The Chime for Change concert on June 1, at London’s Twickenham Stadium, has an appropriately big mission, too: To raise money for women's and girls' causes worldwide.

And the brains behind this mega-event? Actress/activist Salma Hayek Pinault and Gucci creative director Frida Giannini, who together created the new nonprofit Chime for Change and got Beyonce to join the founding committee. Gucci is underwriting the entire concert, so all proceeds go to women-centric charities.

Want to help women’s and girls’ causes? Click on Chime for Change.

Chime for Change, then, is more than a concert. It’s a year-round movement to promote education, justice, and health for girls and women. Using Catapult, a crowd-sourced philanthropic site, Chime for Change encourages participants to join teams, led by celebs and ordinary people, that are raising money for favorite projects.

Beyonce, for instance, is focusing on charities that teach leadership to Haitian girls and provide school scholarships in sub-Saharan Africa, while Hayek Pinault is working to bring healthcare to Syrian refugees and train women leaders in Mexico and Guatemala. The Chime for Change website lists dozens of projects, from economic security to maternal health, HIV/AIDS, human trafficking, child brides, technology, rights, domestic violence and more. "In the information age…we all share in everything that happens," Hayek Pinault has said. "But that means we also have the chance, the ability, and the responsibility, to right what is wrong."

Back to that concert: Many tiers of tickets are sold out so you best bet is to watch on TV. Broadcast details will be released closer to June 1 and can be found here.  In addition to ticket sales, the concert—officially called The Sound of Change Live—will encourage mobile giving through onstage calls to action. The goal is to fund at least 170 projects via the concert.

And if you can’t make it to London this year, there’s always the one-year anniversary event scheduled for 2014.  After all, as Beyonce says, "It's up to us to change the statistics for women around the world."

Charity Navigator is a highly regarded source that rates nonprofits on how effectively they use funds. The site also provides excellent guidelines for giving.

To read Charity Navigator’s suggested Oklahoma charities, and how to evaluate them, click here.

When most people hear about the horrors of sex trafficking and exploitation, they think of faraway countries like India or Cameroon. But just last week, longtime women's advocate Malika Saada Saar sat down with six young girls who were bought and sold for their bodies right in our own backyard. "They were from Los Angeles," she says. "Born and raised—and trafficked—in Los Angeles."

American girls ages 16 to 19 are the prime victims of rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault, according the U.S. Bureau of Justice, and one in four will report a sexual assault by age 18, says one study. These shockingly high rates are close to the level of sexual violence in some parts of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, where such attacks are acknowledged as a human rights issue. But for American girls, "their conditions of poverty, rape and sexual violence are excluded from a human rights framework," says Saada Saar. "[They're] reduced instead to conversations of cultural pathology and crime."

Saada Saar is aiming to ensure that the plight of American girls is no longer ignored. A lawyer by training, she started The Human Rights Project for Girls (Rights4Girls) to give voice to these invisible girls.

The new organization works in part by empowering survivors of domestic sex trafficking to become advocates for themselves. Through one-week intensive programs, survivors learn about the public policy process and gain the public speaking and social media skills necessary to bring their own stories to light. "We are purposely focused on small groups of girls who are trained and prepared to speak truth to power," says Saada Saar, who in 2001 founded the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, with which she is no longer affiliated. "We have trained and worked with over 50 girl survivors in the last year."

Though change starts with the survivors, the work of Rights4Girls expands well beyond, to the halls of Congress and the White House, where for years Saada Saar has been lobbying to include American girls in the conversations about violence against women. It’s working: In February, an amendment that Rights4Girls helped to develop in partnership with Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), which recognizes child victims of trafficking as victims of sexual violence—and therefore gives them access to the same resources as other survivors—passed unanimously in the Senate. 

To learn more, go to www.rights4girls.org.

Sarah J. Robbins is the co-author of Keeping Hope Alive, the memoir of Somalia’s Dr. Hawa Abdi.

1. More women in office is good for everyone.
A government of, by, and for the people surely cannot be comprised of only half the talent pool. It's not simply about numbers. It is about fulfilling the promise of our democracy.

2. Women deliver the goods.
They get results. Women in Congress have shown they are more effective than their male counterparts. They deliver more money for their districts, and they sponsor and pass more legislation.

3. Being a woman is a plus.
Voters give women an advantage on honesty and ethics. They perceive women to be more collaborative. And our research has shown that women have credibility on issues important to families, such as kitchen-table economics, healthcare, and education.

4. It's time for a woman president.
For the first time ever, women ran at the top of the ticket for both parties in 2008. With women winning seats in Congress and executive offices across the country, there is an amazing bench of women who are qualified to be president. I used to dream about the first woman president. Now I talk about electing her. That's inspiring.

5. As Hillary says, don't give up.
I personally shared my Foundation's research with First Lady Hillary Clinton, before she was even a candidate. The best advice I've gleaned from her is to stay optimistic about the cause. Watching her journey has been such a motivation to me.

Danielle Gletow saw first-hand the difficulties faced by some of America's 100,000 foster children while she was adopting her daughter Mia. Which is why in 2008 the New Jersey resident started One Simple Wish, a nonprofit that has helped thousands of kids.

One Simple Wish began by doing what its name implies: Connecting people who want to help via a database of children's yearnings. Most of the wishes are simple and affordable, ranging in cost from $5 to $100, and encompassing everything from a bike and helmet to new eyeglasses or a museum membership.

To learn more about One Simple Wish, click here.

The organization has since extended its operations to include services for children who are removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect, The Ohana Project; Wish to Work, which offers job training and support for kids who are about to "age out" of foster care when they reach 18; and Project Prom, which provides prom dresses for girls in the foster system.

One Simple Wish is obviously about more than granting wishes; Gletow is a passionate advocate for all foster kids. "It is great to raise awareness," she told a news site, "but it is better to raise awareness that sparks action."

1. You are defined not by what happened to you, but what you make of your story.
"From afar the world sees women refugees and survivors of war as victims. And though women do suffer much of wars atrocities from rape to displacements, they do not define themselves by their victimhood stories but rather by what they make out of the story. They have taught me about the real meaning of peace, and strength, and courage, and beauty and just to appreciate every aspect of life."

