Two Connecticut teachers experience a transformation in the classroom that is helping women and girls around the world. They tell their story, read on!

Revolution is never easy, yet it’s worth the energy.  Woodland for Women Worldwide, our grassroots organization that is fighting to end the oppression of women, was created by a perfect storm of ideas, energy, and inspiration.  Initially our idea was to develop a course that was more suited for our students who will inevitably face the challenges of solving global economic, political, social, and environmental problems.  So after much discussion we designed Contemporary World Issues (CWI), a model United Nations course that not only examines global conflicts but asks students to recommend solutions.  After reading Somaly Mam’s Road of Lost Innocence, we knew that human trafficking -the blight on humanity- needed to be our first unit.  In response to what students learned in class, they would ask, “How can people do such things?  Especially to children?” and “Why is human trafficking allowed to happen?” The prophetic question that was asked most repeatedly was “What can we do about it?”  In CWI we exposed our students to an academic examination of the perils of our time, but our students were not content with simply learning about human trafficking, they needed to take action.  So we formed Woodland for Women Worldwide.

The energy to form Woodland for Women Worldwide came from a coalition of these committed students, along with teachers, staff and community members.  At our first meeting we adopted the adage from Zainab Salbi, “One woman can change anything, many women can change everything” as our mantra.  Our collaborative energy was illuminated at the Run for a Revolution on May 22nd, our culminating fundraising event.  We assembled as if we were a completed mosaic in which each piece was a member that brought something different: a student charged with new vigor to take on the world’s injustices; a teacher facilitating creative ideas, or managing race-day logistics; or a community member bringing invaluable outside resources that would otherwise not be provided.  AnnaLynne McCord, actress and activist, became the final piece of our mosaic and made an indelible mark on our students when she joined us at the Run for a Revolution.  In a single line of her heartfelt speech, AnnaLynne expressed this year’s journey for Woodland for Women Worldwide, when she said, “The potential of greatness cannot be reached when attempted alone.”

As educators, it’s no surprise that our inspiration to form Woodland for Women Worldwide came from books.  While watching the Oprah Winfrey Show one afternoon last fall we learned about one such book that would change the course of our lives.  It was our “Aha” moment!  Featured guests, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, authors of Half the Sky, appealed to us with their thesis that the way to solve the enduring global problems of poverty, disease, terrorism, illiteracy, and violence is to invest in girls and women.  We immediately ordered two copies of Half the Sky and within days we were emotionally enveloped in the adversity and inspiration that defines the lives of the women, such as Somaly Mam, that were featured in their book.   We knew at that point that Woodland for Women Worldwide would devote its efforts to the Somaly Mam Foundation and the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), as well as establishing a scholarship fund at our school to empower girls to become leaders of change and graduates to volunteer in developing countries.

We were alight with excitement when we had the opportunity to meet Somaly Mam and Nicholas Kristof at the Bay Path College’s Women’s Leadership Conference.  We felt what most young kids must feel when they get to meet a superhero.  Somaly Mam, to us, has supernatural powers.  Surely it takes strength and courage beyond what is humanly possible to return to Cambodia to face the same people that tortured, raped, and abused her in order to save others.  This is exactly what Somaly Mam does.  After escaping slavery herself, she risks her life and freedom to save others.  So when we met Somaly Mam we wrapped our arms around her, as if to affirm for us that she was in fact real, that she was not a myth-like superhero and that her courage was true.

Dante said, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”  Today’s moral crisis is the many abuses and violations that women face around the globe.  Nicholas Kristof called this moral crisis, the oppression of women, the civil rights crisis of the 21^st century.  Woodland for Women Worldwide pledges to never shelter ourselves under a blanket of neutrality and blissful ignorance.  Rather, our mission is to bring awareness and action by following in the fearless footsteps of our heroine, Somaly Mam.  The name of our first annual fundraising event, the Run for a Revolution, was chosen deliberately.  The time to change the subjugation of women in the world is now; it is time for a revolution!