Chapter 11&12 Summary

Chapter 11-12 Summary
Aaron started off this week’s blog group with our chapter’s 11-12 summary: he stated how “11-12 they talking mainly on women creating a better life for themselves.” And how woman are moving forward and taking control of their lives by working to create a better life for themselves.

Issue Investigator
Richelle was out issue investigator, and she stated that the main problem from chapters 11&12 is that it proves that woman are not indifferent and then gave the example of Saima Muhammad who opened her own business and made a success out of herself.

Country Investigator
Carlos was out Country investigator this week and he chose to do a little research on China. China is located in Eastern Asia, and they have an extremely diverse climate. Some places are tropical and warm others very cold. The population in China as of July 2011, is 1,336,718,015. Also China has the most main telephones lines in the world.

Local Organization
Kari researched a local organization and she picked “Kashf” they specialize in microfinance and giving small loans to women. Kari states that “In having these small loans, women are locally able to start their own business and get out of debt and support a family for themselves.”

My Review
I thought that it was really amazing that by some woman in less developed countries obtaining the money to open their own small businesses they are able to provide for themselves and their families BUT they are also able to help other women by giving them jobs and their businesses help their communities economy which improves living conditions for the whole community.

Local Organization

The local organization here is a called Kashf, and they specialize in microfinance and give small loans to women. Money is lent to only women. Every two weeks they hold a meeting at another woman’s house and are able to discuss topics that would interest women such as schools for girls or rape. It is located in Lahore and started by a Pakistani woman who grew up in a wealthy family. Roshaneh Zafar is the woman who started this program. She has a background in studying economics at Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and also at Yale. She has a strong economics background which is what lead her to start this micro financing operation. Zafar realized how important this was for women in less developed countries to have a small loan because that could make a difference. In having these small loans, women are locally able to start their own business and get out of debt and support a family for themselves. Pakistani women are fortunate enough to have a person like Zafar stand up for them and start a project like these micro loans. But, with these micro loans, they are able to start their own businesses and are able to raise money and support themselves and their families, giving women a better name in these less developed countries.

Country Investigator

After reading the Chapters for this week i decided to find out more information about China. I know China is a really big country, and i just wanted to learn a little about the country.
China is located in Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam. China is a very big country only slightly smaller than the United States.The capital of China is Beijing. The Climate is china is really diverse, it is very tropical in the southern parts of the country, and very cold and arctic like in the northern parts of the country. China has a mountainous terrain, high plateaus, desserts in the west, plains, deltas, and hills in the east. The highest point in China is of course Mount Everest, while the lowest point is Turpan Pendi.
The population in China as of July 2011, is 1,336,718,015. The birth rate for China is 12.29 births per 1,000 population. The death rate is 7.03 deaths per 1,000 population. Some other interesting facts about China that i found is that the Country has over 500 airports, and out of those airports, 60 of them have runways which are not paved. China is the world leader in gross value of agricultural output; rice, wheat, potatoes, corn, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, apples, cotton, oilseed, pork and fish. Another interesting fact that i found was that China has 313.68 million main telephone lines in use, and that is good for number one in the world.

issue investigator

On chapter eleven  the fact is prove that women  are not indifferent. For instance, Saima Muhammad proves that we women can,and will overcome any deficencies aslong we have inclination to do so,and have the support system like women's group. I really like the fact that, after all of her humiliation from: her husband, her husband's family,and other people she paves her way, and made it through I congratulate  her. Furthermore, she became the most fortunate in her neighborhood: paid off her husband's debt,gave him job,took her daughter,moreover,she  gave job to other people included  those who uesd to critize her.Finally,her husband family became silent about having a boy, because this is not an issue anymore.All of this happened,because Muhammad, used her brain she is a very smart woman and society needs to recognize women as amart  group  not a door mart.  

Chapter 11-12 Summary

In chapters 11-12 they talking mainly on women creating a better life for themselves. In eleven it talks about women in deep poverty and the microcredit organizations. Microcredit takes women who live in poverty and helps them create a better life for them and their family. One example is Saima Muhammad who had an unemployed husband who constantly beat her, and did not even have enough money to feed her children. She had to send her daughter away to live with a relative because there was not enough food to go around. Once she joined the microcredit program her life changed drastically, now she is planning on sending her kids through high school and even possibly college. Chapter twelve talks about equality in women and how it has kind of progressed over the years. Like in the beginning how it talks about the woman from china who created her own business with her husband. And people were happy to co-operate with her when she needed help. She ended up being known as the richest self-made woman in the world. Not to long ago this would of been inheard of.

