Submitting guest blogs is open to Global Washington’s members of the Atlas level and above. We value a diversity of opinions on a broad range of subjects of interest to the global health and development community.
Blog article submissions should be 500-1500 words. Photos, graphs, videos, and other art that supports the main themes are strongly encouraged.
You may not be the best writer, and that’s okay. We can help you shape and edit your contribution. The most important thing is that it furthers an important conversation in your field, and that it is relatively jargon-free. Anyone without a background in global development should still be able to engage with your ideas.
If you include statistics or reference current research, please hyperlink your sources in the text, wherever possible.
Have an idea of what you’d like to write about? Let’s continue the conversation! Email comms@globalWA.org and put “Blog Idea” in the subject line.
Posted on May 11, 2023
by Laura Baerwolf, Chief Operating Officer, Mona Foundation
Kali greeting Mona Foundation visitor at her home. Photo: Kelly Lacy, Make Beautiful, Mona Foundation
This is a true story that illustrates what happens when all members of a population, especially women, are enabled to participate as equals in the socio-economic activities of their community and contribute to its development. In Mona Foundation’s experience, education is central to such individual and social transformation but only if it includes lessons of gender equality, ethics, and service alongside academics and the arts.
We first met Kali in 2013 when she enrolled in the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women in Indore, India, a Mona partner since 2005. In the decade since, Kali’s life experience has provided a representative real-time narrative of the transformative power of educating women and girls. Her story shows how a young woman, empowered through education to improve her own life and see herself as an agent of social change, can impact her family, peers, and village – and, in time, change the hearts and minds of an entire community on the critical importance of education, gender equality, and capacity building in leading their own social transformation.
Kali was born in a tribal household in the remote village of Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh, India. As a child, she contracted polio which left her disabled and in need of a staff to walk. Born a girl, poor, and disabled, she had three strikes against her before she was twelve.
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Posted on May 10, 2023
By the Sukarya Team
Empowering our community one smile at a time through education and play. Photo: Sukarya
Gender equality and Education are intertwined with each other and have been the essential pillars for ensuring inclusive economic growth and social development. However, developing countries have not been able to effectively promote gender equality and provide education. While social stigmas and lack of awareness are the primary barriers for promoting gender equality, lack of resources and access have been detrimental for providing education. India is no exception as it was ranked 135th (out of 146 countries, in 2022) in gender parity by World Economic Forum (WEF). Although India ranks 33rd in terms of education, the access to education is a challenge among rural and socio-economically marginalized communities. At a time when India’s economic growth is booming, there is a need for grassroot level programs that address the challenges and help in achieving these Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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Posted on May 2, 2023
Contributed by buildOn
Growing up in Nthunduwala, Malawi in the early 1960s, Joyce Phiri had to drop out of school in the 6th grade. The distance between her home and her school became unmanageable. Her parents––both peasant farmers––were living in poverty and could no longer afford the costs of her education. And ultimately, educating girls just wasn’t a priority in her community. Now more than 50 years later, much of the world’s views on girls’ education remains unchanged. One in five adults around the world cannot read or write, and two-thirds of these adults are women.
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