Women: United We Empower Ourselves

For me, finding World Pulse at first seemed like good luck. Now it feels like a larger power within the universe led me here. Having recently moved to Portland last September, I was looking for an organization in the area to volunteer for. My interests have always lied in the realm of human rights, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized my passion for womens' rights and women empowerment specifically.

After stumbling upon World Pulse, I began volunteering on PulseWire. At first I was very intimidated by PulseWire and the idea of raising my voice in this community of such amazing women. I began devouring the journal entries of women from around the world who had such interesting, empowering, tragic, and inspiring stories to tell. How could little ol’ me, a young woman from Alaska who hasn’t done much yet in her life and hasn’t experienced true hardship, relate to these women?

There was one woman who especially intimidated me and drew me into her life through her journal. Tabby is HIV positive and at the time was struggling with an abusive husband. How could I have anything of value to say to this woman? But I began commenting on her journal, just letting her know how much she affected me and inspired me and how despite our physical distance and cultural barrier, I could feel her strength and inner beauty through her words. Tabby expressed her gratitude for the members, like myself, who were reading her words and sending her encouragement and it was through this interaction that I became hooked on PulseWire.

I was connecting on an intimate level with women from around the world who I would never have had the chance to meet otherwise. I was learning about the plight of widows in Africa, human trafficking in Cambodia and the lack of female education in Pakistan. But this time it was different. I wasn’t reading a story in the paper written by an American journalist who took a short trip overseas to report on what he saw. I was learning about the issues that women face, directly from the women who were experiencing it - from their point of view and in their own words.

Now, after four months of working as an Online Community Manager for PulseWire, I have witnessed this community double in size, and swell with incredible women who hold powerful stories, who lend valuable insight, who are making rich connections, and who are proposing dreams for the future – some of which are already coming to light. Reading the assignments of the Voices of Our Future participants has been especially rewarding because this is what PulseWire is all about: providing a platform for women to voice their opinions, experiences and hope, and to connect visionary women across the planet in the name of empowerment. You are the voices that the world is yearning to hear. Your story is the lesson that will teach the masses. Your vision is the future that we long to achieve. I just feel honored to know you.