2. Peace is inside you.
"I met what I call my Dalai Lama in a Congolese woman named Nanbito, who lives in a small hut with a tin roof and four children; one is a result of rape. When I asked her what peace means for her, she said: 'Peace is inside my heart. No one can give it to me and now one can take it away from me.' Her wisdom is something we each seek in our privileged lives in the U.S.: that simple peace inside our hearts."

3. We can find love in the midst of horror.
"War is only a microcosm of life in peace. People fall in love in war, and get married and divorced, and have children and go to parties and lose loved ones. There are many challenges in wars but there are always moments when people find joy in the midst of much horror. The only way we can really connect to women survivors of war is not seeing them as different but seeing them as us. We are them. They are us. The lives are different. The feelings are the same."

4. There is great beauty in unexpected places.
"I have seen women who went through all sorts of horrors from child marriage, to rape and displacement, war and loss of loved ones and I have seen them rise and rise up again in the most magnificent ways. I met women in Afghanistan who built their lives from zero and now employee hundreds of other women and men in their business. I have met genocide survivors in Rwanda who have forgiven their loved ones' killers and now run organic farming to ensure a better future for their kids. This and more left me a belief in the beauty of this world and the beauty of humanity despite all of the darkness. If my sisters in Congo and Iraq can still sing and dance, who am I not to do so and not to be grateful for all my privileges."

5. To change the world, start with the inner journey.
"If we are to change the world, women's voices need to be heard loud and clear in all sectors and can no longer be corned into one sector only. But beyond that, we need to be the change we aspire to in the world. Such change starts with the inner journey. What drives me forward is my absolute and utter belief in the possibility of change and that it is indeed possible for each one of us to live our truth and fulfill our full potential."

This year’s luncheon on May 2 in New York City has a special focus: saluting advocates for “the disabled, displaced and determined.” One honoree is Dahabo Hassan Maow, who was orphaned as an infant in Somalia and then at the age of 14 lost her leg in the crossfire of warring tribes. Her caretaker was killed in that crossfire and Dahabo was left to fend for herself, traveling from one refugee camp to another. Dahabo helped found the Maisha Collective, a project that provides leadership and business management skills to Somali refugees at Heshima Kenya.

Atim Caroline Ogwang will also be honored. A native of South Sudan, she grew up an orphan and a refugee in Uganda. She lost her hearing at the age five when an explosive left behind by the Lord’s Resistance Army detonated while she was out picking fruit. Now, as an official with the Southern Sudan Deaf Development Concern, Atim advocates for deaf girls’ education, organizes deaf women to work towards self-reliance, and lobbies for the full participation of women with disabilities in international development programs.

In addition, WRC will salute the government of Australia for its international aid program, AusAID, for its humanitarian work and for its role as a champion of international development policies that include the disabled.

For more information about Women’s Refugee Committee, or to purchase tickets for the luncheon, visit the event details page.

Ruth Riley on a recent trip to South Africa, teaching defense to a young girl.

When you're overwhelmed, just focus—and commit.
My first trip to South Africa was a humbling, eye-opening experience. My family did not have a lot of money growing up, but I was not prepared for the level of poverty, disease and lack of education that I witnessed.  At first I was overwhelmed—and then I realized that I just needed to be committed to being a consistent part of the solution. 

An utter lack of hope can co-exist with unspeakable joy.
When we walked through a clinic in Angola, we saw children dying from malaria in their mothers' arms and those women's faces were completely devoid of emotional response because they were so accustomed to losing their children from this completely preventable disease. On the other hand we'd visit a net distribution clinic and mothers would radiate pure joy amidst some of the most impoverished conditions, simply because we were giving them a life-saving net!

The three words that will get you unstuck every time
My favorite saying is: Control the controllables . . . no need wasting energy stressing about something you don't have power to change. Instead, channel that energy and focus toward what you can control!

The best attitude is gratitude.
These trips taught me three things: to remain humble and be grateful for what I have; that though cultures and appearance may outwardly differentiate us, we are all global citizen of a large, yet very small world; and lastly about the power of love and how to live out my faith and values in a very authentic way.

The one thing that would make the biggest difference in the world
If I could change one thing for the girls I met along the way it would be to secure their education! Knowledge is power, and it is something that young girls are robbed of at a very young age.  If girls were given the opportunity to learn, they would be able to change the entire dynamic of their communities!!

To learn more about Nothing But Nets, go to www.nothingbutnets.com

To learn more about Nkomazi Sports, go to www.nkomazisportsclub.org

That's why Half the Sky Movement has joined with more than 20 groups led by the International Women's Health Coalition in a campaign called 50 Days of Action for Women and Girls. They are calling on women and men across the country to demonstrate mass support for programs worldwide that empower women and improve their health, guarantee their rights and bolster their well-being.

Each week from now until June 21, the campaign will highlight a different theme, for instance "Ensuring Quality Education of Women and Girls." Participants are encouraged to contact U.S. government leaders and policy makers via social media.

For all tweets involving issues that concern women and girls, the campaign has official hashtags - #usa4women and/or #usa4girls. Besides Twitter, there’s a social media toolkit that includes Thunderclap, Twibbons (for #usa4women and #usa4girls), a Google+ hangout and Tweetchat.

Topics on the campaign agenda include ending forced marriage, preventing violence against women and girls, and protecting human rights.

To make your voice heard, click here.

That's when Humble Design springs into action. The nonprofit repurposes gently used household goods to provide former shelter residents with a safe and comfortable home—allowing the families to dedicate their time and energy to finding employment and education and creating a better future.

Humble Design was founded in 2009 by Ana Smith and Treger Strasberg, who wanted to contribute to the growth and re-building of Detroit. Their organization has the capacity to work with two families per week and partners with local shelters to identify families that could use their help. So far they have assisted more than 240 families.

There's an eco angle to this, too. One hundred percent of the furniture used is donated, making it the ultimate in recycling. Monetary donations are used to move families into their new homes, for minor repairs and cleaning supplies.

