You can learn her story. You can speak up for her.
You can help empower her community.
Not long ago I thought that women were just supposed to keep home, and were only meant to carry out the orders of their husbands. Now I see there is much more.
I am no longer limited to the four walls around me. I am a successful woman. I feel dignity now in my family and in society, and I thank Food for the Hungry for this.” Eti, Bangladesh.
Learn: All too often, women are the face of poverty and injustice. More women and girls have been killed in the last 50 years by the hands of gender-injustice than men were killed in military battles in the last 100 years.(1) At least one in every three women globally has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
Speak: Join Food for the Hungry in speaking to the powerful on behalf of the powerless. Encourage your Senators and Representative to support and vote for The International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA) and spread the word in your community.
IVAWA
Write or Call Congress
Publish an opinion editorial
Write the editor of your local paper
Write a blog
Give: Provide a girl with school supplies and her dreams of escaping poverty and injustice will become reality. Give a girl an education and she will be in a safe environment to grow and learn and to reach her God-given potential.
Revolving micro-enterprise fund $250
Send school supplies (Hope Packs) $8
School fees for a year $50
Vocational or educational scholarship $275
Eti’s Story of Hope
Married at the age of 9, Eti had to give up her education without being able to discover her capabilities and potential. She lived in poverty and was abused every day by her alcoholic husband and mother-in law. The situation became so severe that Eti’s parents sought to end the marriage and take her home.
However in 2003 Food for the Hungry started working in Eti’s community, and she joined the Doel learning and savings group. Eti finally received the support and skills she needed to transform her life.
While Eti’s skills and abilities were improving, her marriage was still in trouble. Concerned for her well being, one of our staff invited Eti and her husband to attend a marriage support day. Eti’s husband agreed, and together they learned about how to develop a caring relationship.
They learned to value each other as equal partners, to respect each other’s opinion, and to appreciate each other’s contributions to the family. Eti’s husband took these lessons to heart, which started a remarkable change in his life, including an end to his alcoholism.
In her group Eti continued to learn new skills such as tailoring, block-boutique printing, and hairdressing. With the help of a loan from her group, she was eventually able to buy a sewing machine and start-up materials for a beauty parlour.
She began her own tailoring and beauty parlour business out of her home, and now earns an additional 1000 taka a month to support her family! Eti feels satisfaction from being able to contribute to her family in a new way, and is fi nally happy in her marriage and family life.
Help women like Eti overcome poverty and gender-based injustice. Support FH programs that empower women. Speak justice to Congress and ask them to pass the International Violence Against Women Act (I-VAWA).
1 Kristoff D., Nicholas & WuDunn, Sheryl. Half the Sky. Page xvii.
FH GLOBAL
