After an overnight flight from Douala in Nairobi, Raychelle Najimesi met us at Kenyatta Airport. A recent FORTUNE mentee, Raychelle met us as we sleepily exited visa control. “Jambo! Karimbu!” she exclaimed. Our weariness evaporated as we drove toward the hotel and past Nairobi’s national park, which envelops the city.

There was little time for rest as I quickly connected with Abby Muricho of Ripe for Harvest, a non-governmental organization focused on working with youth to unlock their full potential. We met up and departed for Nyeri, a town two and half hours out of Nairobi, where Abby is managing a mentoring program for young women. Focused on preventing gender-based violence, particularly human trafficking, the mentoring program will include 100 mentors working with 500 mentees in several regions. Girls will be recruited from schools, IDP camps, and community organizations. Continue Reading »

As the official launch of the 2008 Olympics commences and over 100 countries join together in sportsmanship, this event- a celebration of unity, is undermined by the cruelty that divides us between those who have a voice and those who are denied their most basic freedoms.

The New York Times reports that China selected 08.08.08 for the official launch of the Olympic games because the word “eight” sounds like the word for “good fortune” in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Yet for China’s (approximate) 40 million Burmese neighbors, this time conjures anything but the notion of good luck.

Twenty years and one day prior, marks the death of an estimated 3,000 peaceful demonstrators and the continued severity of a devastating military regime that commits the most gruesome of atrocities against its people.
Continue Reading »

Recently, the Vital Voices staff had the opportunity to meet with one of our Vital Voices women, Unursetseg Tsedev, and hear about her latest research findings. After spending a year as a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the University of Minnesota, where she researched issues in Mongolian sex trafficking, Unur is now returning home to start her own NGO. Before heading back, however, she took the time to introduce us to her country and the challenges confronting it.

Mongolia – with a population of 2.4 million people and 39 million livestock – is sandwiched between the giants of Russia and China. Unur shared with us that though Mongolia has a literacy rate of 98% and 65-70% of its higher educated students are women, sex trafficking is a serious problem in the country.

Continue Reading »