What Compels People to Give?

During one of our recent meetings here at PAI, we found ourselves pondering the ironic fact that images of puppies and other cute animals seem to attract more donations from individuals than those for women and children. Why is it that even though women’s issues directly affect more than half of the world’s population, and indirectly impact everyone on the planet, women and children seems to come in second or third to the world’s animals when it comes to charitable donations? As a recent blog posting on the Washington Post website pondered, perhaps it is because women and children “will eventually grow past the level of helplessness that pets never lose in our estimation.” Yet women continue to be disproportionally vulnerable to disease, war, and emotional burden, even though much of the world continues to ignore their plight.

Consider this: each year, pregnancy and childbirth are deadly to more than half a million women worldwide. In other words, every minute, of every day, a woman dies needlessly of pregnancy related causes. As noted in our recently released publication, A Measure of Survival, ninety-nine percent of these deaths take place in the developing world and 88 to 98 percent are preventable - yet pregnancy remains the leading killer of women in their reproductive years in developing countries. Looking at civilian casualties in today’s wars and conflicts, approximately 75% are women and children. In many countries, women must divide their time between acting as teacher, caregiver and breadwinner. And, in most developing countries, women are at a higher risk than men for violence and the contraction of fatal diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Supporting animal rights is certainly a worthwhile cause, but the world’s women need and deserve generous aid and support as well. As our research has shown time and time again, healthy women with healthy families are a cornerstone of the social, political and economic development that is so desperately sought in much of the developing world. Humanity, and the planet that we occupy, will dramatically improve as a result of investment in women - truly one of our greatest resources. So many thanks for all that you do to support women and families around the world and for considering a gift to enrich the lives of women, like this one, as part of your year-end giving this year.