What I saw first-hand during my recent trip to India...

Hi! This is Kristin Bruce speaking––the Sr. Communications Associate here at Nomi Network. I lead storytelling, marketing, and branding efforts here that connect our supporters with the incredible women and girls we serve worldwide.?

During my onboarding three years ago, I learned that statistically, when women work, they invest 90 percent of their income back into their families, compared with 35 percent that men typically invest. This stat isn't hard to believe, as women are deemed the primary caretaker in most parts of the world, but this reality was amplified during my first visit to our India program sites a few months ago. In individualistic societies like the U.S., it's easy for our internal drives to be rooted in self-actualization.

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Dictionary.com defines self-actualization as the achievement of one's full talents and potential. As an ambitious American, I grew up highly motivated by self-actualization and larger-than-life dreams for the future. But after a quarter-life crisis that resulted in me leaving my previous career in fashion design to work in human rights, I learned how much my prior version of self-actualization was rooted in self-centered ambition and ego.

A remarkable thing about the women and girls we serve worldwide, especially in India, is how much their self-actualization is defined by how well they can help others around them. While the women in our programs enroll for personal economic empowerment, it never stops with them and their own aspirations.?

I met workforce development program graduates like?Maha, who started a fast-growing clothing business yet took the most pride in how her success changed her family's perspective on a woman's role in the home. I met women like?Raavee, who worked in marketing for a year and gave it up to become a full-time Nomi Network master trainer and pay her success forward. She told me how the lives she impacts daily make her much more fulfilled than in her previous role, where she felt disconnected from her community. I met?Aashvi, who launched a successful jewelry line and now employs six other women in our program because her business is growing so quickly. I met countless other women who felt the most self-actualized after sending their girls to college, paying for their grandmother's medical bills, or providing an opportunity for the younger women in their neighborhood.?

Since my trip, I have seen firsthand that investing in women empowers families, communities, and nations. An economically liberated woman creates a ripple effect of freedom.

Will you?join our community of monthly donors ?who create safe employment pathways for survivors and women at risk of exploitation? At just?$50/month , you can provide workforce development training for one woman!

Your monthly gift will help break generational cycles of poverty and make you feel even more connected to the transformative work we do throughout India, Cambodia, and Dallas.

Thank you for continuing to support Nomi Network!

With gratitude,