values and a healthy upbringing to their children. That is, when they have more power to keep their kids healthy and in school, it benefits all of society. Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn talked about this and many other issues related to gender and development in their recent (amazing) book called Half the Sky.