Isue investigator

Chapter Ten investintg in Education. As a  woman,I do believe in education and therefore I shoose education  issue.Girls should have the opportunity to attend school. Society needs to fight more in order to  break the vecious circle for these girls.Dai Manju's parents were elementary school droupouts and barely literate. They didn't see murch point in girls getting an education.Why would a woman need to read or write when she was going to epend  most of her time hoeing  fields and darning socks.If these girls get an education they be qualifie for something better than hoeing field and darning socks.This is a very good example, Dai Manju finished elementary school,junio high scool,high school,and then  the aquivalent  of accounting school. She was a very smart young girl,who was able to pass her exams.She had  succeeded through education as a result of American generosity and authaurities of her peer.With education everything is possible regardless of what ignorant and arrogant people think of other.One study after another has shown that educating girls is one of the most effective ways to fight povety.East Asia has prospered in recent decades is that it educates females and incorporates them into the labor force,in a way that has not been true of India or Africa.Grants range from $10 per month for a child in the third grade to $ 66 for a girl in high school{grants  are highest for high school girls because their droupout rates are highest}

This week I am group one's country investigator and I decided to do a little bit of research on Iran. Iran is a middle eastern country near Turkey, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Iran has been an Islamic theocracy since the 1980's. In Iran it is common for children to end their education after just a few years into elementary schools. Because family's are so poor every member of the family is expected to contribute. This means girls helping doing household chores. Many people do not see the value of a girl getting a education if all she is going to do is clean the house, and tend to crops. On average most girls in Iran marry at around 12 years old and are powerless to refuse. Once married their chances of education decrease even further (their husbands do not want them going anywhere unescorted.) "Traditional attitudes are slowly beginning to change, however, as fathers see how their daughters are engaging in positive activities. Religious leaders have been asked to spread the word at Friday prayers and help transform old traditions into a new source of hope for girls in Iran."

Chapter 9-10: Issue Investigator

I choose to talk about the issue of misogyny, which means the hatred of women. This issue is all around world to some extent but the majority of the population that it effects is the muslim population in the middle east. In many societies the Muslim law deems the women inferior to men. Women are killed in what is called honor killings or they would have their genitals cut, often they are kept out of school and the workplace. Women are openly beaten by their husbands if they misbehave, and if they ever show skin in public they are sometimes raped. A woman always gets less than a man. In court her testimony is half that of a man, and a woman inherits a lot less than a man would.
One example of this issue is when a husband made his wife prostitute herself just so he could feed his opium addiction. A lot of this issue came from the Koran where it specifically said that women were inferior, and they believe the Koran is the word straight from god. When in other religions like christiany or judiasm they overlook stuff like that, that is said.
Today there are some Muslims starting to try and get more equality for women but it is not working all that well, they are still treated like property, and the government they have accepts that and with everything else without the government really trying to change things it will most likely stay the way it is.






www.huffingtonpost.com/ida-lichter-md/misogyny-bound-by-culture_b_803942.html

Chapter 9 - 10 Summary

Chapter 9 starts off with the authors in Afghanistan interviewing an educated entrepreneur. This brings up the topics of how women are treated in Muslim countries. Muslim women are ranked as being treated the worst in their cultures. Without being able to see a male doctor, they have no choice but to face their illness resulting in death due to lack of medical attention. The authors also go on to discuss how oppression may not be only in the religion, but may have something to do with culture. Other religions have had beliefs of treating women unfairly and multiple wives, but they have stepped passed that and progressed into what they are today. Islam is still stuck in the past. The authors interview a nineteen year old woman named Ellaha. She was forced by family to marry her younger cousin, and as an educated woman wanting to continue her studies, she fought back. In doing this, she was beaten and forced to run away. Unfortunately the running away didn’t get her far, since she was spotted and sent to jail. The jail they have in Afghanistan is typically for young girls without their hymens intact, because it is frowned upon before marriage. Ellaha was kept here for her life was in danger from her angry father. Even brilliant Americans like Bill Gates comments on these countries only using half of their population (men) and leaving women out of the picture. This is also depriving the country of economic growth because if women worked, a lot more production could get done like it does in countries such as the United States and China, opposed to production from women in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Insurgent-

Sakena grew up in Northern Afghanistan. She was accepted to a University in Kabul, but unable to attend due to violence. She started a string of underground schools educating almost thirty eight hundred as a secret. Deals were made if it was kept secret then teachers could get paid to help. After the fall of the Taliban, Sakena was able to move her schools back to Kabul, and employ many women to teach and work, students to learn, and even progress her students into the Kabul University programs.

