“They wanted to change everything, like, ‘This will never be my children.’”

Alicia Keys

Read MOre Alicia Keys: Why Women Need to ‘Infiltrate Our Industries’ to Shift the Power Balance

Alicia Keys’ first trip to South Africa 16 years ago ignited the singer-songwriter’s passion for helping people in need. There to perform at a charity concert in Cape Town as part of MTV’s HIV prevention and awareness initiative, Staying Alive, she toured the country meeting survivors of the epidemic.
In Soweto, Keys came face-to-face with children orphaned by AIDS who were forced to raise their younger siblings — effectively becoming the heads of their households.

“They were so powerful and poetic,” Key says. “They wanted to change everything, like, ‘This will never be my children.’”

The performer describes how many of the girls in this position, some as young as 13, were pushed into the sex trade just to survive. Keys, 21 at the time, saw herself in them. “They were just a few years younger than me. So I was like, ‘What if this was happening to me, and nobody listened to me, nobody cared?” She came back ready to do something. The trip “gave me a new purpose. I was like, if we could do something, I’m in.”

Shortly thereafter, in 2003, Keys co-founded Keep a Child Alive with activist Leigh Blake. The intensely community-oriented charity supports six grassroots organizations throughout Africa and one in India, with an eye to holistic approaches that address the socioeconomic roots of the epidemic and honor individuals with the disease.

The charity serves 70,000 people annually. Its milestones include getting generic, affordable AIDS medications to needy populations and piloting innovative approaches to region-specific issues. Its mission: No new infections. No barriers to treatment. No discrimination.

Keys designed the Blue Roof Wellness Centre in Durban, South Africa. The comprehensive clinic has a community garden, short- and long-term facilities and educational programs that empower people living with HIV. “One of our dreams is to make [Blue Roof] to scale, so that we can bring it anywhere across the continent,” she says. Other programs funded by KCA include Operation Bobbi Bear, which zeroes in on children who have been sexually abused and acts as quickly as possible to prevent infection. The methodology, which asks the children to describe their trauma through a stuffed bear, is remarkably effective.

It doesn’t escape Keys that many of the people disproportionately affected by AIDS are women. In sub-Saharan Africa, where all of Keep a Child Alive’s African programs are located, young women are five times more likely to have HIV than young men. AIDS is the leading cause of death of women of reproductive age; a young woman becomes infected with HIV every minute. Keys wants to give these individuals control over their lives. “We know that when we empower women,” she says, “the entire community will change.”

Story by Sonia Saraiya

Read MOre Alicia Keys: Why Women Need to ‘Infiltrate Our Industries’ to Shift the Power Balance

Tina Fey became an Emmy-winning writer for “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock” after learning to love books as a little girl. “I was read to every night for sure,” she says. “My dad would work and come home, and that would be daddy-daughter time. I remember him reading me ‘A Christmas Carol’ when I was in the second grade. And my teachers in school being like, ‘You’re reading this?’ He was like, ‘You can understand this.’”

Not every child has that same access to books. That’s why Fey supports Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s leading literacy nonprofit since 1966. The organization, which was founded by Margaret McNamara (the wife of former secretary of defense Robert S. McNamara), has distributed 415 million books to more than 40 million children across the country and enlisted a million volunteers to bolster literacy rates.

In 2017, one million books were gifted to children who needed them, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. “There are 25 million children in America today who aren’t reading proficiently,” says Reading Is Fundamental president and CEO Alicia Levi. “That’s a problem we can solve.”
Reading Is Fundamental, or RIF, as it’s often called, operates by funneling money into local organizations.

“We invest in community literacy advocates,” Levi explains. “Sometimes they are schools. Sometimes they are parent groups. Those groups then take the final step to make those books available. In addition to that, we encourage those groups to create cultural literacy.”

As schools have embraced digital technology via computers and iPads in the classroom, Levi points to some troubling statistics. “If a child is texting, then they can be reading,” she says. But that’s not always the case. Recent studies suggest that 65% of children entering fourth grade aren’t proficient readers. By the time they graduate from high school, 63% of students don’t make the cut.“That’s a horrifying statistic in today’s day and age,” Levi says.

