Social change = No more business as usual!

The economic meltdown on wall street is proof positive that unchecked greed and exploitation has a limit. The paradigm of "business as usual" has ended.

A recent article entitled "The politics of women and leadership" in the San Diego Tribune by Kavita Ramdas, CEO of the Global Fund for Women, problematizes the paradigm within the context of women's worldwide increasing involvement in social change. "As president of the world's largest women's fund that has quadrupled in size over the past eight years, I've witnessed firsthand how women worldwide are choosing to invest in social change," Ramdas writes.

Ramdas continues to state that women's involvement in social change comes with the obligation of making sure it is not done using business as usual principles:

"The daunting scale of world problems, from fast-moving health epidemics and climate change, to food insecurities and the current collapse of the global financial system, require major structural changes for their solution. It is not enough for women to aspire to have the same rights and access to power as men. Instead of simply demanding a place at the table, women must have the courage and imagination to chart a wholly different way of organizing economic and political systems grounded in principles of egalitarianism, human rights and ecological sustainability. "

TruthAIDS is hoping to help chart this different way by keeping equity, dignity, and respect central to all projects, and using solidarity as the framework for all partnerships. It will require a lot unlearning, but the time has come for the tough discussions and we are hopeful that higher ground lies ahead.