Pursuing Equality - International Women's Day, 2014

March 8, is set apart as a day for the world to stop and celebrate women during International Women’s Day. It is a day to acknowledge the achievements and advances made toward equality and inclusion. But, it is also a day to reflect on the work that is left to be done.

With the growing prevalence of women who are enterprise and societal leaders, in the west, it can be easy overlook or forget about the millions of women and girls who don’t experience the same opportunities or freedoms.

Many countries where World Vision operates in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia continue to be strongholds of inequality, where sex-selective abortions are on the rise, and where millions of girls are forced into early marriages and simultaneously excluded from education.

In Afghanistan, 379,000 girls will be married before they reach 18 this year; but only one in 10 are able to read.

In Albania, Kosovo and Romania, tens of thousands of girls will not be born this year, due to a rising demand for sex-selective abortions.

In Romania, only one in four Roma girls between the ages of 7 and 15 are going to school.

And, across the region, it is common for women to earn 25 cents or less for every dollar earned by a man.

World Vision believes that empowering and educating women—giving them the opportunity to realize their God-given potential—is an essential part of fighting poverty across the globe. And, it makes a difference.

Youth, like Erisjena, 17, from Albania are raising their voices in their communities and before world leaders. Erisjena took her message all the way to the United Nations General Assembly earlier this year.

Women who were the first generation to stand up to education equality when they were young ,in Pakistan and Azerbaijan, continue to make a difference in their communities and challenge the status quo today.

In battle-scarred Bosnia and Herzegovina two women look beyond their religious differences and lead by example as they walk with their community towards a brighter future.  

Across the region, women are proving that investing in women yields a high return on investment and that with a little help to get started they can organize and run profitable businesses and provide for their children’s needs.

Not only are women and girls joining the race towards a brighter future for themselves, when the baton is passed to them, they gladly carry it forward; continuing World Vision’s work and extending the impact for future generations.