Today we watched one of the New Heroes' episodes on Muhammad Yunus. We then evaluated Grameen Banks website using the handout Professor Gerstle gave us Monday during the library orientation.
We spent most of the remainder of the class writing a collaborative essay on Half the Sky, using 3 of the 4 essay choices. Students worked in pairs or alone to write a 3-4 paragraph essay profiling one character from the book we divided into chapters.
Each paragraph of about 5 sentences was to utilize one block quote, one free paraphrase and one shorter citation.
Post the short essay here. Put the names of the authors here as well.
Homework is the write the Half essay and work on your revisions of Mighty which are due by tomorrow sometime.
We spent most of the remainder of the class writing a collaborative essay on Half the Sky, using 3 of the 4 essay choices. Students worked in pairs or alone to write a 3-4 paragraph essay profiling one character from the book we divided into chapters.
Each paragraph of about 5 sentences was to utilize one block quote, one free paraphrase and one shorter citation.
Post the short essay here. Put the names of the authors here as well.
Homework is the write the Half essay and work on your revisions of Mighty which are due by tomorrow sometime.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 9:38 AM
9 Comments:
Monica Contreras
Chie Shan Chan
Professor Sabir
English 1A
July 2012
The lost of Mahabouba’s baby gave her strength to help other women.
Mohabouba Muhammad’s life was constantly going wrong for her since she was a child. She was tricked into getting a job and was then sold to a sixty year old man as his second wife, during that time, she was only fourteen years old. She was constantly beaten and ended up pregnant by the man who bought her. She did not value her life and she decided to go to a river and drown herself but she was saved. When she went into labor, there was difficulty getting the baby out since her pelvis was too marrow for the baby’s head to come out. Muhammad eventually fell unconscious for days and resulted with her baby dead when she awoke. The result of the failed labor led to her getting fistula, where her urine and feces leaked out of her body uncontrollably. The villagers treated her as an outcast and leaving her to fend for herself; she eventually left the village to find help. Mohabouba became a nurse and she served fistula patients.
Mohabouda lost her baby because her village did not provide the essential supplies. There is many women in countries who lose their lives and commonly lose their babies because they do not have enough resources. As the book Half the Sky “The World Health Organization estimates that 536,000 women perished in pregnancy or childbirth in 2005, a toll that has barely budgeted in thirty years”( 98). This number of women dying during birth is very high. Ninety nine percent of babies and mothers dying are happening in poor countries, where they do not have the education or service needed to treat these women.
Mahabouba did not let anything stop her. The death of her baby gave her strength to make a change in her life. She got help and the treatment and became a nurse. Even in her darkest moment she found the determination to succeed. Having a decent job gave purpose to live. She got away from all the negativity in her past and started a new life that changed her for good.
Tiffany Chang
Anthony Gamarra
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A
5 July 2012
Empowerment of the Women in Burundi
Women in developing countries are usually uneducated, poor, and oppressed. However, given the opportunity by foreign aid organizations, they can make a significant difference in their lives. In Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity, written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Goretti Nyabenda shows how with the help of the American assistance, she is able to turn her life from a trapped, unhopeful woman to a self-respected individual.
In a small hut located in northern Burundi, Goretti finds life to be extremely solitary and predetermined. She is forced to obey her husband’s every whim, and is never able to mingle with other members of her community. The lonely woman “always stayed in the house, [she] didn’t know other people and [she] was all on [her] own. [Her] husband said a wife’s job is to cook, stay in the house, or work in the field. [The constrained wife] lived that way, so [she] was frustrated and angry” (200). This lessens her ability to build self-confidence and fulfill her potential.
When Goretti is finally connected to CARE, program originating from the Unites States that helps women and girls obtain everyday necessities, she demonstrates that she is capable of handling money. With borrowed loans from her fellow CARE members, she is able to successfully grow the once-dead garden. Even more, she adds a banana beer business to her family’s income. From this, she gains respect from her community, as well as her husband. Goretti proudly states that her husband “’sees that I can do things, so he asks my opinions. He sees that I can contribute’” (201).
The men of the village may say that CARE is actually a bad influence on the women. However, the program provides them with invaluable knowledge that they use to improve the family’s lifestyle. The women:
use their meetings to trade tips on how to manipulate husbands, as well as to learn how to raise animals, to resolve family conflicts, and to start businesses. Visiting nurses provide [them with] health education, teaching the women when to take children for vaccinations, how to detect STDs, and how to avoid HIV. (201)
CARE empowers women to strengthen their role in society and not be undervalued. They prove to be a beneficial component to the success of the community as a whole.
