Diamonds aren't a girl's best friend
Oct. 11th, 2012 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterIn many parts of the world, girls - and I do mean GIRLS, not women - are forced into early marriages, denied even basic schooling (or attacked or even killed just for attempting to get that schooling), malnourished or abused or abandoned in favour of boys, and surgically mutilated before they even reach puberty. And that's before we begin to consider the female foeti which are aborted just for being the "wrong" sex.
It's a grim picture but one that is beginning to change. The United Nations has declared today, October 11, to be the first International Day of the Girl Child. There are many worthwhile initiatives devoted to advancing the status and opportunities of girls throughout the world, including Plan Canada's "Because I am a girl" projects. Today, however, I want to focus on a lesser-known organisation, the CHEER Fund (see http://www.cheerfund.ca)
CHEER is an acronym for Children of Ethiopia Education Relief. Twelve years ago, retired librarian and fellow (sister?) Ex Libris Association member Shirley Lewis went to Ethiopia with Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO). She had agreed to stay two years but ended up staying five - and she has gone back a number of times since, assisting in the development of libraries throughout Ethiopia and running workshops and training sessions to help the locals, especially girls and women, to help themselves. In the town of Jimma, some Ethiopian girls were shown how to make very attractive greeting cards from inedible parts of the banana plant. It is now a thriving women-owned business and profits from the sale of the cards are used to fund schooling for Ethiopian girls. The cards are available through Shirley's website.
This year, Shirley went with Canadian Humanitarian to the Ethiopian town of Gindo, a remote area where water is scarce and electricity unaffordable for most. Canadian Humanitarian runs an after-school place for children to study, providing the necessities like textbooks, paper, pens, notebooks... and now, they plan to build a library, equip it with books in Amharic and other local languages and help train the librarians. Any donations (yes, they're tax-deductable) directed to the fund through Ex Libris will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Ex Libris. I'll be watching Shirley's presentation about her work in Ethiopia when I attend the Ex Libris Association's annual general meeting on November 5, and I'm excited to learn more.
Another great example of thinking globally and acting locally/globally for the benefit of all girl-kind.
It's a grim picture but one that is beginning to change. The United Nations has declared today, October 11, to be the first International Day of the Girl Child. There are many worthwhile initiatives devoted to advancing the status and opportunities of girls throughout the world, including Plan Canada's "Because I am a girl" projects. Today, however, I want to focus on a lesser-known organisation, the CHEER Fund (see http://www.cheerfund.ca)
CHEER is an acronym for Children of Ethiopia Education Relief. Twelve years ago, retired librarian and fellow (sister?) Ex Libris Association member Shirley Lewis went to Ethiopia with Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO). She had agreed to stay two years but ended up staying five - and she has gone back a number of times since, assisting in the development of libraries throughout Ethiopia and running workshops and training sessions to help the locals, especially girls and women, to help themselves. In the town of Jimma, some Ethiopian girls were shown how to make very attractive greeting cards from inedible parts of the banana plant. It is now a thriving women-owned business and profits from the sale of the cards are used to fund schooling for Ethiopian girls. The cards are available through Shirley's website.
This year, Shirley went with Canadian Humanitarian to the Ethiopian town of Gindo, a remote area where water is scarce and electricity unaffordable for most. Canadian Humanitarian runs an after-school place for children to study, providing the necessities like textbooks, paper, pens, notebooks... and now, they plan to build a library, equip it with books in Amharic and other local languages and help train the librarians. Any donations (yes, they're tax-deductable) directed to the fund through Ex Libris will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Ex Libris. I'll be watching Shirley's presentation about her work in Ethiopia when I attend the Ex Libris Association's annual general meeting on November 5, and I'm excited to learn more.
Another great example of thinking globally and acting locally/globally for the benefit of all girl-kind.
