We Are All Sisters

By Anne-Marie B. Tracey, AWC London

Despite some of the more polarizing gender politics at play in conversation recently on both sides of the Atlantic, most of the native and residence countries of our readership will be located in Groups 1 or 2 on the Gender Development Index – quantifying our privilege of having had quite similar gender opportunities in education and the workplace (as we all already know well). We typically have reasonable life expectancies and strong likelihood of aspirational achievement.

However, working in higher education – yes, even in a Group 1 country – there are still student populations which awe and humble me with new understandings on a daily basis. Some of my newest acquaintances are sponsored by the Little Sisters Fund, which mentors and funds education and health programs for girls in Nepal. My current Nepali students come from locales where friends and family members have been victims of child marriage and trafficking – effectively ending educational opportunity and aspiration.

The UN Gender Development Index data set looks at life and educational statistics, and this year’s numbers show us how far we as humans have to go. I have only compared the US and Nepal below, but the differential is quite emotionally draining.

http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GDI

With a life expectancy of only 72 years and an average of 3.6 years of schooling (compared to 6.4 years for males), girls and women in Nepal are extremely vulnerable to an ever-increasing trafficking trade to both India and China (www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2154963/fighting-human-trafficking-nepal-patrol-activists). Even beyond the very real human impact, "gender gaps in education and employment considerably reduce economic growth" (Klasen and Lamanna, Feminist Economics, v.15 issue 3, 2009).

The Little Sisters Fund was founded by a former educator and a senior NGO leader to partner with individual girls and their families in efforts to prevent and break the cycle of deception and destroyed lives. Girls are able to receive comprehensive holistic as well as financial support from K-12 and then have options to continue to higher education through the generosity of individuals, foundations and higher education institutions.

Since 1998, there have been 2113 Little Sisters.  A significant part of the program allows Little Sisters to become big sisters of a sort through mentorship and "Paying it Forward," hopefully allowing this program to flourish and continue until humankind achieves the SDGs.

We all know, however, that stories are not limited to girls and women from Group 4 or 5 countries – each of us is surrounded on our Tube journeys, our 5* holidays, or our drives past Dollar Stores by often invisible and unspoken stories of trauma, trafficking or terror of an extent that we can never fully comprehend. The fact that these stories surround us signifies that these individuals have developed a type of protective coping mechanism. But it does not reduce our responsibility to try to learn their stories and to work to destroy this cycle.

Each of us must listen. And then act as we are gifted and able. Only then can we hope to make a difference to our Little (and Big) Sisters.

            littlesistersfund.org