In his new article, “The Women’s Crusade”, Kristof valiantly defends the rights of women everywhere. And he has a point. Underutilizing half the population has caused massive underdevelopment in many countries.
Kristof spends his article discussing the stories of different women and detailing the hardships they face every day. He then explains why that may interrupt education. Perhaps the most touching story to me was Abbas Be. At only 14, she was supposed to take a job as a maid in New Delhi, India’s capital.
Her employment was much different. She was put in a brothel with 70 other girls where they watched a “troublesome peer” get beaten and worse, killed in front of them as a form of deterrence. Abbas had become a sex slave.
When police freed her, she was taken back to Hyderabad, India. She began to live at Prajwala, an organization for rescued boys and girls.
Kirstof explains her new situation, “Abbas is acquiring an education and has learned to be a bookbinder; she also counsels other girls about how to avoid being trafficked. As a skilled bookbinder, Abbas is able to earn a decent living, and she is now helping to put her younger sisters through school as well. With an education, they will be far less vulnerable to being trafficked. Abbas has moved from being a slave to being a producer, contributing to India’s economic development and helping raise her family.”
Below, Abbas Be is shown:
This is the story that reminds me why I joined Givology: the value of an education. Abbas can now be the producer that Kristof describes her as, as can many other girls.
In seven pages, Kristof continues to describe stories of how small of amounts of money (microphilanthropy) are doing big things (changing the world). But he doesn’t stop with numbers there. His article provides many statistics past the one-dollar a day living standard from the World Bank.
The one statistic I found the most daunting…
The poorest families in the world spend only 2% of their income on education.
This is where I believe Givology steps in. It is time to increase that number.
As a new intern working with Givology, I am excited to be on board. I have done work with improving education in Hyderabad (funding schools, mobile schools, and schools supplies) and look forward to doing some more!
Nicholas Kristof’s article can be found at the New York Times: NY Times
Givology recently met with Kristof as well. That article can be found here: Givology Blog