Works Cited
Kristof, Nicholas and Sheryl WuDunn. “Microcredit: The Financial Revolution” Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity. Vintage Books. 2009. 200-201. Print.
Marisol Mora
Donna Ahang
Professor Sabir
English 1A
July 2012
Ruled by Rape
In chapter four of Half The Sky Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women World Wide by Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn, Woinshet a 13-year old is brutally raped and beaten by her kidnaper, Aberew. Woinshet, is constantly being kidnaped by Aberew. She is so fed up that she decides to go against her rural Etheopian culture, and press charges against her kidnapper, instead of marrying him. Woinshet is taken to court by her rapist in order to pressure her to marry him. In the court the judge and many of the court members are on Aberew side and all ask "He wants to marry you, Why are you refusing?" (65). Through all that Woinshet decides to turn her oppression into an opportunity and not marry Aberew, even though she was looked down on by her village.
Woinshet went through hell with Aberew, being beaten and raped repeatedly. But she knew that if she married him, life would be horrible with him. After deciding to press charges againts Aberew, the whole court doubted her. Even the villagers were encouraging her father to settle the dispute and marry her rapist. She refused! Things got so bad that she had to move into a jail cell in order to get away from her rapist. Author Nicholas D. Kristof states, " In the hope of staying alive, Woinshet moved to the police station and was housed in a jail cell-so the rape victim wad in a cell and the rapist was free" (65).
Works Cited
Kristof, Nicholas D., and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Print.
Raymond Hui
Lori Nguyen
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
7/5/12
Speaking Up
In chapter three, “Learning to Speak Up”, a twenty-eight year old woman name Usha Narayane lives in Kasturba Nagar, India. In the slum where no one went to college, Usha and her siblings all graduated from university and she graduated with a degree in hotel management. Akku Yadav was the “king of the slum” and he robbed, murdered, rape, and tortured many people. Many families feared Akku and his gang, so they locked up their daughters at home and not let them go to school. Akku did not mess with Usha’s family because they were educated, and it would give them “power to complain effectively” (50). Akku, after having raped a 13 year old girl, went to harass the neighbor of Narayanes, Ratna Dungiri. He demanded money, but Usha filed a complaint with the police. But Akku and his gang found out and went to Usha’s home trying to get the complaint removed. They threatened to pour acid in her face and rape her, but she continued to resist, and threatened to burn the house down and kill them all. As Akku and his thugs ran off, it gave the neighbors the confidence they needed to stand up for themselves and they fought back against Akku by throwing stones and sticks and burning his house down. Usha encouraged people to overthrow Akku’s rule over them.
Through Usha’s actions, it gave the neighbors courage to stand up and fight back. Women were able to defend themselves against rape and it gave them strength. In order to improve everyone’s lives, Usha had to rebel against the current establishment of Akku’s tyranny. He constantly suppressed the people through threats and violence, and for a long time had his way because the people feared him. But Usha and her family were educated, which Akku feared because he knew that they had the power to change the people, even when Akku threatened her:
‘I’ll throw acid on your face, and you won’t be in a position to file any more complaints, he roared. if we ever meet you, you don’t know what we’ll do to you. gang rape is nothing. you can’t imagine what we’ll do to you (50).’
However, Usha was not afraid and threatened him back by killing them all. Akku feared her and ran off, giving the people the courage they needed to rebel. Akku’s tyranny was about to come to an end due to Usha’s courage and bravery. Her rebellion inspired everyone to defend themselves against Akku and his gang.
Usha fearless action brought Akku to his knees. He was arrested and murdered by a mob of women he had hurt. Usha was charged with murder, but the people defended her just as she had defended them, claiming to all be the culprits in his murder. She was released and the people continue to protect her from danger. Usha inspired people to stand up and fight, improving the lives of women and girls of Kasturba Nagar.
Ka Wai Ng, Saalihah
Professor Sabir
Eng1A Summer 2012
5 July, 2012
The empowerment of women
In the book Half The Sky by Nickholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, introduced a woman name Mukhtar Mai. Her brother Shakur was kidnapped and gang raped by the members of a higher- status clan, Mastoi, she tried to apologized to the Mastoi man to get her brother back. Unfortunately, the Mastoi man felt the apology was not enough so they stripped her and raped her. After they raped her, she felt the only way for her to clean herself was suicide, but her family stopped her and a local Muslim leader prayed for her and she went to the police. She received 8,300 dollars from the government and the men were arrested. Instead of using the money on her own, she invested it in schools for her village.
