{ Girls' Globe: Help us empower women around the world! }

Last May, as the U.S. Delegate for the G(irls)20 Summit in Mexico City, I had the opportunity to meet dozens of incredible women. As I tweeted live from the conference, I "met" Julia Wiklander, the Founder of Girls' Globe, and became one of the first bloggers for this incredible organization. Julia is one of the most passionate, energetic, optimistic, and dedicated women I have ever met. And for that, I joined Girls' Globe. This was my opportunity to make a difference.

The mission of Girls’ Globe is to raise awareness and educate others about global issues concerning the rights, health, and empowerment of women and girls.

Girls’ Globe is a constantly growing network of passionate people and organizations. After one year, Girls’ Globe has grown into a network of 12 bloggers from around the world, with over 2,500 followers. We plan to expand this network with additional bloggers and organizations in 2013 as we continue to share information and raise awareness. Our goal is to create an online database of organizations working to empower women and girls, to enable creative partnerships in research, funding and development.

We recently launched a campaign to raise money to attend the Women Deliver Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in May. 

In order to attend the Women Deliver Conference, we need your support to fund our bloggers travel to Malaysia and attend the conference. With your support, we can continue to educate the community and empower girls and women around the world.

If you cannot donate, please post the link to our campaign on your Facebook and Twitter. Help us spread the word! 

Check out the campaign online at: 

You want to know why I joined Girls' Globe?

And this is Julia Wiklander :) She is an inspiration to me.

{ Use Your Voice - Priyanka from India }

My dear friend and fellow delegate, Priyanka Roychoudhury, from India, uses her voice to raise awareness and bring about change. "Isn't it time you use yours?"

I hope this short article she wrote will influence you, just as much as it has me. It's time to #changetheworld. Together, we can. BE INSPIRED.

Rabindranath Tagore once said "No civilised society can thrive upon victims whos humanity has been permanently mutilated."

Going by the wise words of the Nobel laureate for literature, Mr Tagore; it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the Indian society is no longer a civilized one. Although hard to accept, it is a bitter truth which every citizen in India must be bold enough to look into the eye because the first step to bringing in a change and thereby a revolution is acceptance. Rife with social injustice, be it in the form of a sexist society or deep rooted income equality; India in this 21st century is plagued with a serious problem of obsolete stereotypic belief system. 

Over the past decade and especially over the last few years, India has welcomed globalisation with open arms. Its people can be seen adapting themselves to the western culture as if they were born to do so. But ironically, they are yet to let go of the age old belief system of a patriarchal society which views the female sex to be inferior to its counterpart and hence discriminated upon. The dismal situation is exemplified in the hundreds of cases of sexual assaults and violence inflicted upon the girls and women in this country. These victims are far from getting any justice; thanks to the ‘excellent’ judicial system that prevails in our country! And to couple that with the dreadful character assassination of these victims by the very protectors of the law; I am just not able to grasp the idea of why these victims are being blamed and punished for the crime being committed against them? 

One of the most recent reports of a teen aged girl being disgracefully manhandled in one of the prime locations of Guwahati, Assam by a group of men infuriated me and forced me to think- as a young girl myself, can I be assured of my safety and security in this country? Why is it that my parents have to constantly worry about my safety every time I walk out on the streets? If it can happen to that girl, who says I won’t be the next victim? I can bet on anything that I am not the only girl to be dogged by these questions today and like the million other girls out there, I need answers- right here, right now! 

If you ask me, the problem lies in the mind-set of the people. The society has turned pessimistic and has already accepted the fact that the society is incorrigible. This leads to the decadent ‘solution’ (as the public prefers to view it as) of blaming the victim of not taking precautionary measures, of wearing ‘provocative’ or ‘inappropriate’ clothing and thus holding the victim responsible for the crime. But shouldn’t it be the men who ought to be taught to act like civilised human beings and not turn into animals? Shouldn’t they be the ones who should be taught a lesson for committing the crime? I strongly believe that such debauchery must not be tolerated at all because it is a crime against the very essence of humanity.

A close friend of mine (who himself happens to be a boy) said, “the moral value of respecting girls and women has to be imparted to the boys by their families from a very tender age and the way a boy behaves with a girl reflects his very upbringing.”, and I couldn’t agree with him more. I happen to be an optimist and I know that every problem has a solution. And here is the good news- the solution to this problem is very simple; all we need to do is stop hitting the bush. Having discussions on news channels about why girls are wearing shorts and skirts are irrelevant and aren’t going to help solve the problem. The authorities must instead punish the perpetrators of such heinous crimes to deter others from committing them. And what can the public do about this? I say, they can do a lot. For a start I urge you to use your voice to bring in the change you want to see (and using your voice doesn’t mean sitting at home and shouting at the naive authorities on your TV screen for lack of proper action!!) because every voice raised counts and makes a difference. I used my voice through this article to reach out to you, isn’t it time you use yours?

G(irls)20 Summit: 3.5 Billion Ways to Change the World

My travel adventure continues...and it's only getting better :) Be sure to follow me on twitter @elisabethjessop. I will be posting updates several times a day.

Hola from Mexico City! I am currently at the G(irls)20 Summit.

Why am I here? I feel so privileged to represent the United States as the U.S. Delegate at the G(irls)20 Summit. Can you believe it? They chose me!

I found out that I was selected at the beginning of May and it has been a whirlwind of excitement, anticipation, preparation, and a little anxiety. I am representing the United States! This is a big deal.

The G(irls)20 Summit brings together one girl, aged 18-20, from each G20 country and one girl from Africa, to look at the G20 Leaders agenda through the lens of the economic empowerment of girls and women so as to build strong economies, stable communities, and drive social innovation. During our time in Mexico, the delegates will participate in panel discussions, attend workshops and caucus' to discuss and promote tangible, scalable solutions toward financial prosperity and the economic empowerment of girls and women around the world. All of these activities will culminate in a delegate-led press conference and communiqué that provides a blueprint on how the G20 leaders can utilize and engage one of the best resources in the world – girls and women.

Modeled after the agenda for the G20, the G(irls)20 Summit for 2012 will focus on the issues of food security and violence against women. 

If you have any information that you think may be useful for me going into the summit, please share! Also, I would love to hear from the media! You can email me at elisabeth.jessop@gmail.com or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. 

Another post to come on current U.S. policy regarding girls and women, particularly in regards to food security and gender-based violence.

I promise to write more about the summit later, and I will create a blog post to document each day of the summit, once I have returned. But for now, I'm soaking it all in, and enjoying every moment I here. I am surrounded by intelligence, passion, and commitment. I have enjoyed learning from our awesome sponsors, and the twenty (20) other intelligent, passionate young women that are here with me at the summit. We have had some incredible workshops already on our first day - Media and PR with Veritas, Maximizing the Playbook by Blackberry RIM (Research in Motion), and Navigating the Digital World at Google Mexico. We ended the evening with a fabulous dinner reception at the Canadian Ambassador's home where I met with many of Mexico's top officials.

Here are a few photos from my first day in Mexico City. Enjoy! More to come.

Me, Magdaly (Mexico), Claire (Canada), Sally (France), and Fisher (China) on our first evening in Mexico City.

I love the colorful buildings in Mexico! 

Magadly brought us sweet Mexican candies :) Yummy coconut!

Pretty view from our hotel. 

Awesome mural in our hotel.