Leng Sopharath

Lifting Women Out of Global Poverty is a huge issue and I have to begin with what I know about Cambodia and why our family is sponsoring Leng Sopharath, a young Cambodian woman, for her college education through the Sharing Foundation.  Through sponsored tuition and living expenses, Leng Sopharath, is gaining important skills and knowledge that will help her get a better job.  That means better wages and a better life. 

Otherwise, as Leng observes in a recent letter, "if my education was not sponsored I would be working in a garment factory or perhaps jobless."

There are other ways to lift women out of poverty and again, I have to point to the work we're doing in Cambodia. Take for example:

• Sina, age 15, is an orphan and head of her family, two younger sisters aged 11 and 8. She earns a monthly wage working for a sewing school and shop, a vocational program run by the Foundation that trains young women so they can earn a sustainable living wage with a home-based sewing business or a better paying job in Cambodia’s garment industry. Sina helps makes school uniforms that the Foundation provides to over 1,000 street children in Cambodia so they can attend school.

• Sovanna, a young mother with HIV was given aids medication during labor as was her baby. Sovanna is one of 200 women and children in a Sharing Foundation program which works to interrupt the transmission of HIV from mother to child.

The needs in Cambodia (and elsewhere in the world) go beyond what one NGO can do.  There are many NGOS working on this issue in Cambodia and elsewhere providing variety of services and programs to lift women out of global poverty.  Take for example the work that Project Hope International is doing to prevent women from being the victims of sex trafficking.

What NGOS around the world are doing incredible work to life women out of poverty?  I'd love to BlogHers rally around this issue and point to and support the work of NGOS doing this around the world.    List 'em in the comments!

Beth Kanter is the Blogher Contributing Editor of NGOS and Social Change and also writes Beth's Blog