Wudunn and Kristof defying empowerment using Mukhtar story because through all her trails, she decided to do something positive through a negative situation. Mukhtar believes that "the education can helps women and men to live together in harmony"(72). However, it is not easy for a woman to raise enough money to start the school on her own, and the government never helps her. She is harassed because of her driven will to keep her school going and the President of Pakistan was embarrassed. She escaped to the United Stated and met the President of America in the White house. They made her very popular and gave her fame. Then they help her to get back to Pakistan and continue to form the school.
In Mukhtar's story, Wudunn and Kristof use her story to defined the empowerment as being such a strong woman who never give up on her way to contributes to her village, "My work is in my village"(74).
Tsgereda Leul
Yizhe Liu
Josefina Belloso
Professor Wanda Sabir
English 1A Summer 2012
5 July 2012
Empowering women through education
In chapter seven from the book Half The Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, they define empowerment by telling the story of Edna Adan, a woman from Hargeisa, Somalia. She grew up in an elite family that supported education. Her father is a doctor and her mother is the daughter of the postmaster-general. Edna’s genitals were cut when she is about eight years of age, by the process of female circumcision to decrease girl’s sexual sensation. When her father finds out about this, he becomes very disappointed and that makes Edna feel against the Somali tradition.
Even though Edna has to go through this horrible moment, it does not stop her from being educated. “It was considered undesirable to teach a girl to read and write. There were no schools for girls, because if girls are educated then they grow up to talk about genitals” (123). Her parents send her to a primary school for girls in a nearby French colony of Djibouti; they realize how smart she is. Because there is no high school for her to pursue her education, she comes back to Hargeisa to be an interpreter for a British doctor, which improves her English, and also it leads her to think about health work. She becomes a schoolteacher in 1953 at an elementary school for girls. In the morning she teaches the students and in her free time the she receives private classes by a boy’s high school teacher. There is a scholarship for Somalis students to go to Britain to study and it was assume that only boys can do it, but she becomes the first woman that gets the chance to study in Britain for seven years in the field of nursing.
As a conclusion, this woman gained power through education. The traditions from her country did not stop her from being a successful woman. She is the first woman to drive a car in Somalia, Somalia’s first lady, and the first qualified in her country. With her power she contribute her country’s women to get the medical assistant they need. After she gets divorced with her husband, she uses all her savings to open a private maternity hospital. She also empowers other women by training them in health area.
Works Cited
Kristof. Nicholas D and Sheryl WuDunn. “Chapter seven: Edna’s Hospital” Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide. Vintage books. 2009. 123. Print.
Charlie Cocks
Linde Huang
Professor Sabir
English 1A
July 5, 2012
3.Choose one or more of the successful interventions that save and improve women and girls' lives. Use profiles of women cited by the authors to show its success and why.
The Shame of "Honour"
Little did Dina, a girl from Kindu, Congo, know, the program called HEAL Africa would save her life. Tending to her family’s farm one day, she hears that there are some Hutu soldiers nearby. At this point, Dina automatically knows that she is in danger. Congo is known for being the world capital for rape (84). The soldiers in this part of the world reportedly feel as though they have the right to violate women as they please.
When Nkunda presented some of the prisoners of war whom his soldiers had seized from rival armed militias, we asked them about rape. “If we see girls, it’s our right,” said one, Noel Rwabirnba, a sixteen-year-old who said he had carried a gun for two years. “We can violate them.” United Nations peacekeepers did little to stop the rapes (86).
As she is walking home from the fields one day, five men surround her with the intent to rape. After they each take turns, the last man uses a stick and ultimately breaks into her bladder and rectum, creating a fistula. As she is left in the field to die, urine and feces trickle out through her vagina and down her legs (85).
Dina’s family cannot afford any medical attention, and therefore Dina is paralyzed and kept at home. It isn’t until neighbors inform her about HEAL Africa, a Hospital funded by foreign aid in Goma, that she decides to seek medical attention. HEAL provides transportation from her home, and within a few days, both her surgeries are successful. Within the confinements of this well kept hospital, Dina feels safe, mostly in thanks to Doctor Harper McConnell.