Chapter Ten – Investing in Education

This chapter begins with Dai Manju, who lived in the hills of China with her family. Her hut had no running water or electricity, and they had little to no belongings. Dai was forced out of school after sixth grade, because the $13 dollars a year her school cost, her family wanted to spend it on other things like rice for food. After a generous donation from some Americans of 10,000, Dai was able to finish all of her normal schooling, then went on to study accounting, to become the executive in a Taiwanese electronic company. She sent money back to her family, making them one of the richest in the village. Managing menstruation in girls helps them stay in school. Also deworming, more salt in their diets for increase in brain development, even bribery. Mexican families are given cash for keeping their children in school. School feeling programs have successfully helped in their nutrition.

Chapter 9-10 Local Organization Investigator

Chapter 9:
While reading chapter nine I came across the UNFPA organization. I knew that it had to do with the United Nations, but i did not know exactly what this was, so i decided to research this a little bit. UNFPA stands for, United Nations population fund. There mission is to promote the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. I think this is a really good mission, and one that is reasonable and can be achieved with a little bit of hard work and effort. The UNFPA works alongside governments in effort to achieve the mission of the organization. The three core areas of work are: reproductive health, gender equality and population and development strategies.

Chapter 10:
As i was reading chapter ten an organization that i cam across was the World Food Programme. I researched the World Food Programme and found that the World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian agency in the world. The World Food Programme supplies struggling nations with food when they are in need after a crisis. The World Food Programme was started in 1961. World Food Programme's mission is to make sure every man, woman, and child has access at all times to the food needed for an active and healthy life. World Food Programmehas five objectives: Save lives and protect livelihoods in emergencies, Prepare for emergencies, Restore and rebuild lives after emergencies, Reduce hunger and under-nutrition everywhere, and last but certainly not least strengthen capacity of countries to reduce hunger. In 2011 World Food Programme hopes to be able to reach around 90 million people in more than 70 countries with assistance as needed.

During my research I find this Organization call [Horn Of Africa Women Groups.[HAWG] What these groups basically do is: building  hospitals provide health care center,give awareness of HIV & AIDS,provide education center and building schools,fighting against poverty,addressing other social problem such as the need for cleaner water.I choose  the need for cleaner water because  unclean water can be a crisis for those whom don't have access to clean water.For instance if people drink  unclean water they can get sick such as  cholera can result death if they don't get treated sooner that can be a crisis.The  fundraising can help these groups to provide more clean water to  those whom do not have access to clean water.Furthermore If a mother with a new born do not have access to clean water that new born more likely to die than to live.
  Therefore fundraising about clean water could be a good idea. Even  in America  some people are losing their tooth as a result of not having access to  cleaner  water.Potential plans about raising money could be sale water in my community one dollar for bottle water  and explain to them the reason why I'm doing it. Is to help those to get access to clean water the money would go to these groups HAWG and have  flier about the groups what they do their address and phone number the name of the people who's in charge.Sometime people can be sympathetic they might give more than one dollars or whatever they might have.The address is 30 Hillyard road Hanwell,London W7 1BH
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel 07590 91 9422 Person who's in charge Ms. Ayan Keynan Or  have some kind of event at the school to raise  money.

The main issue in chapters 6-8 is the high mortality rates of childbearing woman living in impoverished areas. The main problem is that many of the women having children are children themselves. Their bodies are not adept or ready to bear a child and many women do not have the financial or social support and even if the babies are born healthy many of them die from not having their shots done. Woman get fistulas which create such a bad odor that many people do not wish to help them and often these women commit suicide.More needs to help woman regardless of their financial situation, it shouldn't be up to the doctors or other people to decide when not to help someone everyone deserves a fair chance.

Local Organization investigator

Half the Sky chapter seven continue.One reason women died in childbirth has to do with anatomy,arising from two basic evolutionary trade-offs... I strongly believe if prudence had gotten Medical attention sooner when arrived at the hospital perhaps her death could have been prevented,regardless of  what major  factors are.She suffered too much,got infected,and died as a result of Dr.Pipi ignorance.Not because of  neglected human being in its care, not on that case.Her family took her to the Hospital,but then Dr.Pipi wants more money after he got the money he went home without doing nothing for her what a horrible Doctor.When he eventually decided operated her it was too late that  is exactly what happened in prudence case.

