Tomorrow is International Women’s Day — a time to both celebrate the accomplishments and recognize the struggles of women around the world.
In places like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Thailand, and India, women and girls face unimaginable hardships every day. Both women and men fall victim to poverty and crises, but these situations often impact women in unique ways.
That’s why they need people like YOU to provide them with the help and hope they need for a brighter future.
Keep reading for a glimpse into the struggles women are facing around the world:
Two Years Displaced
Countless Ukrainian mothers and their children are struggling to survive displacement
When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2022, men were called to fight. While their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers went to the front lines, millions of women were left to flee for their lives. Now, almost 70 percent of Ukrainian refugees and displaced people are women.
These women often struggle to find jobs and must cope with the trauma of war while caring for their families. Mothers do their best to provide for their children but struggle to make ends meet without a reliable income. On top of that, they have no idea when they’ll be able to return home.
Injustice in Afghanistan
Women and girls in Afghanistan are being stripped of their rights and freedoms
The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, bringing promises of equality. Now, three years later, women have been all but stripped of their rights. Girls are banned from going to school past sixth grade, and women aren’t allowed to leave their homes without a male chaperone.
Afghanistan is also grappling with a failing economy, and many women and their families have fallen into severe poverty. Women can’t work to afford food and other essentials, so they can’t feed their families.
Setara is just one of the millions of women struggling to provide for the children in her care. Read her story here.
Traveling for Water
The growing clean water crisis is especially affecting women and girls worldwide
The world is facing a growing clean water crisis, and women are bearing the brunt of it. In many places where clean drinking water isn’t readily available, the task of hauling water — which is often contaminated — from the nearest source usually falls on women.
Mothers and girls often wake up early to walk miles for water instead of going to school, work, or caring for their families. It’s exhausting work, and the job is never truly finished. But water is vital to a family’s survival. These women have no other choice, even if the water they bring home might expose their families to dangerous waterborne diseases.
Searching for Freedom
Women in Thailand and India long for freedom from the sex industry
In Thailand, the sex trade is a multi-million-dollar industry. For girls in the Banchara community of India, it’s a cultural duty.
Women in Thailand are frequently expected to be the breadwinners of their families. Those living in poverty without an education struggle to find work, and they’re often pushed into the sex trade to survive. Most girls, like Sunee, feel like they have no other choice without the skills or education to pursue a different career.
In India’s Banchara tribe, the oldest girl of a family often begins her life as a sex worker at age 12. For most women, it’s a lifelong sentence. They’re required to pay for their brother’s marriage dowries and support the family, and sadly, they often continue working until their bodies give out.
The challenges women face worldwide are monumental, but YOU can help change their lives right now — just in time for International Women’s Day.
Your gift today will provide essentials like food, clean water, clothing, God’s Word, and more to men, women, and children in need around the world. For someone struggling to survive, these supplies are a lifeline.
Plus, when you give by March 31, your donation will DOUBLE up to $200,000, thanks to a generous matching gift from our Board of Directors. That means you’ll be able to help twice as many people in need!
Please give your best gift today to be the hands and feet of Jesus to women and their families around the globe.