A Special Message from the World’s Ugliest Woman! In a time when beauty is defined by supermodels, success is defined by wealth, and fame is deified by how many followers you have on social media, Lizzie Velasquez asks the question how do you define yourself? Once labeled, "The Worlds Ugliest Woman," Lizzie decided to turn things around and create her own definitions of what she defines as beauty and happiness. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, … [Read more...]
RAPE: Eve Ensler ~ ‘Dear Mr. Akin, I Want You to Imagine …’
Dear V-Activists, I posted this letter on The Huffington Post and I have been flooded with thousands of emails, tweets, texts, stories of terrible rapes and profound emotion. There is a loud trembling unspoken story of women about to break to the surface of the world. It must break through if we are to survive as a species. It must break through. I want to thank each and every person (woman and man) who shared their story of violation with me. Your courage, your support, your anger, … [Read more...]
Women: Silent Players in a Silent Crisis in the Sahel
Thanks to recurrent drought and a dangerous combination of high grain prices and environmental and security degradation, there is a severe food and livelihood crisis, affecting millions of people who live within -- and around -- the Sahel region. In the Sahel, as in most of the world, women make up the majority of small-scale farmers. (..) According to the FAO, investing in women smallholder farmers would result in significant gains in the fight against hunger. Eight million people are … [Read more...]