In the face of overwhelming global needs of women, we are called to respond holistically as we connect and empower women to transform our worlds.
 

• Women have no rights in many cultures; they are often considered mere property of their fathers or husbands.
• As many as 4,000,000 persons, mostly women and girls are sexually trafficked worldwide each year.
• At least one in every three women have been beaten, coerced or forced into sex, or otherwise abused in their lifetime.
• Female infanticide, pre-natal sex selection and killing or abandonment at birth has resulted in 100 million “missing” girls worldwide.
• Thousands of women become victims of stoning or so-called “honor killings” each year.
• Women make up over half of the 6.1 million refugees whose gender has been recorded.
• Every minute a woman somewhere dies in pregnancy or childbirth.
• When a woman is deprived of a basic education her children have a lower rate of survival.
• Women make up 70 percent of the estimated 1.3 billion people living on less than $1 a day.
• In the US, the richest country in the world, the poorest are predominantly women caring for children.