To donate to Humble Design, click here
And watch a video about their work here

By Amanda L. Freeman

Every day, countless groups across the country help women and their families with meals, housing, childcare, tutoring, counseling and more. For instance, single moms like Norma and Lauretta, whose stories appeared in part two of this series, get mentoring and job-search assistance from the Crittenton Women’s Union in Boston. "Just having someone to check in on you. It really helps you to move forward," said Norma.

But much of the battle against female poverty takes place behind the scenes. Unsung advocates campaign tirelessly to end mistreatment of low-wage workers and to guarantee vital benefits like sick days and a livable minimum wage.

Their goal is to create public policies that ensure "a decent wage and that all workers can earn paid sick days, and a family and medical leave insurance fund so all workers can draw income while caring for a new child or a family illness," says Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values @ Work, a network of 20 state coalitions lobbying for these benefits.

Changing laws, though, is hard compared to, say, serving meals in a soup kitchen. "Getting support to attack systemic barriers is more difficult because funders like to see tangible results in short periods of time," says Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), a nonprofit working for the rights of women and marginalized workers.

Who’s helping: Learn about groups that are getting women out of poverty

Click here for part 1 of this series

Click here for part 2 of this series

ERA is one of the many service and advocacy organizations supported by the Ford Foundation, which has made it a priority to solve the feminization of American poverty. "We can't just call attention to the problems of poverty," says LaShawn R. Jefferson, Ford Foundation program officer on women's human rights. "We have to engage the women who are closest to the problems to help craft the solutions."

ERA offers advice and referrals through a hotline, but the majority of their work is legal advocacy. For instance, ERA supports the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to protect the rights of pregnant workers nationwide.

That means helping women like Lauren. When Lauren (not her real name) announced her pregnancy at work, everything changed. "I was working as an administrative coordinator, and they gave me all these new duties," she recalls. "I had to collect and throw out the garbage, clean the bathrooms, and I said, wait a minute, I wasn't doing any of that before. But these were the things I had to do if I wanted to keep my job. When I wouldn't clean the bathroom, they fired me."

Often pregnant women feel powerless to report problems at work because they may lose their job, says Fatima Goss Gaves, vice president for education and development for The National Women’s Law Center, which files briefs, brings lawsuits to enforce existing laws, and wages public education campaigns on behalf of low-income women. "It's a very real fear," she says, "and it's so important for them to have a healthy pregnancy and a job that pays."

She’s not just a worker, she’s a mother

There are two proven ways for low-income women to climb out of poverty: Join a union or get some college education, says Anne Ladky, executive director of Women Employed. Women Employed advocates for better workplace conditions and increased access to education. Their pilot program, "Complete the Degree," assists women who have some college credits and want to go back.

Union jobs are much more likely to offer generous benefits, but most low-wage workers don't have access to union membership. But groups like 9to5, a national association for working women, are trying to fill that gap by training women to organize their own campaigns and advocate for their rights on the job.

For low-wage earners who are lucky enough to be unionized, the prospects are certainly brighter. Health care workers, for instance, have the Healthcare Career Advancement Program, which allows them to work and go to school for free, sometimes moving up the ladder in the same hospital. The program also helps women locate childcare during classes, and provides tutoring and career counseling.

One thing that's now glaringly obvious is that getting single moms out of poverty won't happen unless groups working on their behalf realize that they are dealing with a family. It's not uncommon to find a woman visiting a Head Start program for her child on one side of town while a housing office is trying to move that same family across town. Poor families deal with many different agencies that don't talk to each other. And unfortunately many programs, designed to empower mothers ignore the demands of their children.

The Ascend Program at the Aspen Institute is trying to fix that. Ascend focuses on the needs of parents and their kids together, says Anne Mosle, vice-president of the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Ascend Program. For instance, Dr. Eduardo Padrón, president of Miami Dade College and an Aspen fellow, is working to better support low-income student parents by coordinating with daycare and Head Start programs.

"Social programs need to address the power of the connection between mothers and children and moving ahead," said Lisa Dodson, author of Don’t Call Us Out of Name: The Untold Lives of Women and Girls in Poor America. "Most moms will tell you that their children are their greatest motivation for going back to school or trying to get a better job."

Amanda L. Freeman is a writer, researcher and doctoral candidate specializing in single-mother-headed families.

by Amanda L. Freeman

Lauretta has lived in Boston public housing all her life. She and her son, Francis, a 7-year-old freckle-faced charmer with bright orange hair, share a ground floor unit in the Old Colony Housing projects.

After her mother died when Lauretta was 17, she earned a GED and worked as a court reporter and in accounts payable, but what she really wanted was to become a mom. "I always fantasized about having a family. I watched the baby carriages, and I secretly couldn't wait until it was my turn," she says.

Who’s helping: Learn about groups that are getting women out of poverty

Click here for part 1 of this series

Once kids come along, say experts, getting additional schooling becomes doubly hard—even though education is the only sure-fire fix for economic despair. "In too many instances, people can't work their way out of poverty, even when they work 80 hours a week in two or three jobs," says LaShawn R. Jefferson, Ford Foundation program officer on women's human rights. Ford is among several organizations dedicated to finding ways relieve poverty among American women. "In today’s economy, graduating from high school and obtaining a post-secondary degree can mean the difference between a lifetime of poverty and a secure economic future."

Francis was born when Lauretta was 29, but his father, who struggled with substance abuse, split soon after. "Having my son was a wake up call," she says.

Friends told her about a local learning center that offered classes for her and childcare for her son. So Lauretta went back to school and eventually started working part-time at a computer center in the neighborhood.

Financial aid covers most of the tuition at Bunker Hill Community College and One Family Scholars, a local nonprofit that supports low-income single parent students, provides a small stipend as long as she keeps her grades up.

Still, money is tight. "I get that sick feeling when I realize he's grown again, and I can't afford sneakers or a new coat."

Lauretta is now in her fourth year of an associate's degree program, planning to graduate in the spring. Because single moms are often the primary breadwinner, housekeeper and parent, they tend to take longer than fresh-from-high-school coeds to finish degree programs. 

Although she's excited to start her full-time job search, Lauretta also has worries about leaving public housing. "It's my goal to move out of here, but it's also scary because you lose your safety net," she says.

"I always had a job. Two jobs, really."

