Dignity. Transformation. Hope. Give Her Life.

Sometimes life is serendipitous, isn't it? Every now and then you turn around and go, "whoa, that worked out great," or "talk about 'right place, right time!'" That's sort of how my introduction to Give Her Life unfolded: killin' time on facebook, checking the ol' newsfeed and there it was. A friend from the West Coast posted a link to the website and mentioned a bit about what they do. Hmmm. I could get behind this! I inboxed her. She responded. I sent her my latest contact info. Handled.

A little less than a week later I heard from a woman name Beth; she is spear-heading the project and wanted to know how I was interested in helping. I rattled off a long list of fabulous skills ;) and she promptly sent me a equally long list of resources. I began to dig and it didn't take long at all for me to be rocked to the core.

Let me hit the pause button for a second to explain just what Give Her Life is all about and why they are so important. Here's a bit from their webpage:

"Give Her Life is a non-profit research and advocacy project seeking to help families and communities find viable alternatives to gender-selection practices.

We believe that healthy and empowered women and families are key to fruitful and stable societies, and consequently that the killing of unwanted girls undermines the immense potential not only of girls, but also of their communities and nations.

Although the loss of life is grievous and the consequences of gender-selection are staggering, the deepest motivation of Give Her Life is not outrage at injustice but an unwavering belief in the possibility of a different future—one where women are given a chance to exist, their innate value is respected, and they are able to fully contribute to their families, communities and world."

Gender selection is pervasive in countries like China and India where boys are highly preferred. As a consequence, girls are eliminated through abortion and other practices. Give Her Life is on a mission to reveal, then help heal the PANDEMIC problem of gender selection. When  I spoke with Beth she shared with me that, because of gender selections practices in  these countries and others, the world is missing something like 200 million girls.

TWO. HUNDRED. MILLION.

That's more than the total number of women in the United States.

I don't fully understand the problem, and two hundred million is a hard number to visualize. But I know when I look into the angelic face of my beautiful little girl, that we must be the generation to turn this around. Nothing can replace the potential in my daughter. Nothing can replace the potential in the daughters lost to gender selection. The problem is big. But hope, justice and action are bigger. As I learn more I will share it with you, dear reader, and I hope you share it with others because this problem won't fix itself.

We're in this together.We are all a vital necessity. Each and every one.

Visit Give Her Life to learn more at www.giveherlife.org.