Ban Ki-Moon voices intolerance for violence against women

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon spoke out against violence towards women in his continuing global campaign urging political leaders to change the attitudes of abusers:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iYV3Iu0f13kZDBtyzyo_j66Ph_1AD96O8KD00.

Inspirational coach dies

North Carolina State's women's basketball coach, Kay Yow, passed away this morning at age 66. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and was admitted to the hospital last week. Yow raised awareness and support for breast cancer research throughout her battle with the disease, and was a "giver and she gave so much to every life she touched,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt. Yow also coached NC's team, the Wolfpack, from 1975-2009; had over 700 career wins; and was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.

She will be much missed, and our thoughts are with her family in this time of grief.

For a more detailed report, click here: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/womens-basketball/news?slug=ap-obit-kayyow&prov=ap&type=lgns.

Yahoo!'s Top 10 Women of 2008

Yahoo! Buzz highlighted 10 women for their 2008 Year in Review section. Check it out! http://buzz.yahoo.com/yearinreview2008/women/

Women of the Year from Glamour Magazine

Check out Glamour Magazine's 2008 Women of the Year Awards!: http://www.glamour.com/women-of-the-year.

The Girl Effect

Watch this fantastic video!

NOW E-cards

The National Organization for Women offers free e-cards you can send today!: http://www.now.org/sendcard/.

Tuesday--Women's Equality Day

Celebrate equal rights! Get ready for Women's Equality Day, which is right around the corner on Tuesday, August 26. Check out http://womenshistory.about.com/od/wed/Womens_Equality_Day_August_26.htm and http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/equalityday.php for more information.

Write Across the World Magazine

One project we did this year was an online collaboration with girls in Pakistan. The result of this email exchange was a magazine, written and edited by girls in the U.S. and Pakistan. Check it out!

http://www.freewebs.com/uswhp/writeacrosstheworld.htm

UN Women's Rights Resource

Check out this fabulous collection of material on women's rights, put together by the United Nations for International Women's Day!

http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/womensday/index.asp

One Is Greater Than None

Check out this organization called One is Greater than None, a project started by eight 14-year-old girls to raise money for kids in Africa through bracelet-making: http://www.oneisgreaterthannone.org/.

The Women's History Project

Equal Pay Day

Today is Equal Pay Day, a holiday committed to raising awareness about the fact that there is a significant gap between what men are paid and what women are paid. Currently, women earns 77 cents for every dollar that men do.

What you can do to help:
Wear red to support the fair pay movement
Write to or call your senators and ask them to support the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Information on how to contact them, and background on the Act are here:
http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=10323036

Here are some great links:
http://www.pay-equity.org
http://www.wageproject.org/

Play Pumps

In rural Africa, clean water is hard to come by, and most people don't have plumbing installed in their homes. Instead, they are forced to walk for miles to a well and back. The grueling task of hauling water is usually held by women and girls, and sometimes this chore prevents girls from going to school.

The invention of Play Pumps is helping to solve this problem! Here's how it works: merry-go-rounds are installed, and when kids give it a push and spin around, it pumps clean water underground and into a big tank where people can access the water. The tank's sides have educational messages about healthy living, and ads to help pay for upkeep. The PlayPump not only provides water, it also provides matinence jobs and fun for the kids.

And as the website says, "Women benefit too, as they no longer risk injury from transporting heavy containers of water over great distances, and they can use the time saved to better care for their children and start small enterprises that bring additional food and income to their families."

To learn more, visit PlayPumps International, or check out National Geographic Kid's article about the program here.

March 10

March 10 is also National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Harriet Tubman Day, and Canada's Commonwealth Day!

The Women's History Project

One is Greater than None

Check out this wonderful project, started by 8 14-year-old girls. It's called One is Greater than None, and the girls raised money and awareness to save impoverished kids in Ghana, Africa from abuse. Visit their website at http://www.oneisgreaterthannone.org/.

The Women's History Project

International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day! You can check out these links:
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/
http://www.factmonster.com/spot/womensday1.html
http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/womensday/index.asp
http://www.123greetings.com/events/womens_day/
http://www.bluemountain.com/category.pd?path=34945
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2008/s04/en/index.html
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/women/womday97.htm

The Women's History Project

UN Gender News

Check out this article from today's UNA-USA (The United Nations Association of United States of America) E-newsletter E-news Update: http://www.unausa.org/site/pp.asp?c=fvKRI8MPJpF&b=3936385&tr=y&auid=3435854. The article talks about the UN's plans for ending violence against women.

The Women's History Project

Free Ways To Help

The United States Women's History Project not only focuses on history, but on advocacy. Here are some free ways you can support worthwhile causes online! First off, check out FreeRice. It's a vocabulary quiz site that donates 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program each time you get a word right. The rice is paid for by the advertisers, who have small, on-screen pop-ups at the bottom of the page. It's a way to test your knowledge and help end world hunger at the same time.

Another website is Search Kindly. As their webpage states, "Search Kindly lets you donate money for free just by using Google from this page instead of any other. All of the money that we make through advertising is donated to charities that you select. Search Kindly is a non-profit organization dedicated to the idea of micro-volunteerism and micro-philanthropy A lot of people doing a little is better than a few people doing a lot. 100% of the advertising revenue generated from this website is donated to charitable organizations that our volunteers select every month." Every search you do raises 1/3 of a cent; it sounds like a only a little bit, but it all adds up!

Also, check out these click-a-day sites that also donate their advertising money: The Hunger Site, which delivers cups of staple food to people in "over 74 countries" through Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest; The Breast Cancer Site, which provides mammograms to women in need through the National Breast Cancer Foundation; The Child Health Site, which gives various health care through charitable partners like Helen Keller International and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation ; The Literacy Site, which gives books to kids; The Animal Rescue Site, which provides an animal food and care at a shelter; and The Rainforest Site, which focuses on land preservation with The Nature Conservancy, The Rainforest Conservation Fund, The World Parks Endowment, and Rainforest2Reef. To read more about each site's sponsors and partners, check out the "About This Site" page on each one.

The Women's History Project

Get ready...get set...go!

Best birthday wishes to Olympic swimmer Jenny Thompson (1973-)!

Also, get ready for March's National Women's History Month next month. The celebrations started when, in 1978, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County (California) Commission on the Status of Women created Women's History Week on the week of March 8th (which is International Women's Day). The National Women's History Project has done lots of work since; they succeded in securing a Congressional Resolution declaring a National Women's History Week in 1981, and, in 1987, NWHP "petitioned Congress to expand the national celebration to the entire month of March. Since then, the National Women's History Month Resolution has been approved with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate." You can start planning at their link here.

The Women's History Project

Happy Valentine's Day!

As part of their Valentine's celebrations, the National Organization of Women is promoting "Love Your Body" Day. They say
"Whether single or in a relationship, Valentine's Day and every day is the right day to love yourself. Take Action NOW! Join the fight against negative self-image promoted by mainstream media. Take our Valentine's Day Love Your Body quiz and spread the love by forwarding it on to other women for Valentine's Day, and always - LOVE YOUR BODY!"

So…

Girl Power!

Take a look at the Girl Power! Campaign website! It is "the national public education campaign sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help encourage and motivate 9- to 13- year-old girls to make the most of their lives. Girls at 8 or 9 typically have very strong attitudes about their health, so Girl Power! seeks to reinforce and sustain these positive values among girls ages 9-13 by targeting health messages to the unique needs, interests, and challenges of girls."

The Women's History Project