Chapter six,a thirteen year old girl,Mahabouba who was raised in a village near the town of Jimma.She was handed over to her father's sister as a result of her parents being divorced.Her aunt  treated  her like a  servant.Mahabouba  and her sister ran off together to town worked as maids.Her neighbor  sold her for ten dallars to Jiad who was about sixty year old.He raped her and beat her.Then she got pregnant when she was seven months she succeeded running away and lost the baby due to lack of support.Those people should have been helped  Mahabouba to save the baby's life.
Chapter seven,Why do Women  Die in Childbirth.A twenty four year old mother of three children, Prudence  had been living with her family in a village seventy five miles away,he had received no prenatal care.She went to labor at full term then  after three days of labor,the birth attendant sat on Prudence stomach and Jumped up and down.That so-called birth attendant should go jail .And also Dr,pipi is fully responsible for Prudence death as a result of unsympathetic greedy for money.Not prudence's rupture uterus because all Dr.pipi wanted is the $100 dollars when someone's life on the line a good Doctor should not worry about the money.He should have been worry about saving her life first of all, money later.His theory  got the best of him,no family member would lie about  life and death situation. It is not right to teach people a lesson cause someone's life.She died because of Dr.pipi not because of  four other major factor.She suffer too much, got infected,and die.With more education Prudence would have been less likely to have become pregnant,and if she had become pregnant,would have more likely to deliver in the Hospital instead have that birth attendant jumped up and down on her stomach.

Chapters 6-8: Summary

Chapters 6-8 mostly talk about maternal mortality and how in a lot of countries when do not get the proper attention needed to safely and effeciently give birth. For example, in Africa a type of infection called fistula is not uncommon. Every year about 30,000 to 130,000 new cases are reported. When a women gets this, it is almost like a death sentence because there is no where for them to get good help. Women have to move away by themselves because the infection gives off such a bad odor, and eventually the women die from starvation. Also 90% of patients that get this often contemplate suicide.
In chapter 7 it talks more about women who die during birth and why this happens. Some causes of this could be eclampsia, hemmorage, or obstructed labor. One story the really caught me off gaurd was right in the beginning of the chapter about prudence. She was pregnant and in labor for three days, then the birth attendant she had jumped on her stomach which ended up rupturing her uterus. While in the hospital she got the worst of care. The doctors and nurses really did not care about her health or whether she lived or died. All they wanted was money and without it they would do nothing. Prudence eventually ended up dieing from infection because of the lack of help she got at the hospital.
Thankfully now there are some efforts to gain better maternal hospitals in Africa, for example, Edna Aden who has built a maternal hospital. Everyone was shocked because many people think that there is no point in building something like that in the third world.
The last chapter talks a lot about the UNFPA organization which is supposed to be helping with this issue. But really in my opinion has not done a very good job exspecially when they take away $34 million that was in the fund and decide not to send it. Just like any other issue, they can all be resolved we just need enough people to really want to make a difference.

Chapter 6 - 8 Country Investigation

The country I chose to investigate was Sri Lanka. It was found in Chapter 7, page 117, and talks about how important it is to take care of pregnant women to lower the infant mortality rate and save the lives of infants and women around the world. Sri Lanka is located on a small island off the tip of South Africa. It is unlike many South African countries, because it noticed the rates of children and mothers dying before birth so they decided to change that. Creating schools kept girls there longer to avoid early marriage and pregnancy, and more money was put toward this cause to advance medicine to support their growing culture.

The population of Sri Lanka is 21,283,913. The life expectancy is around 75 years. According to this same site, it is neat to see the statistic that women live longer - 79 years as compared to men at 72 years, due to gender equality in this country. 90.7% of the population is literate. Including both male and female. English is spoken by about 10% of the population, and the national official language is Sinhala. Tamil is another national language that is spoken less frequently. Government officials usually use English. The long form name of their country is the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The capital is Colombo. Sir Lanka gained its independence from the U.K on February 4, in 1948, so they use this day as the national day to celebrate their independence. The main religions in Sri Lanka are: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Source.

I was  focusing  on chapter four.Rap has become endemic in South Africa I fell like governments are not doing enough to protect women.A major study  by the World Health Organization found that in most countries,between 30 percent and 60 percent of women had experienced physical or sexual violence by  a husband or boyfriend.Evidence suggests that it is very widespread:  21 percent  of  Ghanaian women reported  in one survey that their sexual initiation was by rape;17 percent of  Nigerian women said that they had endured Rape or attempted rape by age nineteen;and 21 percent of South African women  reported that they had been  raped by the age fifteen.How come stealing a goat get punishment but nothing happen to the kidnapers who kidnap  girls rape and beat on them.I'm not convince that violence  against women  often  function just to keep women down.I do believe  war on women continuing because  government are lazy to take the maximum measure to stop it.For example a woman name shahnez  poisoned her daughter  to avoid being divorce by her husband.This is a crime I would like to know what  the government did about it.Also I would like to know the unclear  reasons  why Eberew  was free after only a month.To me the was no unclear reason.Government simply refuse to intervene the way the should have been.How come a  twelve year old  girl  and sixteen year old boy  got married while the should have been  in school.Again where are the government to let that happen.This whole thing do not make sense  to me.Why  everybody in the husband family included the woman have to beat on the wife.This is not only because the husbands are illiterate and uneducated also devil.This is my inference  from half  the sky chapter four.