Nobody understands Lauretta's concerns better than Norma and her six-year-old son, Elvis, who moved out of the same Old Colony Housing development two years ago.

When they first arrived at Old Colony, Elvis was three. Fleeing an abusive relationship with Elvis' father, mother and child stayed with relatives and wound up in a domestic violence shelter before the transfer to public housing. "I'd never lived in public housing and literally always had a job, two jobs really, so all this was new to me. But I got food stamps. Got Elvis a voucher for daycare. I was so grateful for the help, but I knew it was temporary," she says.

With 15 years of experience in medical billing, Norma was able to patch together part-time positions and made enough money that she was at the top of the income bracket for her housing unit. "I was paying the max rent, and the place was terrible. I mean the filth, and there were drugs, I just wanted my son out of there." So when the nursing home in Somerville where she worked bumped up her hours to full-time, Norma started saving for a rental deposit.

"When we moved into our apartment in Somerville, where we have a little backyard, Elvis asked if we could live here forever," Norma says. "I almost lost it."

But as her income increased, Norma found she was approaching "the benefits cliff," where she was no longer eligible for some government support programs. Her modestly growing paycheck had caused her rent subsidy to diminish by the time she moved out of public housing, but moving also meant that Elvis lost his daycare voucher. "It's hard because you make a little more money, but then you don't qualify for benefits anymore, so you actually have less," she says. 

Six months after they moved, Norma lost her job due to budget cuts. Fortunately a  temporary housing subsidy came through. She kept working part-time and started taking classes at the University of Massachusetts toward a bachelor’s degree in gerontology, all while wrestling with a wicked bout of depression. Understandably, poor single moms have high rates of anxiety and depression, which often go untreated.

Finally, Norma was offered another full-time position. The shift was four ten-hour days, which left one day to go to class and more online classes at night.

Elvis watches TV during her online class from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. "I try to listen to what the professor is saying, but my son is tugging at me, asking for this or that," she says. Right after class, Norma climbs into bed with Elvis and falls asleep, exhausted. This is just a nap though. Norma sets the alarm for 10 p.m. "I try to get up and study while the house is quiet, until around 2:00 a.m., but too many nights I sleep through my alarm, that's how I get behind on my schoolwork," Norma says. Regardless, she’s back up by 5:30 a.m. every weekday morning.  

About a year ago, Norma started getting calls from Elvis's school. "I was having to leave work and come pick him up at least twice a week," she says. There were appointments with doctors and eventually an ADHD diagnosis. With absences piling up, the stress on Norma’s job became too much, and they let her go.

Today, Norma is once again patching together part-time hours. If things don't change by January when her housing subsidy expires, she and Elvis will have to move. The image of her son, sitting on the counter, legs dangling, loving his backyard, is never far from her mind when she's studying at midnight or sending out dozens of resumes for a full-time position that would pay enough for them to stay.

Amanda L. Freeman is a writer, researcher and doctoral candidate specializing in single-mother-headed families.

By Amanda L. Freeman

"Leaning in" and smashing glass ceilings are great goals—but they are the last things on the minds of 27 million American women struggling just to hang on to their homes and feed their kids. These women make up the demographic that is the most likely to be poor in the U.S.: the single mom.

But here's the surprising thing: Most of those single moms are working. They remain mired in poverty because they tend to have low-wage jobs without benefits or opportunities for advancement—and because the U.S. has one of the skimpiest social safety nets in the western world. And the Great Recession has only made things worse.

Who’s helping: Learn about groups that are getting women out of poverty

"Although women are participating at the highest rate in modern times in the U.S. formal workforce, they continue to face obstacles to greater economic self-sufficiency and equality," says Maya Harris, vice president of Democracy, Rights and Justice for the Ford Foundation.

The Ford Foundation is one of a broad swath of groups—from Legal Momentum to the Aspen Institute—taking a hard look look at this dire reality. Over the next few days, Women in the World.org will provide an up-close view of this problem, with profiles in poverty, and potential solutions. But first, the cold facts:

Single mom = poor kids

Through this Great Recession, the arms of poverty stretched far and wide, beyond inner cities and rural areas like Appalachia. Hunger is not just the third world problem;  only three other countries in the developed world—Mexico, Chile and Turkey—have a higher child poverty rate than the United States.

Single mothers are the most likely demographic group to be poor. And half of all mothers will spend some time as sole parents, though many didn't plan on it. Around 47 percent of kids living with a single mother are poor, four times the poverty rate for the children of married couples, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

For a single mother and a child, the poverty line hovers around $15,000, which roughly coincides with the minimum wage in most states. Making things worse, millions more earn just above the poverty line, disqualifying them for benefit programs. Meghan, a low-income single mom from rural Pennsylvania, felt hopeless when her family was rejected for public assistance because their income was seven dollars over the state guideline. "We were working so hard, but we just couldn’t pay the bills every month," she says.

Why so poor?

Why are so many single mothers poor? First, the majority of them receive either inadequate or zero child support from the fathers of their children. Support guidelines vary from state to state, but incredibly the minimums fall between $15 and $30 per week.

Second, the U.S. does not provide a comprehensive safety net of public benefits. "Our social welfare programs are much less generous than other high-income countries, and low-wage work is much more common in America," says Timothy Casey, a senior attorney for Legal Momentum. In fact, all other high-income countries offer some form of "child allowance," a monthly payment to assist parents in caring for their children, according to Casey.

Despite promises to beef up childcare support as poor women moved off welfare, only 15 percent of eligible kids receive subsidized childcare.

Welfare moms are not sitting with their feet up, having babies to keep the benefit checks coming. Yes, more than 90 percent of recipients of cash welfare benefits, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), are mothers. But poor women can only receive TANF for a lifetime total of 60 months. The overwhelming majority of poor moms are working outside the home, trapped in low-wage jobs without benefits or a chance to advance.

“What we think of as work-family issues for professional women, just do not apply when it comes to poor women,” says Joan Williams, author of Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It and reports such as Sick Child Away from Being Fired: When Opting Out is Not an Option.

