International Women’s Day...2025?

I’ve worked with a great deal of great women in my life.
Kathryn Power, my boss at the DHHS, helped open the first rape shelter in the USA.
I once volunteered for Jane Goodall, the famed ape researcher.
Last week, I met with Maxine Clark, founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc., to talk about Em Chi.
Even, my mom won a UN humanitarian award for helping organize displaced Vietnamese in the Philippines.

And the girls I know in the Em Chi Initiative?
Well, they haven’t done nearly as much.

Perhaps it is a bit harsh to expect girls as young as 9 to have accomplished anything that greatly influenced the world. Most of us, in middle school, were probably just trying to get through class and not do anything to embarrass ourselves. Some of the em’s are doing well in school and all, but, as a Tiger Sibling, I am still not quite satisfied with today’s results.

So, I am instead celebrating International Women’s Day 2025, a Saturday that won’t occur until 13 years from now. I am celebrating the day when these girls are not only realizing their own dreams, but begin to meet the high expectations that Chi’s and I have place on them.

However, these girls need good examples, and I think you might be able to help out.

We have been running a small pen-pal program where people from all over the world write letters to girls in the program, as a way to provide advice and support for the girls. Unfortunately, we don’t have nearly enough people writing letters to the girls, and so not all of the girls can participate. This March, we, at the Em Chi Initiative, are inviting you to join the pen-pal program and write a short letter about women you admire. We will translate the letter, send it over the girls in Vietnam, and the girls will write you back with their questions.

If you’re interested in celebrating International Women’s Day 2025, e-mail us at emchi.org@gmail.com