3/1/12
by Dr. Terry Neese

When I step back and take a hard look at what I believe is “my calling”, I first visualize a heavy, dark cloth that covers the earth. That cloth symbolizes centuries of women’s struggles, oppression, suffering, poverty, and marginalization. I like to think what we do as a women’s empowerment organization is create a tiny pinhole of light in that dark cloth with every woman we lift up. Eventually, with the help of women’s empowerment organizations across the globe, there will be so many pinholes in the cloth that it will no longer resemble the dark, heavy fabric it once was; but a dazzling, glowing, atmosphere that shines more brightly with the uncovering of every woman’s strength, talents, and ingenuity.

When I began this journey six years ago I remember feeling energized, blessed, and to be honest, a bit overwhelmed. The women we help live so far away, their obstacles are so great, their cultures are so different. But what I have been delighted to discover after meeting hundreds of women from Afghanistan and Rwanda is that underneath it all – they are just like us. Many of them have suffered oppression and atrocities that we as American women will never fully comprehend. Some of them, although they own their own businesses, don’t have the freedom to drive themselves to work each day. Others work and live side by side with neighbors they were at war with less than a generation ago. And yet when I meet them in person each year it always astounds me how alike we are. We love our children and would do anything to give them a good life, we love to talk about our husbands with each other, we love a good pair of shoes, we are passionate about our work, and we aspire to better ourselves and expand our knowledge to create a better future for our families.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, journalist and best-selling author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana says it well, “In tough parts of the world, women turn to business to make sure their children get fed.” When a woman is enabled to leave poverty behind and reach at least the middle class in her society, everyone benefits. A nation that oppresses its women will never be a civilized nation, let alone a democracy. When women have more economic power they are able to keep their children from being sold as sex slaves, keep themselves and their children from being traded away for unpaid debts, and reserve themselves a place at the human rights table which poverty and subjugation never allows. When you invest in a woman’s future – no matter what your cause – you are investing in children, economies, justice, and democracy. To say that women are the key to developing economies, peace-building, and civilized societies has become almost cliché. Regardless, women are the key. Empowered women light the way so that their children, their communities, and their nations are able to thrive.