Williams says the jobs poor women hold are often extremely rigid, so they can't take time off when their child is sick or they need to attend a parent teacher conference. At the same time, "They have unstable hours that change from day to day, which makes arranging childcare, typically with other family members who are in the same types of jobs, very difficult," she says.

The route out of misery

To get better jobs, poor women need access to education. But most states no longer allow higher education to count as "work" for welfare or childcare subsidies. Consider the impact in New York City. In 1995, before welfare reform, 27,000 welfare recipients were enrolled in classes at the City University of New York. By 2000, the number had fallen to between 5,000 and 6,000, where it remains.

Other than a rich husband, education is the best chance for poor women to escape poverty. Someone with a bachelor’s degree earns an average of $36,424 more than a high school dropout. What’s more, when they earn college degrees, 90 percent of welfare recipients get off and stay off welfare.

But affording college today is a squeeze even for middle class families. Pell Grants, the primary source of federal aid for low-income students, cover only about $5,000 per year. Add to the financial stress, parenting responsibilities, piles of paperwork, and the fact that poor moms often need extra help to make up for missed material, and the odds stack up.

Still, poor women struggle every day to get an education. In coming posts, we will bring you stories of a few women who are working very hard to build a better life for their kids and the national organizations that are working tirelessly to clear a path for them.

Amanda L. Freeman is a writer, researcher and doctoral candidate specializing in single mother-headed families.

• LIFETIME – From GEDs to PhDs
• 9-5, The National Association for Working Women
• South Asian Americans Leading Together

ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS

• National Women's Law Center
• Ms. Foundation
• Women Employed
• Equal Rights Advocates
• Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
• National Partnership for Women and Families

RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS

• Institute for Women's Policy Research
• The Shriver Report
• Legal Momentum

Kamen didn't like what was available: mostly fleece and sweatshirts. So that very evening, she came up with the idea to start a line of stylish clothing to meet the unique needs of women who have undergone radiation, chemotherapy and surgery for breast cancer.

So was born The Alloro Collection, which offers beautiful, elegant designs that address breast cancer survivors’ concerns. One of the pieces, for instance, is a chic bolero with hidden inside pockets for post-op drains during recovery; there are also cute, no-chafe camisoles and tunics, and shirts with wide dolman sleeves that allow women to put them on and take them off with ease.

Restoring a woman's confidence after such drastic surgery is an important step in helping her feel like her best self. That upbeat theme is evident in the collection's tag line, "Recapture the Joy."

Kamen and Alloro co-founder Christine Irvin have tapped into a huge market. According to the American Cancer Society, there will be 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer diagnosed in women this year.

But Alloro is also giving back; 25 percent of all profits from sales go to support breast cancer research and underserved women.

The collection is sold at invitation-only trunk shows in cities with major breast cancer treatment facilities or at the company website. The shows are more than just sales parties; they are also places for women to meet, support each other and exchange information. The first trunk show was held in D.C.; the second will be in New York City on April 17.

For more information click here.

1. A girl who rocks is...
"…a girl who is trying to become her best self. She understands the importance of striving for excellence, integrity and service to others."

2. Listen to the lyrics.
"My career as a DJ made me really start listening to the lyrics of rap and hip-hop music that was popular at the clubs, to the messages targeting young people, the incredible sexism that pervades the industry. It is a boy's club. Young women need to ask, 'Do these lyrics make sense? Are they really empowering?' We have to talk about these messages and realize that they reinforce the objectification of women."

3. You’ve got to give back.
"There is a saying that goes, 'Service is the rent that you pay for your room here on earth.' We are not just here for ourselves."

4. Look in the mirror.
"We received a letter in 2010 from a young woman who saw our first Black Girls Rock! Awards on TV. She said was in tears. She wrote, 'I couldn't believe what I was watching, because I always thought that being a black girl didn’t matter. Everything I knew about being black meant being ugly, being dark. When I saw the award speakers, the performances, I couldn't believe it. I realized those women are me. I rock.'"

5. Do the right thing—even when it feels wrong.
"You can find yourself feeling alone when you stand up for something you believe in. Nobody else may want to stand with you, but you can't worry about that. Surround yourself with people who believe in you and you believe in, people who inspire you. That will make you realize, 'You know what? I am not crazy.'"

Cited as Women of Impact, each of these achievers received a $25,000 grant from the Women in the World Foundation, to be used by their affiliated nonprofits to carry on their work. The honorees are:

• To donate to the Women in the World Foundation, click here.
• Learn all about 2012's Women of impact; click here.

Khalida Brohi, who, despite death threats, crusades against honor killing and for the rights of women in Pakistan through her organization, Sughar, which aims to create a society where women are honored, not killed.

Humaira Bachal, also from Pakistan, who at age 12 began setting up impromptu classes to give an education to girls in Karachi’s poorest neighborhood and now runs the Dream Model Street School for 700 girls and boys.

Molly Melching, the founder of Tostan, which successfully works against female genital cutting and child marriage in Africa. Her nonprofit builds sustainable communities while promoting equal rights.

Phiona Mutesi, 17, who rose above a childhood of poverty and abject hunger to become Uganda’s national chess champion and a contender in the World Chess Olympiad. Her success has inspired other girls to take up the game.

Susana Trimarco, whose daughter was kidnapped in 2002 and apparently sold to sex traffickers. Trimarco, who has not seen her daughter since the abduction, fights against sex trafficking through her Maria de los Angeles Foundation.

The Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) was started in 2007 by the actress—who also holds the title of UN Messenger of Peace—with the goal of supporting African youth in keeping themselves safe from HIV/AIDS. Among its achievements are mobile health clinics and programs to bring clean water and sanitation to communities in Africa.

Charlize and CTAOP are making sure that the word gets out about HIV/AIDS prevention in South Africa by working with Women in the World Foundation and the Virtue Foundation to showcase these important projects to drive awareness and action.  Learn how you can get involved! To put your project on the Map, just click here.

