Vote for Ritu! - Women Who Make a World of Difference
Ritu Sharma is one of the nominees for Oxfam America’s International Women’s Day Challenge: Nominate a local woman who makes a world of difference.
You can, of course, vote for whichever nominee you’d like. But I’d like to make a special plug for Ritu and Women Thrive Worldwide. As many of you know, we’ve hosted two of their gender roundtables here at IREX. Ari was a speaker at the last one. Women Thrive is both active and effective in promoting the needs of women within the NGO community, with funders like USAID (they were involved in shaping USAID’s new gender policy), and on Capitol Hill.
Thanks,
Randal
Ritu Sharma starts a non-profit that helps elevate women's voices.
WEBSITE
www.womenthrive.org
THE IDEA
Ritu Sharma Co-Founded Women Thrive Worldwide in 1998, because she realized that women's voices in developing countries simply weren't being heard in debates about foreign assistance in Washington, DC. Women Thrive helps advocate for U.S. policies that help women lift themselves out of poverty.
THE SPECIFICS
Women make up more than 50 percent of the population but have unique hurdles placed in their way to be able to fully participate in the development of their countries. Women Thrive Worldwide advocates for change at the U.S. and global levels so that women and men can share equally in the enjoyment of opportunities, economic prosperity, voice, and freedom from fear and violence. Her organization has brought women from all over the world to Washington DC to have their voices heard. They focus on reducing violence against women, ensuring that women farmers can feed themselves and their families, and making sure their unique needs are met. With this prize, Women Thrive would be better able to help more women living in poverty across the world.