Friends:

I try to track news coverage of the MDGs via a Google News Alert, and I have
to say there is little in the US press about extreme poverty and the
attempts to address it.

Thus I was delighted to see the significant coverage around the book Half
the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women
Worldwide<http://www.amazon.com/Half-Sky-Oppression-Opportunity-Worldwide/dp/03...>,
by Pulitzer Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.  My
copy should be arriving this week.

There was a major piece in the New York Times Book Review section a couple
of weeks ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html#

And last night on Dateline, Ann Curry interviewed Nicholas Kristof and
Mukhtar Mai, one of the heroines of the book -- a woman who turned her rape
into incredible efforts to build a new society in rural central Pakistan, by
building schools for girls.  See more on the story here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/

Kristof and WuDunn have not only written a book, they are starting a
movement for women's rights, and have set up a web page on the movement,
here:
http://www.halftheskymovement.org/  .  The Get Involved section shows some
of the many organizations working for women's rights, education, maternal
health, stopping sex trade trafficking and more.

Perhaps some of these resources can be helpful to us as we plan our MDG
campaigns.

--
Eleanor Braun
Dio VA Co-coordinator