Get on the Map! For HIV/AIDS Prevention in South Africa

	Still saving Somalis—and writing books: After Dr. Hawa Abdi received her Women of Impact award last year, violence in Somalia forced the temporary closure of the 90,000-person camp she runs in the countryside for internally displaced people. Camp residents fled to safety in Mogadishu, where Dr. Abdi’s foundation set up a new free healthcare clinic to serve them. In the last year she as been showered with additional honors including the John Jay Medal for Justice, the Social Humanitarian Award and the Vital Voices Global Leadership Award. April 2, 2013 marks the launch of her memoir, Keeping Hope Alive: One Woman—90,000 Lives Changed, co-written with Sarah J. Robbins.
Her first graduating class: Back in 2009, Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya—who as a child in Kenya persuaded her father to let her attend school and ended up with a Ph.D.—opened a boarding school for underprivileged Maasai girls. This year, the first class of 8th-graders will graduate and head to high school. Ntaiya and staff are working to get scholarships for all 19 grads so they can continue their education. There are also camp programs twice a year, to reach even more girls—more than 250 so far—and teach them about women’s health, leadership skills, self-defense, and the dangers of female genital cutting.
	The peace lady: Leymah Gbowee, the Nobel peace prize winner who led a women’s movement to halt Liberia’s civil war, continues to spread her message about women’s power to change the world. She headed Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission until late 2012, when she stepped down because of differences in opinion on the appropriate way to promote national healing, a cause to which she remains devoted. She travels around the world to advocate for women’s rights and working for peace.

See a livestream of the 2013 Women of Impact Awards on Friday, April 5, at 6:55 p.m.

1. Givology: Educating kids around the globe
Founded by Joyce Meng, Oxford, and Jennifer Chen, University of Pennsylvania

Run completely by volunteers, Givology connects donors to grassroots education projects and student scholarships around the globe, with the goal of making quality education accessible for all children. Visit Givology here.

2. Strong Women Strong Girls:  The name says it all
Founded by Lindsay Hyde, Harvard

More than 14000 elementary school girls in Boston, Pittsburgh and Miami get the benefit of mentoring by college women, thanks to this innovative program. Learn more here.

3. Pencils 4 Ghana: Small tool, big impact
Founded by Hannah McConn and Randryia Houston, University of Houston

The lack of a simple writing instrument that most of us take for granted can be the reason a child does drops out of school. The Pencil Project and Pencils4Ghana Initiative was launched after McConn and Houston returned from a study-abroad trip to Ghana. In 2010 they donated 50,000+ pencils to seven schools in Ghana, and in July of 2011, 22,000 more. Help them out here.

College women: Sign up for our Leadership Academy

4. Berkeley Microfinance: Low-cost loans for low-income people
Founded by Jasmine Segall, UC Berkeley

Recognizing how difficult it is for low-income entrepreneurs to get loans, a group of UC Berkeley students formed this microfinance enterprise. The loans are up to $5,000 with 0% interest, they also offer a range of services including marketing, social media, and business consulting. Learn more here.

5. Students for Education Reform: Making K-12 better for all kids
Founded by Catharine Bellinger and Alexis Morin, Princeton

It grew from one college campus to 20, and from 20 to more than 140 undergraduate chapters at colleges in more than 30 states! All in just over 2 years. SEFR’s goal is to ensure that all children, regardless of income or neighborhood, get a good education. Learn more here.

6. LIFT: Eradicating poverty in this country
Co-founded by Kirsten Lodal, Yale

Taking on the lofty task of tackling poverty in the U.S. might seem too much for a college student to bite off, but Kirsten Lodal had no qualms when she co-founded LIFT. Thanks to LIFT, more than 70,000 individuals and families in six large cities have been put on a path out of poverty through paying jobs, stable housing, education and training. Visit LIFT.

Amid the ruined families and quashed futures caused by the home-mortgage crisis of the last few years, one group was hit especially hard: women.

A little-known aspect of the foreclosure debacle is its harsh impact on female homeowners, according to a recent report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that examined the homeownership patterns over 20 years for a sample of adults ages 23 to 51. Between 2007 and 2010, women who were separated, divorced or widowed had the highest rate of mortgage delinquency—more than 11 percent. And single women were four times as likely as single men to have lost their home to foreclosure.

Some studies put the blame for these startling numbers on lending practices: nearly a third of women received subprime loans in 2005, compared to a quarter of men—even though women have higher credit scores. And because women earn less than men, on average, they are less able to weather hard times.

HOMEOWNER HELP: Search for a HUD-certified counselor near you.

"Many of our clients are women trying to hang onto their home after the loss of their income or after the loss of their partner to death or divorce," says Maeve Elise Brown, director of Housing and Economic Rights Advocates, a not-for-profit law office in California. "When a family breaks up, women seem to take it more on the chin."

"One of my earliest cases was a woman in her 60s living on $900 a month in Social Security, who needed money to repair her roof and bury a son who had met with an untimely death," adds Brown. The woman owed about $90,000 on her mortgage, but was put into a new $160,000 loan. "More than $30,000 was ripped out of her equity and went straight to the broker as fees and other shenanigans," says Brown. "That is not an uncommon example."

As the mortgage crisis continues to ripple through the economy, a host of rip-off services have emerged to prey on struggling homeowners. "Non-attorneys, realtors, people with no license at all are claiming that they’re going to help you stay longer, or save your home from foreclosure, that has cost homeowners million of dollars," warns Brown.

What’s a woman to do? Experts recommend seeking a HUD-certified counselor; they offer free or low-cost advocacy and counseling, and can refer homeowners to low-cost legal services.

The nearest hospital—miles away in Tumu, over marginal roads that lacked public transportation—had only one doctor for 100,000 people. So Latif received no medical attention for the next six years. Without eyelids, he could not close his eyes, a painful and dangerous situation certain to lead to blindness. His burned arm stiffened and fused into a stick-like claw. Frightened by Latif’s appearance, other children ostracized him, so he found it difficult to attend school.

This was the stoic, uncomplaining little boy that a team of international doctors from Virtue Foundation, an international nonprofit, encountered when they arrived in Tumu in August 2012 to train additional medical staff and work with local doctors. The Virtue Foundation team—which receives support from Women in the World Foundation and Toyota—soon realized that extra staff and supplies would solve only part of the problem. In a region where women in labor usually pedaled bicycles to get to the hospital—and often died along the way—and where one in seven children dies by age five, what was needed was a way to get patients to the facility.

