October 11th is the first-ever International Day of the Girl Child – a day dedicated to recognizing girls’ rights and advancing their lives and access to opportunities.
In honor of this day, I encourage you to participate in your own way. Educate yourself about girls’ issues. (I highly recommend the powerful book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, written by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.) Or support your favorite nonprofit organization.
To inspire you, I’ve included a collage of pictures of girls and young women that I have met during my travels from Cambodia to South Africa.
“The world is not interested in what we do for a living. What they are interested in is what we have to offer freely – hope, strength, love and the power to make a difference!”
Sasha Azevedo
“How wonderful that no one need wait a single moment to improve the world.”
Anne Frank
“We must become the change we want to see in the world.”
Gandhi
“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refused to do something that I can do.”
Helen Keller
“Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”
Margaret Mead
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Robert F. Kennedy
“Go out into the world and do good until there is too much good in the world.”
Larry H. Miller
“To him who is determined it remains only to act.”
Italian Proverb
“We have it in our power to change the world over.”
Thomas Paine
“I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.”
Dr. Jonas Salk
“Your thoughts, words and deeds are painting the world around you.”
Jewel Diamond Taylor
“It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little – do what you can.”
Sydney Smith
“We can do no great things – only small things with great love.”
Mother Teresa
“The mind has exactly the same power as the hands: not merely to grasp the world, but to change it.”
Colin Wilson
“If it is up to be, it is up to me.”
Unknown
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Since you get more joy out of giving to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
What girls or young women have inspired you close to your home or during your travels? Please also share your ideas for making the world a better place!
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