I Am Powerful

Women are one of the greatest and most untapped resources in the developing world. 

Women are at greater risk of violence and poverty– particularly in the developing world. Seven out of ten people living in poverty are women.

According to the World Bank, violence rivals cancer as a cause of morbidity and mortality for women of childbearing age, and at least one in three females on earth has been physically or sexually abused. Even within marriage, women who are dependent on their spouses for income and support may not be able to negotiate when and what type of sex to have or protest their husbands’ multiple sex partners. Poverty and exclusion push some girls and women to engage in sex work and other high-risk activities just to survive. And in the midst of conflict and natural disaster in countries around the world, women’s risk of violence skyrockets. Systematic rape as a weapon of war has left millions of girls and women traumatized, forcibly impregnated, and/or HIV positive.

• Sixty per cent of the 77 million people not attending primary school are girls.
• Of the 876 million adults who cannot read or write in the developing world, two-thirds are women.
• Women produce half of the world’s food, but only own 1 per cent of its farmland.

 But there is hope.

• Women spend 90% of their income on their family, while men typically spend 30-40%.
• For every extra year a girl spends in school, she raises her family income by up to 20%.

About 70 per cent of CARE's beneficiaries around the world are women; our women's projects run throughout all corners of the globe, including Ethiopia, Zambia, Nepal, Afghanistan and Peru. 

If you want to help CARE to help women build a better world

MAKE A DONATION TO CARE TODAY