"My interest in the welfare of women began in a class I took sophomore year called "Violence against Women." We read the book "Half the Sky" by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (once again- they're awesome!) and learned about so many tragic things that women are experiencing around the world: Prostitution. Maternal mortality. Rape. Domestic Violence. Unequal pay. Female genital mutilation. At one point the authors quoted one magazine who wrote, "Maternal deaths in developing countries are often the ultimate tragic outcome of the cumulative denial of women's human rights. Women are not dying because of untreatable diseases. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving." Women are dying because people don't think their lives are worth saving. Since my sophomore year I've learned so much more about modern-day slavery, and the truth is that yes, violence against women is such a huge issue and one I hope to passionately pursue forever, but it's not just women that are experiencing the many ways in which slavery is occurring. This is why I'm participating in Dressember. There's a girl in Africa who isn't getting justice even though she was gang-raped. There's a woman in your county who is living in the cycle of domestic violence and she's too scared to come forward because her partner has threatened to take her kids away if she does. And there's little girls and boys all over the world who are being kidnapped and sold into slavery. 30 million people in this world don't have the ability to choose their food or whether they're educated or who they marry. It's enraging and discouraging, but I hold onto God's promises. There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain, including slavery. How blessed are we that we can walk alongside God in this fight for freedom? It's not their fight, it's our fight."
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