For 35 years, Reading Is Fundamental received millions of dollars in federal support. But in 2011, Congress cut all government spending to the nonprofit in a move to prioritize competition for funding. “As you can imagine, the loss of that funding severely affected communities across the country,” says Beth Meyer, the group’s chief marketing officer.

That means that the organization, which operates with about 25 employees, has had to rely on individuals and corporate sponsors such as Macy’s and Amazon. Last year the web goliath ran a two-week campaign with its consumers, asking them to chip in. That resulted in the sale of 11,400 books, which were donated to the charity. “It’s important that children have books of their own choice that they can call their own,” Levi says.

STORY BY RAMIN SETOODEH

“I remember him reading me ‘A Christmas Carol’ when I was in the second grade.”

Tina Fey

Read MOre Tina Fey on the Lasting Legacy of 'Mean Girls,' Its Road to Broadway and Time's Up

"I remember him reading me ‘A Christmas Carol’ when I was in the second grade.”

Tina Fey

Read MOre Tina Fey on the Lasting Legacy of 'Mean Girls,' Its Road to Broadway and Time's Up

Tina Fey became an Emmy-winning writer for “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock” after learning to love books as a little girl. “I was read to every night for sure,” she says. “My dad would work and come home, and that would be daddy-daughter time. I remember him reading me ‘A Christmas Carol’ when I was in the second grade. And my teachers in school being like, ‘You’re reading this?’ He was like, ‘You can understand this.’”

Not every child has that same access to books. That’s why Fey supports Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s leading literacy nonprofit since 1966. The organization, which was founded by Margaret McNamara (the wife of former secretary of defense Robert S. McNamara), has distributed 415 million books to more than 40 million children across the country and enlisted a million volunteers to bolster literacy rates.

In 2017, one million books were gifted to children who needed them, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. “There are 25 million children in America today who aren’t reading proficiently,” says Reading Is Fundamental president and CEO Alicia Levi. “That’s a problem we can solve.”
Reading Is Fundamental, or RIF, as it’s often called, operates by funneling money into local organizations.

“We invest in community literacy advocates,” Levi explains. “Sometimes they are schools. Sometimes they are parent groups. Those groups then take the final step to make those books available. In addition to that, we encourage those groups to create cultural literacy.”

As schools have embraced digital technology via computers and iPads in the classroom, Levi points to some troubling statistics. “If a child is texting, then they can be reading,” she says. But that’s not always the case. Recent studies suggest that 65% of children entering fourth grade aren’t proficient readers. By the time they graduate from high school, 63% of students don’t make the cut.“That’s a horrifying statistic in today’s day and age,” Levi says.

For 35 years, Reading Is Fundamental received millions of dollars in federal support. But in 2011, Congress cut all government spending to the nonprofit in a move to prioritize competition for funding. “As you can imagine, the loss of that funding severely affected communities across the country,” says Beth Meyer, the group’s chief marketing officer.

That means that the organization, which operates with about 25 employees, has had to rely on individuals and corporate sponsors such as Macy’s and Amazon. Last year the web goliath ran a two-week campaign with its consumers, asking them to chip in. That resulted in the sale of 11,400 books, which were donated to the charity. “It’s important that children have books of their own choice that they can call their own,” Levi says.

STORY BY RAMIN SETOODE

Read MOre Tina Fey on the Lasting Legacy of 'Mean Girls,' Its Road to Broadway and Time's Up

“When women are given their voice they will use it.”

EMILY BLUNT

Read MOre Emily Blunt on ‘Mary Poppins Returns,’ ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’

Malala Yousafzai is an icon of female empowerment. The youngest Nobel Laureate in history, the 20-year-old Pakistani activist has inspired people with her tenacious belief in the power of education. It’s a conviction so strong that she risked her life to attend school in a Taliban-dominated region of Pakistan, blogging about her experiences and granting interviews. In response, she was shot in a 2012 assassination attempt.

Emily Blunt says beneath You­safzai’s steely persona beats the heart of a teenage girl.

“People are intimidated to meet her,” says Blunt. “They feel not worthy. Yet there’s a normalcy to her. She’s sweet and subversive and bright, but at the same time, there’s this side where she loves shoes and she loves clothes.”

