5 Ways Women are Innovating to be Good to Other People

Women make up around half the people in our world and there’s never been a better time to celebrate their achievements and kindness towards their fellow human beings! With International Women’s Day and Good Deeds Day events imminent, and new research showing that women excel at empathy and compassion, here are five reasons to celebrate their pivotal role in giving back to all.

International Women’s Day 2022 

International Women’s Day is on 8 March 2022. This year’s global theme is “Break the Bias.” It reflects the idea that each of us is responsible for finding ways to eliminate bias in all aspects of our lives, including workplaces, communities, learning institutions, and beyond.

Eliminating gender bias, discrimination and stereoyping  will help facilitate the ability of women to move ahead in life, the campaign explains.

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Good Deeds Day 2022

Since 2007, millions of regular people, and thousands of organizations from over 108 countries have united annually to volunteer and do good. 

Outlining its action-focused, “yes we can” goal, the Good Deeds Day website details that “every year, we support global changemakers who desire living in a better world to take impactful action by providing tools, inspiration, and a global network – because we believe that every person has the power to create positive change in their community and our world.” Here’s how to sign up to take part!

Read on to learn about stellar female changemakers working closely with Good Deeds Day. 

Grassroots good news!

Among the many groups working closely with Good Deeds Day in 2022 are these women-led organizations.

Nest4Us is a US nonprofit working to create a more compassionate and inclusive world established by two community-minded young women, Shreyaa and Esha Venkat, and built upon kindness, generosity and social good. Five  core programs focus on key societal issues including global hunger, climate change, quality education, and women’s empowerment. Programs on offer take in mentoring, care packages to those in need, and an inspiring community leadership program.

Also led by a woman, Diane Felicien, and partnering with Good Deeds Day, Donation Foundation in Saint Lucia, the Caribbean, is spreading goodness! Projects to date include soup kitchens, pampering days for senior citizens, reading month activities,  beach clean-up campaigns, hamper distribution and a school summer camp.

In Honduras, Central America, Yolanda Torres is the Country Coordinator for Good Deeds Day heading a team of local volunteers committed to doing good year-round. Since 2016, the team has helped the needy by giving them essential supplies, including during the pandemic, planted trees, and extended medical care to almost 1000 locals. 

(Yuganov Konstantin / Shutterstock.com)

Elizabeth’s a shining star

Serving as the Country Leader for Good Deeds Day in Sierra Leone, Africa, Elizabeth Brewah is active in caring projects that make a genuine difference to the lives of others. Overall, the work involved providing sustainable education and care to underprivileged children and young people to overcome social and environmental challenges that perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

And the team’s catalog of achievements is significant. These include scholarships for over 40 children, 20 young girls and four young people, establishing five school clubs for over one thousand kids, Covid-19 training and a microfinance scheme for local women.

The wisdom of compassion

And women’s capacity for empathy has just received backing in the form of a new study on wisdom from the University of California, San Diego, published in Frontiers in Psychology. 

Using a large sample size of almost 700 people, it found that women scored higher than men on compassion: “Women scored higher on several subdomains associated with social connection and compassion” however, wisdom in all genders was found to enhance mental wellbeing and optimism.

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