My daughter and I went to the Quincy Music Theatre production of Mary Poppins last night.
I was deeply moved by the scene where Michael Banks and Bert are flying kites. Michael is clearly elated, and at a point where he wants to keep flying the kite, Bert says something to the effect of, “but I want to fly a kite too!”
Kids and adults want to experience the sheer joy of playing sometimes, don’t they?
Global Goal Five: Gender Equality
When I was at the Social Good Summit in September, one theme that suffused many of the presentations was that of women, girls, and inequity. Girls are forced into human trafficking situations; women can’t provide their children the nutrition, education, health care, or protection from harm they need.
Goal number 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals is Gender Equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. A few of this goal’s targets (edited slightly for brevity) which stand out to me include:
- End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
- Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
- Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
- Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work
- Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights
- Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources
Please click here for an unabridged list of the Goal Five targets.
For many women and girls in our world, the mere act of survival is threatened. The spiritual buoyancy of an activity like kite-flying is far out of their reach.
One Way To Help Women Soar – A Virtual Run
Every Mother Counts is a non-profit organization dedicated to making pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother. Worldwide, 1 woman dies every 2 minutes from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth – yet up to 98% of these deaths are preventable. With funds raised through an engaged community of individuals and runners, Every Mother Counts is able to support programs that improve access to comprehensive maternity care in Haiti, Uganda, India, Tanzania, Nepal and the United States.
How does running connect to maternal health?
Distance is one of the biggest barriers women face during pregnancy. In some parts of the world, it’s not uncommon for a woman to travel at least 26 miles to reach emergency care, even while in labor. That’s why we run – so that women don’t have to when trying to access the lifesaving care they need during pregnancy and childbirth.
Register here (a portion of your $25 entry fee benefits Every Mother Counts), then virtually run or walk 3.1 miles around Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY by Nov 16th.
Use your Garmin, Fitbit, Runkeeper or manual entry to log your miles and earn Google Street Views of your location.
All participants will receive an Every Mother Counts T-shirt (unisex sizes).
Share your race using #EveryMileEveryMother on social media.
Back to Paula: Please also download Charity Miles and use it during your virtual run, designating Every Mother Counts as your cause. For every mile you run or walk, $0.25 will be donated to Every Mother Counts!!
Working together, we can help every girl and woman soar!
(ps – guys, please sign up too! To quote Freida Pinto from the “Are We All Feminists?” Session at the Social Good Summit, “gender equality is not just my fight; it is all the men in the room … this is your fight as well.”)
(pps – that code at the top of this blog is so I can register on Bloglovin. It’s a one-time thing. Follow me on Bloglovin via this link.)
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.