February 2023

 

Recently, I spent time in the Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda. As the "settlement" in its name suggests, the people living there are free to move around and integrate as best they can — one thing that makes the place unique.  I had a chance to play soccer with boys and girls from about a dozen nations and talk with women who had fled areas of conflict. It was a tapestry of human experience shared through both laughter and tears.

 

As I walked across a school campus at the settlement with a teacher, she shared with me the dire statistics on girls' education. Most don't get through grade school. Many are sold into child marriage to pay for food for their families. As I looked around at these young girls, I was gutted.

Our work with empowering girls and women is much more than creating equity — sometimes, it's about health or education. Other times it's about providing safety. Regardless of the path, it's always about basic human rights.

 

We can do more to empower girls and women, and we can expand how we share the progress Rotary members and our partners have made toward this goal.