Act
Volunteer
Volunteering your time is just as valuable as making a financial contribution to many organizations. Learn about some of the volunteer opportunities from our partners below or search online for more local options.
ACUMEN
Start or join a chapter of the Acumen Fund in the U.S. or abroad to champion patient capital and to serve as a key fundraising resource in their fight against global poverty. To find a chapter near you, or to learn how to start your own, visit their website.
AFGHAN INSTITUTE OF LEARNING
To help the Afghan Institute of Learning improve access to education and health services for Afghani women and children, contact their US-based partner Creating Hope International at [email protected]. For more information, visit their website.
AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD SERVICE
Volunteer in Asia, Africa, or the Americas for at least one month with the American Jewish World Service to help them pursue global justice and end global poverty by drawing on Judaism. For more information, email [email protected], visit their website or call 212.792.2888.
BRAC
Volunteer in the U.S. or U.K. to support BRAC’s mission of creating opportunity for the world’s poor. Or, volunteer in Bangladesh and work to eradicate preventable blindness. Contact Alissa Vladimir at [email protected] to learn more about these and more opportunities at BRAC, or visit their website.
EDNA ADAN MATERNITY HOSPITAL
Volunteer in Somaliland helping the midwives at Edna Adan’s Maternity Hospital fight the practice of female genital mutilation, and improve maternal and infant health care. For more information, contact Edna Adan through her website form.
FONKOZE
Volunteer for Fonkoze in Washington, D.C., aiding their mission to establish the economic foundation for democracy in Haiti. To learn more or to sign up, contact Fonkoze through their website form.
INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION
Volunteer for 1-12 months for International Justice Mission in support of their effort to rescue victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. To apply or learn more about opportunities at the US headquarters or in their field offices in Latin America, Africa or Asia, visit their website.
Buy for Good
Buying gifts and products is one way to support the work of nonprofit organizations around the world. Explore some of the social enterprises and gift shops below and help increase the reach of their programs.
Thistle Farm
Thistle Farms is the social enterprise that is run by the women of Magdalene. By hand, the women create natural bath and body products that are as good for the earth as they are for the body. Purchases of Thistle Farms products directly benefit the women by whom they were made.
First Book
First Book provides access to new books for children in need. The First Book gift catalogue provides children from low-income families with books and hope for a bright future.
Every gift purchased supports First Book’s mission.
Umoja Women
Umoja Women’s Shop sells traditional, glass-beaded jewelry made by women from Umoja, Kenya who have escaped abusive lives in favor of a violence-free community in Umoja. All the color combinations are preserved from their ceremonial jewelry.
Save the Children
For more than 80 years, Save the Children has been an independent force for change in the lives of children in need. Their gift catalogue combines signature Save the Children products and the opportunity to donate a gift to a child in need.
GEMS
Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) is the only organization in New York State specifically designed to serve girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. You can support girls and young women, and raise awareness about these issues, by purchasing GEMS merchandise.
Fistula Foundation
The Fistula Foundation is dedicated to ending the suffering caused by the childbirth injury of obstetric fistula in Africa and Asia. Through their gift program, Gifts that Heal, the foundation honors the lives of women effected by fistula and raises money to support their programs.
Heifer International
Heifer International’s mission is to work with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth. Heifer’s gift catalogue allows you to honor someone special in your life by buying a gift for those most in need around the world.
Every Mother Counts
Every Mother Counts is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making pregnancy and childbirth safe for every mother. All the gifts in their online shop donate proceeds to the organization and support their programs around the world.
Restavek Freedom
Restavek Freedom has a simple mission: to end child slavery in Haiti in our lifetimes. To support their efforts Restavek Freedom released two powerful books created by the girls in their program to help educate communities about child labor in Haiti and move readers to action.
International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Your purchase here can be used to buy a year of school or a community training program to increase access to health care where it’s needed most.
Become an Ambassador
About the Program
Our ambassadors work on the issues raised through A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity and Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Our program encourages work, globally and locally, focused on education, sex trafficking, economic empowerment, maternal health, gender-based violence and forced prostitution. We offer suggested campaigns and events for ambassadors to run on their campuses or communities, and we also provide a forum for discussion on our group Facebook page.
Though we regularly send out campaign ideas, interesting opportunities and suggested events, we encourage our ambassadors to tailor this program to their own community and to run the campaigns and seize the opportunities that compel them most.
We also encourage creativity — we love to hear innovative ideas on how to take action! Read more about featured ambassadors below.
Featured Ambassadors
Caroline Wheeler
Great Barrington, MA
After reading Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Caroline started Sisters for Peace, a giving circle based out of Massachusetts. “I choose an organization to highlight and then a large and growing group of us — who live all over the United States and Canada — pitch in and donate,” she says. Sisters for Peace has donated over $9,000 to many different NGOs thus far, including a year of education for three children at Urmi Basu’s New Light school in India. The group also does volunteer projects and helps people in their community, such as cancer patients and survivors of Hurricane Sandy. The giving circle is completely volunteer and 100 percent of the funds go to the designated charities.
Share your story
Everyone can be an agent of change and we love hearing about what inspires you to help empower women and girls worldwide.
Please share your story below in a short paragraph and attach any photos or links to showcase the work you’re doing inspired by the stories in A Path Appears. Each month we’ll highlight some of our favorite agents of change and their stories on our blog and across our social media platforms.
There are endless wonderful stories of change we love to hear. Help us tell yours.