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" MEG RYAN &amp;quot;When you educate a boy, you educate a boy. When you educate a girl, you educate a village.&amp;quot; --Meg Ryan &amp;quot;Nick took me to Cambodia to meet girls who had been sold into the sex trade. Girls get sold by families who are desperately poor, and if they escape and go to the police, the cops will just sell them back into prostitution. Right now, it&amp;#039;s more punishable to pirate a DVD than to sell a girl into the sex trade. Amazingly, these girls don&amp;#039;t see themselves as victims. They have dreams, and believe that with help, they can change their circumstances. And they&amp;#039;re right. If we can keep them in school and out of slavery, we will change not only their lives but the lives of everyone around them.&amp;quot; HOW TO HELP: &amp;quot;Be aware,&amp;quot; says Meg. &amp;quot;But also,&amp;quot; says Nick Kristof, &amp;quot;realize that what we saw in Cambodia happens at home, too. In America we still arrest far more prostitutes than we do pimps or customers.&amp;quot; Support programs like the Somaly Mam Foundation abroad (somaly.org), which helps girls escape sexual slavery, and GEMS (gems-girls.org), which does the same work here in the U.S.  OLIVIA WILDE &amp;quot;Microfinance sends a ripple effect through an entire community.&amp;quot; --Olivia Wilde &amp;quot;When I traveled with Nick to Nairobi to see microfinance in action, I met a woman who had worked in the sex trade who now owned a dressmaking business. She was doing her best but still struggling, which taught me that microfinance is a tool, not a magic bullet. I left inspired by stories of these women overcoming huge odds, and by one person&amp;#039;s ability to change the world.&amp;quot; HOW TO HELP: &amp;quot;One of the most powerful--and cheapest--ways to help women is using something called village savings and loans,&amp;quot; says Sheryl WuDunn. &amp;quot;Women save together and then start small businesses. Nowhere will you get more bang for your charitable buck; care.org is a great organization to help you find these programs.&amp;quot;  AMERICA FERRERA &amp;quot;Communities have the solutions to their own problems--just ask them.&amp;quot; --America Ferrera &amp;quot;I went to India, where I met incredible women and children living in impossible circumstances. One unbelievable woman, Urmi Basu, was helping to keep children off the streets while their mothers went to work at night. Alongside her I saw a level of destitution, poverty, lack of health care and sanitation--not to mention a lack of education and female empowerment--that was hard to believe. Just for one second, try to imagine your child living in those kinds of circumstances. By keeping those kids off the street, Basu was creating huge opportunities for the children to go to school. She directly changed the course of hundreds of children&amp;#039;s lives through that one specific need. The experience taught me that while it&amp;#039;s very well-intentioned, not all of the traditional aid we offer helps. We can think it&amp;#039;s enough to send food or books, when what&amp;#039;s really needed is a fix that only someone within a community--like Basu--can see. It&amp;#039;s important to respect the wisdom in the places we&amp;#039;re trying to help.&amp;quot; HOW TO HELP: &amp;quot;Read, learn, and know that change is possible--find the thing that matters to you,&amp;quot; America says. Adds Nick, &amp;quot;Aid can be a hard thing to get right, but educating girls is pretty easy to do. Educating a girl is so cheap--about $1 a day--and keeping her ignorant is such a huge cost to society. In my family, we&amp;#039;ve always sponsored a child through Plan International USA. And while this small act doesn&amp;#039;t solve all the problems of the world, it sure doesn&amp;#039;t add to them.&amp;quot;  EVA MENDES &amp;quot;We have a responsibility to be &amp;#039;nosy&amp;#039; about other countries.&amp;quot; --Eva Mendes &amp;quot;When Nick and Sheryl asked me to travel with them to Sierra Leone, I didn&amp;#039;t have to think twice. I knew it would be a life-changing experience--and it was. We had a town-hall meeting where the whole village met with women who had been victims of rape. [In a country like Sierra Leone] there is no topic more taboo. It was deeply uncomfortable for everyone to be talking about, but once we got the dialogue going, you could immediately feel a sense of healing and relief come into the space. Victims were being encouraged to come forward and name their assailant. Rape needs a consequence, and men need to know that they will be punished for their behaviors. When I saw these women stand up and tell their stories, I felt the shift and saw, finally, a sense of hope in these people, like things could change. Places like Sierra Leone are so far away from us, but the truth is, women&amp;#039;s struggles are universal.&amp;quot; HOW TO HELP: &amp;quot;When people ask me how to help the world, I almost always tell them to get out in it. See for yourself what is happening. And, of course, give to organizations that help,&amp;quot; says Sheryl. &amp;quot;This particular program was run through the International Rescue Committee (rescue.org), an organization that works to lift women&amp;#039;s circumstances all over the world.&amp;quot; Half the Sky airs October 1 and 2 on PBS. Want to help empower women around the world? Visit halftheskymovement.org for more ways to get involved. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/charity/a14288/celebrity-charities-for-women-and-kids/>