Rebecca Soni made our country proud today by shattering the world record (yes, the record that she had only just set the night before!) in the 200-meter breaststroke, clocking in at 2:19.59 to win the gold.
As a child growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I watched my mother go to work each day, dedicated to running our local women’s health clinic. A staunch defender of reproductive rights, she was armed with more than a team of medical experts, but also the kindness and wisdom that patients—many of them young women—relied on to prepare for the rest of their lives.
Imagine being forced to leave your home and everything you know to seek protection in a refugee camp. Now imagine having to start over in a new country where the language, the people and the culture are foreign to you. A group of awesome refugee girls who came to the United States from several different countries will be discussing some of these challenges and more with our Teen Advisors tomorrow, June 27 from 11 a.m. CT/12 p.m. ET.
It starts with one voice. I speak up and while, I won’t be ignored, combining my voice with yours will make our calls stronger. Your representative in Washington listens. If you speak up and you tell your friends to speak up, your representative, your senator will have to listen.
My wife Kate, the mother of our two young boys, understood immediately when I explained to her that I wasn’t going to be home on Mother’s Day. Instead, I was traveling to Africa. She knew that my trip would help bring hope, awareness, and life-saving bed nets to refugees fleeing violence in South Sudan.
I know a girl named Kidan from Ethiopia. Like so many girls around the world, she has dreams and aspirations. She wants to be a doctor one day. But Kidan is at a crossroads; there is a key obstacle standing in her way. Do you know what that is? Watch her story to find out!
More than 1 billion people currently use birth control. For the most part, they do it without hesitation. They do it because they want the power to plan their own lives—and to raise healthy, happy families when they are ready to do so.
In 1999, only one year after I got my first mobile phone, I launched a company that enabled people to order online groceries and pay their bills with our newly created, kitchen iPad-like device that would sit on the countertop. I distinctly remember hearing venture capitalists at the time ask us why we didn’t enable this over the mobile phone.
On March 8, we will observe the 101st anniversary of International Women’s Day – a day that celebrates the political, economic, and social contributions women have made to the world. This is an important day for the United Nations Foundation because improving women’s health is one of our main priorities. This day brings the issues facing women and girls around the world to center stage and gives us the opportunity to develop partnerships and innovative solutions to help the UN address these issues.
We all have a lot of things going on these days so it is easy to miss some of the best reads of the week. Global Connections will be blogging about the top articles of the week each Wednesday in our “What We’re Reading” blog post, so subscribe to our blogs, and check back often for updates! Did we miss your favorite article? Tell us in the comments below and we will add it.
