Millennium Development Goal #3

Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

The target for this goal is to: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.

• Of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty around the world, 70% are women. (Source: World Revolution)
• Women do about 66% of the world's work in return for less than 5% of its income. (Source: Women's International Network)
• In the least developed countries nearly twice as many women over age 15 are illiterate compared to men. (Source: UNFPA)
• Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls, and 75% of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women. (Source: AskWoman)
• Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's food, and yet earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property. (Source :World Development Indicators, 1997, Womankind Worldwide)

If there is a face to poverty, to lack of education, to childhood and reproductive health problems, and to the damaging effects of environmental hazards and pollution, that face is female. And yet, in most countries, it is the women that raise the children, solve the practical daily problems of living, organize their communities, and are the hardest workers.

I know from our experiences in Honduras that the education of girls is most severely impacted by poverty. If the very limited resources of a family can only send one of several children to school, it will be a boy not a girl. If a household member is needed at home to care for the sick or watch younger children, it will be a girl that stays home

It is true of course that all eight of the MDGs are connected and progress on any one goal impacts the others. But it is also true that the most significant progress is made in addressing the ills of poverty when women are provided with education and economic empowerment.

When education to women and girls increases, family size decreases. Educated girls and women are less likely to contract HIV/AIDS. With minimal economic assistance, women are able to develop and sustain small businesses, develop educational and support networks, improve the stability and health of the family and hearth.

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Our 3^rd Millennium Development Goal Sunday is December 9

We have selected The Adelante Foundation of Honduras (www.adelantefoundation.org) as the organization we would like to support with our special collection on the Millennium Development Goal Sunday in December. The Adelante Foundation and its Honduran counterpart, Fundacion Adelante incorporate a full program of business, health and human rights education as part of the micro credit lending program to poor women in rural Honduras.