That’s when Toyota stepped in to donate a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Now residents in need can get to the clinic, doctors can travel, and medical supplies can be delivered.

See video of Latif and the new era of hope in Tumu.

To donate to the Tumu Fund, click here.

As for Latif, he was one of the first of hundreds of people to line up at the expanded clinic. Crowds had been gathering for days after radio broadcasts touted the doctors’ visit. That the radio station itself was operating was thanks to another gift from the partnership: A donated computer.

A Virtue Foundation physician, Dr. Ebby Elahi, began the first of a series of operations to restore Latif’s eyelids, and preserve his sight. His fused arm is also being repaired. For Latif, school is now less of an ordeal.

Latif’s tremendous courage—and his region’s tremendous need—inspired Women in the World, in partnership with Virtue Foundation and Toyota, to launch the Tumu Fund. The money will be used to underwrite education for girls and boys like Latif, and to bring medical care to women and children in Tumu.

In fact, the Women in the World Foundation’s fund in Malala’s honor has collected more than $150,000—including funds contributed by Angelina Jolie—for girls’ schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Malala is now recovering from her wounds in England and is even back in school. And she will also be saluted on April 4 at the Women in the World Summit in New York City. Here’s the latest:

The Next Generation of Malalas: In this program at the Women in the World Summit on April 4, Oscar-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy introduces two young women from Pakistan who are risking their lives for the rights of women and girls.

Angelina Jolie: Malala Undaunted: At the Women in the World Summit on April 4, actress and activist Angelina Jolie showcases Malala’s powerful new initiative.

Donate to the Women in the World Foundation fund in honor of Malala: Funds raised are being used to educate girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Click here to donate.

Today, at age 18, she is a critically acclaimed ballerina with Dance Theatre of Harlem. And she will be telling her remarkable story at the Women in the World Summit in New York City. Click here to see a livestream at 6:15 p.m. on April 5.

There are 160 million Michaelas around the world. Most orphans, however, will never be adopted, and a great many of them live in squalor and despair.

The groups below are dedicated to improving orphans’ lives. One of them, World Wide Orphans, was founded by the amazing Dr. Jane Aronson, also known as “the Orphan Doctor”; she will be sharing the Women in the World Summit stage with Michaela. To see the livestream with Dr. Aronson, click here at 5:45 p.m. on April 5.

• Help For Orphans
• Friends of the Orphans
• World Wide Orphan Foundation
• Orphan Aid Africa

What makes her different is her sex. Despite the benefits of chess—studies show it increases academic achievement, improves concentration and promotes self-esteem—it remains overwhelmingly a game for boys and men. In fact, out of approximately 1,300 grandmasters worldwide, only 28 are women.

How to get more women on board? Phiona will have some thoughts on that when she appears at the Women in the World Summit. Click here to watch a livestream at noon on April 5.

And to get in touch with nonprofits that promote chess for girls, check out the list below.

• 9 Queens
• Susan Polgar Foundation
• Over The Chessboard
• Kasparov Chess Foundation
• Moves For Life

1. When in doubt…
"The first 12 years [of the Foundation] were very difficult. There was no one that believed in me or the children but I never gave up because I know a God that can do everything but fail."

2. The recipe for success
"Work in the field that you are passionate about and don’t let anyone or anything stop you until you reach your goal."

3. What I’ve learned from working with the kids
"It taught me that anything is possible. It has also taught me that we all have more than we need and that we need to learn how to share with one another."

4. My mother’s salt pork
"I remember when we had only one piece of salt pork meat to use as seasoning to cook some greens for dinner for a family of 14. When one of the neighbors wanted some salt pork to cook some beans my mother would take the pot off the stove, take the salt pork out, cut it in half and gave it to the neighbor so she could season her beans. I am still trying to be as great as she was;  she truly gave her all."

5. My heroes
"The things that make me optimistic when I look around the world are people like Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia; Duchess Catherine, whose first-born will be queen of England one day if she is a girl; and Malala Yousafzai, the young girl in Pakistan who was shot in the head because she was seeking an education. I pray that she continues her struggle. She is fighting today for what we all fought for in the '60s."

Forget about "the fiscal cliff," sequestration and the debt ceiling. America's next financial crisis could very well be taking root in dormitories across the U.S. The source of all this anxiety: student loans.

This country's college students are staggering under a huge debt burden—it's more than $1 trillion—and the delinquency rate on them surpasses credit cards, auto loans and even home mortgages.

But this crisis has also created an opportunity for one young woman and her two male grad-school friends to start CommonBond, a company that makes lower-cost loans available by tapping into a collegiate social network. (The loans are available only to MBA students right now, but plans are to expand to all levels.) As if that weren’t enough, the company donates part of its profits to fund education programs in U.S. inner-cities and in Africa. But CommonBond’s greatest achievement may be that it has found a viable way to reform the student loan market.

College women: Sign up for our Leadership Academy

It all started at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, when Jessup Shean met David Klein and Michael Taormina. All three held the deeply-rooted belief that business should drive positive social change.

"I wanted to build something from the ground up, take risks, solve problems and make critical decisions for a company," says Shean, who graduated in May 2012 with a joint JD/MBA degree from Penn Law and Wharton. "I fortuitously met David Klein at a dinner party, and the rest is history."

Here’s how CommonBond—which is at the cutting-edge of a concept called "social lending"—works: The company targets a specific school and then puts together a community of investors, including alumni, who earn a competitive financial return on loans to that school’s students. The borrowers get lower cost fixed-rate loans that will save them as much as $20,000 over the life of repayment.

"To me, this is incredibly exciting," says Shean. Her company has already disbursed $2.5 million in loans to students at Wharton and will begin lending to an additional 19 MBA programs this year, where they plan to disburse as much as $100 million.

Their strategy for doing well and doing good was provided partly by online eyewear emporium Warby Parker, whose "one-for-one model" means that for every pair of glasses sold, the company donates a pair to someone in need.

CommonBond put its own spin on that idea, and became the first company to use "one-for-one" to improve access to education at home and abroad. In Africa, for every degree fully funded on the CommonBond platform, the company underwrites the education of a student in need for a full year, through a partnership with the African School for Excellence. Scores of children are already getting schooling because of CommonBond.