With the aid of the hospital, these patients receive invaluable renewed hope, it has successfully helped with the aftershocks that rape victims experience. Although it does not completely erase the events that occurred prior to their hospital visit, it has given these women and girls a new reason to continue with their lives. This hospital accommodates about 250 people, but while they wait for surgery, this wonderful hospital teaches the women other skills, such as sewing, weaving, and baking, among other skill sets (91). HEAL Africa is an amazing example of foreign aid that makes a significant difference in a part of the world that does not get enough attention from foreign donors.
Nicholas D Kristof, and Sheryl Wudunn. “The Shame of ‘Honour’.”Half the Sky; turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. First vintage Books Edition, 2009 84-86, 91. Print.
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Juan Santoyo, Tamara Qirreh
Professor Sabir
English 1A
July 5 2012
In the book, Half the Sky Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn define empowerment using the lives of women in their book by showing the strength and courage they had to overcome enslavement even though these women didn’t deserve to be sex slaves. Meena Hasina defines empowerment as to never give in into the world of prostitution. She wouldn’t let her, or her kids fall down that path. She was beat and raped by random men who paid money to have sex with girls from the brothel. Meena states, “I resisted so much that they had to return the money” (4). Meena was never paid and gave birth to two children while enslaved there. Their names were Naina and Vivek. She was to never have contact with them and were held as a way for her not to escape from the brothel.
Meena shows empowerment by escaping the lifestyle of a prostitute. Life in the brothel failed to break her spirit. She courageously left the brothel and went on to marry and have 2 girls. Despite having left 2 of her other kids at the brothel she still went back, pleading to get them back. Once she found out one of her son, Vivek, had escaped the brothel she was determined to free Naina as well. Despite receiving death threats for her and her entire family, she fought her fears and refused to be scared and eventually was reunited with her children from the brothel. People from her community were against her because she fought against the owners of the brothel. Meena states,”They may not speak to me, but I know what is right and I will stick to it. I will never accept prostitution of myself or my children as long as I breathe” (16).
At the time Meena was on her search to rescue her children, she had reached out to an organization that helps to fight sex slavery in India named Apne Aap Women Worldwide. Meena and the founder, Ruchira Gupta, remained close. Meena has now enrolled her children into school provided by the Apne organization. Meena now works with her community to try and educate families of what she had went thru, and urges parents to educate both genders, male and female, and take better care of their girls. She not only empowered herself, but she gave her kids a second chance of a normal life.
Works Cited
Kristof, Nicholas and Sheryl WuDunn. “Microcredit: The Financial Revolution” Half the Sky:
Turning Oppression into Opportunity. Vintage Books. 2009. 200-201. Print.
Juan Santoyo, Tamara Qirreh
Professor Sabir
English 1A
July 5 2012
Womens Empowerment
In the book, Half the Sky Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn define empowerment using the lives of women in their book by showing the strength and courage they had to overcome enslavement even though these women didn’t deserve to be sex slaves. Meena Hasina defines empowerment as to never give in into the world of prostitution. She wouldn’t let her, or her kids fall down that path. She was beat and raped by random men who paid money to have sex with girls from the brothel. Meena states, “I resisted so much that they had to return the money” (4). Meena was never paid and gave birth to two children while enslaved there. Their names were Naina and Vivek. She was to never have contact with them and were held as a way for her not to escape from the brothel.
Meena shows empowerment by escaping the lifestyle of a prostitute. Life in the brothel failed to break her spirit. She courageously left the brothel and went on to marry and have 2 girls. Despite having left 2 of her other kids at the brothel she still went back, pleading to get them back. Once she found out one of her son, Vivek, had escaped the brothel she was determined to free Naina as well. Despite receiving death threats for her and her entire family, she fought her fears and refused to be scared and eventually was reunited with her children from the brothel. People from her community were against her because she fought against the owners of the brothel. Meena states,”They may not speak to me, but I know what is right and I will stick to it. I will never accept prostitution of myself or my children as long as I breathe” (16).
At the time Meena was on her search to rescue her children, she had reached out to an organization that helps to fight sex slavery in India named Apne Aap Women Worldwide. Meena and the founder, Ruchira Gupta, remained close. Meena has now enrolled her children into school provided by the Apne organization. Meena now works with her community to try and educate families of what she had went thru, and urges parents to educate both genders, male and female, and take better care of their girls. She not only empowered herself, but she gave her kids a second chance of a normal life.
Works Cited
Kristof, Nicholas and Sheryl WuDunn. “Microcredit: The Financial Revolution” Half the Sky:
Turning Oppression into Opportunity. Vintage Books. 2009. 200-201. Print.
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