Empowering Women Bloggers

Two projects supporting women bloggers launched yesterday, the new Blogher network and the Young Caucasus Women Project.

The new Blogher site features summaries of posts by bloghers in the following categories (click on them and check them out):

Blogging & Social Media
Business & Careers
Entertainment & Arts
Fashion & Shopping
Feminism & Gender
Food & Drink
Health & Wellness
Hobbies
Law
Media & Journalism
Mommy & Family
Non-Profits & NGOs (I'm one of the contributing editors for this one).
Personal
Politics & News
Race & Ethnicity
Religion & Spirituality
Research & Academia
Sex & Relationships
Technology & Web
Travel & Recreation
World

In addition, they have blogrolls of women bloghers in each category.

The Young Caucasus Women Project works with young women ages 15-19 from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia who are participating in the Future Leaders Exchange Program.

This week the adult mentor blogger, Joitske Hulsebosch posted her answer to the question, "Who in the World Would you Really Like to Send an Email/Letter to, or to Read Your Blog Posts and Why?" Joitske wrote her answer to the question and now this week the young women are writing their posts. During the process the women, including Joitske, will read and comment on each other's posts.

Here are a few excerpts to tempt you over to the site:

A young woman from Armenia:

I would like to write to Charles Aznavour. He is an Armenian-French singer-composer, who was born in Paris and he is often called “the international ambassador of French chanson”. I do love his songs and his amazing voice, but that is not the reason I would like to write to him. It took Charles Aznavour 20 long years to climb his way to the international mega-star, that he is now. I would write to him that I really admire his willpower and I am totally amazed. It is incredible. I think that willpower is one of the most important thinks, especially for youth, since we are the ones who carry that huge responsibility of making the future and the way we’ll handle it somehow depends on how much willpower we have and how willing we are to make changes in the world in order to make it a better place to live for all of us!

A young woman from Azerbaijan:

I would like to write a letter or an e-mail to the famous Brazilian writer – Paolo Koelyo. I have heard a lot about his tough life. . . .The most important thing I understood, reading Alchemist was that everyone should follow his or her dream. You should never quit following your dream. You should always believe in yourself. Whatever happens in your life, whichever obstacles you face in following your dream, never think that it all works against you. Always be positive and remember that what you thought were obstacles appeared to be just signs, which make you stronger and help you to achieve your dream.

A young woman from Georgia:

I want to write an e-mail/letter/blog to the officials in Belarus, who are responsible for not letting exchange students come to the United States. I remember being very upset when my local representative told me that these kids were denied this great opportunity. I asked if there was anything we could do about it, the answer was NO. If I could really e-mail the officials in Belarus, I would try to explain how beneficial this program is for their own country, how much knowledge, experience and opportunities it gives the exchange students. I’d try to describe every aspect of it and how it helped me. During my stay here I changed a lot, I became a more responsible person and started to actually care about people around me. I started to think of myself, as a part of a community, who can make changes for the better

I will be posting and mentoring along with Beth Kanter during the last week of February.

I am so thrilled to be a part of these projects, of these models of collaboration and of the power of circles of women.

blogher
Young Caucasus Women
women bloggers
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