And in the U.S., in every city where CommonBond starts a student loan program, it also funds financial educational programs in underserved neighborhoods. In Philadelphia, home of Wharton, CommonBond has seven Wharton MBAs mentoring and teaching 100 students and parents in an 11-week financial literacy course at a KIPP school.

Looking ahead, the company plans to expand into other graduate school programs, such as law, medicine, and engineering, as well as undergraduate schools.

"Our commitment to education is not only for the most advanced students, but also those who need the most help," says Shean. Indeed, CommonBond’s mission is to make the student loan process, in a word, more "human." As the company motto states, "You’re not a loan with us."

To learn more about CommonBond, go to commonbond.co.

Remember Iraq? Most Americans would rather forget about it, even though we just marked the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion.

Now, after two wars fought there, billions of dollars poured into the country, and, finally, the withdrawal of most US troops, Iraq’s women are in some ways as bad off as ever. Domestic violence is widespread: one in five women aged 15- 49 has endured physical violence at the hands of her husband and 33 percent have suffered emotional violence. A 2009 survey showed that 68 percent of young Iraqi men believe it is acceptable to kill a girl for profaning a family’s honor, while 50 percent say wife beating is acceptable. "There is no law to protect these women," says Zainab Shakir, a resident of Baghdad, "nor are there laws to make sure that they receive a basic education."

But there is Women for Women International, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women in post-conflict countries. Since 2003, WfWI-Iraq—of which Shakir is the country director—has assisted more than 12,000 women as they’ve struggled to survive in a male-dominated society.

"One of the women we’ve helped recently is Zahra'a, a young mother from Sadr City," recalled Shakir. "Zahra’a’s husband passed away before the birth of their first child, and his family threw her out of their home, claiming the baby was not their son's. His family made sure his death certificate said he was unmarried; in this way, they began to receive his pension, rather than his wife, Zahra'a."

Thanks to WfWI, Zahra'a learned about inheritance and other legal rights, and gained the determination to fight on behalf of herself and her young daughter. Now she is planning to start a small tailoring business, and then hire a lawyer to help her regain her husband's pension.

Trainees in WfWI's one-year program receive an education in business and vocational skills in fields such as beauty salon work, food processing, sewing, primary school teaching, and date canning. WfWI also provides numeracy training for illiterate women to understand bookkeeping, savings, and other skills that will help them run a small business.

"Women are gaining the knowledge they need to become economically self-sufficient, which is a huge accomplishment for them," says Shakir. "Iraqi women who graduated from our program in 2012 improved their average daily income from 5 cents at enrollment to $1.64 at graduation. The number of women who report saving a portion of their income increased from 3 percent to 57 percent."

Program participants also learn how defend their rights. "With a better understanding of their rights, many women gain the confidence to challenge the injustices they experience," says Shakir, who adds that WfwI also connects connect women with free legal services.

"The women we serve are passing that knowledge on to other women they know, and taking action to stop violence that is committed against them," adds Shakir. "As they come to understand their rights and how to fight for those rights, they learn how to become leaders."

Maya Catherine Popa is a writer for the Women in the World Foundation. She is currently completing a Master's in Creative Writing at Oxford University under a Clarendon Scholarship, as well as an MFA in Poetry from NYU. She co-leads a weekly writing workshop for veterans of Iraq & Afghanistan. Her writing appears in The Huffington Post, Locustpoint, and elsewhere. Follow her on Twitter @MayaCPopa.

The answer: Bicycles!

The nonprofit Lotus Pedals dispenses free bikes—and is changing lives in the process. Afraid for their daughters' safety, many rural parents keep their girls home from school. The stats tell the story: only 11 percent of Cambodian girls attend secondary school compared to 43 percent in the developing world overall.

Last year Lotus Pedals gave away 500 bikes in Cambodia. Founded in India in 1993, the group is now headquartered in San Francisco and serves more than 30,000 women, primarily in India and Cambodia.

It’s hard to attack a girl on a bike, Erika Keaveney, executive director of Lotus Outreach International, told The Chronicle of Philanthropy, adding, "It is amazing how many Cambodians can fit onto a bike. Our girls often give their siblings or neighbors a ride to school on the handlebars and anywhere else they can hold on, so one bike actually enables multiple kids to get to school."

To learn more, go to lotusoutreach.org

And here’s the worse: When she gets to prison, that woman will face additional sexual and physical violence, as well as neglect of her most basic personal needs.

That double-whammy affects women all over the world. And it’s so troubling that a panel of experts debated the problem during a panel convened by the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjoo. The discussion was among many events surrounding the annual gathering of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in mid-March.

"Seventy, 80, sometimes 90 percent of women in prison are survivors of sexual or physical violence," said Elizabeth Brundige, executive director of the Avon Global Center for Women and Justice and International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, citing the clinic’s research. "Once in custody, women are subject to a host of discriminatory and violent actions and situations that fail to respect and acknowledge their needs as women."

It starts with the law. Around the world, women live under different regulations than men do. In some countries they can be imprisoned for "violation of morals," such as adultery, leaving home without permission, or having an abortion—even if the pregnancy was the result of rape.

In prison, women must deal with sexual assault by male prisoners and guards. Guards perform unnecessary body searches, undressing and groping women with impunity. As for their physical needs, women are often denied hygiene products, such as sanitary napkins, and pregnant prisoners are commonly shackled to their bed during childbirth.

How to change this appalling situation? One step, said panelists, would be for countries to adopt the U.N.’s "Bangkok Rules"— the only international, non-compulsory rules that address the needs of women in custody.

Panelist Luiz Fernandez Valoni, counselor of Argentina’s mission to the U.N., said his country has replaced physical searches of women with electronic searches; provides a separate facility for transsexual and lesbian prisoners—who are often targets of abuse behind bars; and has created a Gender Office that focuses on preventing violence against women.

Other solutions mentioned by the panel included assigning only female prison guards to women’s units; offering pre- and post-natal care to pregnant prisoners; and creating social programs for female prisoners with young children. And to keep women out of prison in the first place, panelists suggested that governments provide stronger support for women victims of domestic violence.