Blog 2: Local Organization

While reading I thought the local organization called Loose Change to Loosen Chains (LC2LC) was very interesting. It was created by Zach Hunter of Atlanta when he was just in seventh grade. It is basically a campaign to raise money to fight forced slavery. Just in the first year of the campaign he raised $8,500. Later in high school Zach wrote a book for teenagers called, "Be the Change." Today there are students all over the world that are doing this campaign to stop forced slavery. Zach was also at a White House event where he presented a petition of 100,000 signatures to get the government more involved in stopping the problem of slavery. he was also named a modern day hero by CNN.

Zach became the global student spokesperson for The Amazing Change, which was a campaign created in relation to the movie Amazing Grace to end the modern day slavery. He has now spoke to almost a million people around the nation. Zach's cause is growing more and more everyday, he has gained some media attention from big outlet's like Good Morning America. I think it's amazing that one kid who was only twelve could not only be so interested in something like this at that age but create something that is now world wide and growing. If we could just get more people like Zach involved and really want to end modern day slavery there is no reason we couldn't.




(http://www.zachhunter.me)

Blog 2: Country Post

After reading this section of Half the Sky I came upon one country in particular that i thought i wanted to learn more about. I chose to research India for this week's blog post because i hear a lot about how bad the poverty is and all the struggles that go on in the country of India, so i wanted to learn a little more about the country.

India is located in southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and by the Bay of Bengal between Burma and Pakistan. India is slightly more than one third the size of the United States. The population of India is 1,189,172,906 as of July 2011. So Compared to the size of the country that is a very high number of people, and those people don't have a lot of place to go because of the size of the country so it is pretty packed. I thought that we here in the United States were to crammed in parts of our country i can't even fathom the idea of that many people in the country I would personally go crazy. The Terrain in India changes drastically; in parts of the country you are in desserts, but then if you are up in the northern part of the country, you will find yourself in the Himalayas. With there being so many people in the country of India, one fact that I found that was a surprise to me is that the average age in the country is about 26 years old. The birth rate in India is about 21 births per 1000 people in the country. These two facts surprised me because the fact that there are so many people in the country I thought that there would be more people whom are older. Another fact that i found surprising was that 2.4 million people in the country are currently living with HIV/ AIDS.

In India only 61% of the whole population can read and write, and 73% of those who can read and write are male, while as 47% of the people who can read in India are female. The capital of India is New Delhi, and the form of government is federal republic. India gained their independence from the UK on August 15, 1947. The unemployment rate in India was 10.8% in 2010, which is close to the same of the current unemployment rate in the United States.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html

Chapter 3-5 Blog Post #2

Reading chapters 3-5 in “Half the Sky” was particularly difficult for me. Forced prostitution is a difficult subject and this book goes into explicit details about people’s real life experiences. Part of the reason that so many girls are forced into prostitution and sex trafficking is because they grin and bear it. A lot of the times it isn’t their fault their pimps get them addicted to drugs to either make them adjust to their new lives, or if they manage to escape from the brothels they will likely return so they can get “their fix.” A particularly horrifying story was that of a mobster called “Kasturba Nagar”, he preyed upon people, murdered, raped, tortured, and killed. The police did nothing they accepted cash bribes from the mobster and the horror continued. The woman eventually retaliated against the monster when the woman were in court for stabbing the guy and cutting off his penis the courts couldn’t tell who had actually stabbed him. All the woman took credit they said “We all killed him, arrest us all.” In South Africa rape has become so common that a medical technician invented a device that can be inserted like a tampon with barbs inside, this device is called “rapex.” If a man tried to rape a woman while she has a rapex inside her he will be forced to go to the hospital for treatment. “When critics complained that it was a medieval punishment, Ethers responded tersely, a medieval device for a medieval deed.” Another very common practice done by people is killing “in the name of god.” This is usually done when a woman doesn’t bleed on her wedding night. Even though a woman’s hymen can break from other activities other than sex during everyday life it is proper to kill her usually by stoning her to death. The woman is slandered and embarrassed cruelly and publically. It is called “The shame of honor.” A lot happened in these three chapters that still stuns me that they are actually real, and it’s terrible I believe that we need to do more to help these people, because they deserve a better life than they are receiving.