Category Archives: social justice

The Star: heartwarming Nativity or violent, sexist missed opportunity?

Has anyone been wondering about seeing The Star with kids? It’s a new animated Nativity story, with lots of Hollywood voice talent, and some funny moments. It’s also stuck in the 1980s when it comes to portrayal of women, casting and content. Sigh.   I went today with my son and friends, so here are […]

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Jessica, an eleven-year-old activist

You might remember Jessica’s stunning speech on feminism, published here when she was nine years old. This year for her school’s speech competition, she introduced her classmates to the idea of activism – and won! Here’s her winning speech, written just before the election, with an introduction just for us: Hi, I’m Jessica Tuhua. I […]

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Why this New Zealander cares about what’s happening in the United States

During the United States primaries, I had to consciously limit my fascination with US politics and remind myself that it was getting daily updates on the campaign trail shenanigans wasn’t much different to reading about foreign celebrities in gossip magazines. I had better things to do with my time and attention. And then Trump got elected. […]

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Fabulous Children's Picture Books with Diverse Characters | Sacraparental.com

Fabulous Children’s Picture Books with Diverse Representation

Have you ever noticed that all the animals in the popular children’s lift-the-flap book Dear Zoo are male? Every single one. It’s not an isolated example. Looking at almost 6,000 children’s books published between 1900 and 2000, the study, led by Janice McCabe, a professor of sociology at Florida State University, found that males are central characters […]

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Nine-year-old Jessica tells us about feminism

A very warm welcome to Jessica, who wrote this stunning speech about feminism for her school speech competition. I am looking forward to hearing more from this extraordinary person. Ko Mataatua te Waka Ko Maungapohatu Te Maunga Ko Waikaremoana te Moana Ko Whakatane toku Awa Ko Tuhoe-Potiki te Iwi Ko Ruatahuna te Rohe Ko Ngati […]

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Children from the Kachin ethnic group, living in a camp, had no shoes when it started snowing earlier this year. Partners was pleased to be able to supply these terrific boots for them. Read more about that story on the Partners blog: blog.partners.ngo | Sacraparental.com

A Prayer for Myanmar

  Last month, the newly elected Parliament of Myanmar chose Htin Kyaw as the country’s first non-military President since 1962. It was another step towards democracy, and a happy one, but Myanmar’s path to recovery is likely to be long and windy. The military still controls much of the government and has veto power over constitutional changes. They could […]

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The forgotten child: Radha’s son, why he’s invisible, and how you can help women end poverty in India | Sacraparental.com

The forgotten child: Radha’s son, why he’s invisible, and how you can help women end poverty in India with Priyam [Guest]

Michaela Cisney is executive director and founder of Priyam Global, a US-based international health organisation that works in India to tackle root issues of poverty for children affected by disability and their families. She also works as a freelance communications consultant for a large humanitarian agency. Michaela lives and works between Indiana, USA and Chennai, […]

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Free, Full Lives: How Can We Each Make a Difference in Myanmar?

I remember when I first read a report of how women and girls were suffering under the Taliban in pre-9/11 Afghanistan. I think I was about sixteen. Widows were starving – literally dying of hunger – because they weren’t allowed to shop for food without a male guardian. Girls were kicked out of schools and […]

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Victory! Advertising Standards Authority Upholds our Complaint!

In the middle of the (Thai) night, slightly out of kilter after all the flying, and up with jet-lagged (or rather, jet-fuelled) children, I got the very good news by email that the Advertising Standards Authority had upheld a swathe of complaints against this billboard: The advertisement, like several others for the services of this […]

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