Topical Tuesday - Lotus Outreach

Today I'm nice and toasty in my home. My sixteen year old step-daughter is moody and surly and then happy and ecstatic - pretty normal in other words. She is safe too. But lots and lots of sixteen year old girls aren't safe. Lots and lots of younger than sixteen girls aren't safe. So today - in the midst of Christmas baking and little things making and dog-walking and writing with my pal Gwen - I gave money to Lotus Outreach. For many girls and women every day is full of one topic - how can I survive? Lotus Outreach works with girls and women in areas where there isn't a lot of anything and girls are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
Here in there own words:

Originally established to support refugee education, Lotus Outreach now also helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking and keep at-risk students in school. We support this mission through effective grassroots projects, particularly among the rural poor. 

What We Do

Lotus Outreach supports the development of effective grassroots projects in vulnerable communities. We aim to build the capacity and sustainability of our local project partners and aspire to raise awareness in our home countries of the problems presented by poverty throughout Asia. Our mission is pursued on several fronts:

• We promote and provide education for children previously denied this right due to extreme poverty or discrimination
• We provide basic healthcare where it’s needed most
• We provide trauma counseling, education and training to children and young women rescued from human trafficking and sexual slavery
• We advocate for social change through informational grass-roots programs
• We provide non-formal and alternative forms of education and basic job skills training
• work to identify and prevent the causes of trafficking and sexual slavery through outreach work, public education campaigns and advocacy.

Today I wanted to post about this program and ask everyone who stops in here to think of young girls who are at risk - either here or abroad - how can you reach out to help them. There is a current belief and I think a well-founded one, that if the 12 year old girls of the world are educated - world poverty will be eradicated. What could be more topical than that?