Blunt, star of such hit films as “Sicario” and “Into the Woods,” along with her husband, John Krasinski of “The Office” fame, aren’t just admirers of Yousafzai, who recovered fully from the attempt on her life to become a globally recognized education advocate. They’re using their celebrity to draw attention to her cause and to raise money for Malala Fund, the nonprofit she founded in 2013 with her father, Ziauddin. The fund hopes to give girls around the world the ability to have 12 years of education — schooling that is free, safe and of good quality.

The issue hits close to home for Blunt and Krasinski, who have two daughters, ages 4 and 2, and had been looking to get involved with a charity that promoted education and women’s issues.

“From the first time we met, I knew Emily would be a great friend to me and to all girls fighting for their education,” says Yousafzai. “I am so grateful for her ability to see the faces of millions of girls in her own daughters.”

So far, Blunt and Krasinski have raised money for the fund by auctioning off a double date to the New York premiere of their film “A Quiet Place.” In the fall, the couple hopes to visit Colombia or India to see Malala Fund’s work firsthand. Those are new regions for the organization. Until now, it has focused on supporting educators and educational champions in places where it is difficult for girls to attend school, such as Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and countries hosting Syrian refugees.

Blunt has been receiving reports from the field from Yousafzai.

“When Malala goes back to the communities it’s so exciting because women are at the front of the crowd,” says the actress. “They’re telling you how they’re organizing. They’re telling you what’s happening. As we’re finding out in this climate that we’re living in, when women are given their voice they will use it.”

STORY BY BRENT LANG

Read MOre Emily Blunt on ‘Mary Poppins Returns,’ ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’

Six months ago, a hashtag started a movement. Actress Alyssa Milano tweeted the message #MeToo, sparking a global conversation on sexual violence. But the Me Too initiative started long before any viral tweet.

Activist Tarana Burke launched Me Too back in 2006, and more than a decade later, Burke — a survivor of sexual violence herself — says there’s still much more work to be done.

“We have had a sustained national dialogue for less than six months, and people are saying it’s too much,” Burke says.

“We’ve got to shift from that,” she adds, urging the conversation to refocus on survivors rather than criticism. “Narrative change in this movement is so important because if we keep on talking about this in the ways that we’re talking about it, we’re going to lose an opportunity.”
Calling out the likes of Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn and self-help guru Tony Robbins, who have all fulminated against Me Too, Burke slams the critics: “How dare you say it’s too much?”

Despite the criticism, Burke is laser-focused on capitalizing on this moment so that she can use her newfound visibility and Hollywood resources to help survivors. She is a lifelong activist who began fighting for human rights at the age of 14 when she organized around the Central Park jogger case in 1989 (and against Donald Trump, who at the time called for a return of the death penalty in the state as punishment for the five black and Hispanic teens who were convicted of the crime but years later turned out to be innocent.)

The Me Too movement is raising funds to “build something that doesn’t exist” — a global community, both online and offline, to help guide survivors of sexual violence. So far, the movement has raised just over $100,000, with Viola Davis being one of the first to donate, after speaking to Burke at this year’s Golden Globes. Burke says she needs more than 10 times that amount to reach her goal of helping survivors reclaim their power.

“We were intentional about not asking for money in the very beginning until we were super clear about how we could scale up the work that we started on a community level in a way that could meet the needs of all of the survivors who we are hearing from regularly,” she explains.

While the discussion surrounding Me Too has become polarizing, Burke points out the severity of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace and beyond.

“In the first 24 hours of #MeToo going viral, just on Facebook there were 12 million engaged with the hashtag,” she says. “If, in this country, we had an outbreak of some communicable disease that 12 million people got in a 24-hour time period, we would be focused solely on the cure. That’s the difference in how people think about the disease of sexual violence.”

STORY BY Elizabeth Wagmeister

“We have had a sustained national dialogue for less than six months, and people are saying it’s too much.”

Tarana Burke

"We have had a sustained national dialogue for less than six months, and people are saying it’s too much."

TARANA BURKE

Six months ago, a hashtag started a movement. Actress Alyssa Milano tweeted the message #MeToo, sparking a global conversation on sexual violence. But the Me Too initiative started long before any viral tweet.

Activist Tarana Burke launched Me Too back in 2006, and more than a decade later, Burke — a survivor of sexual violence herself — says there’s still much more work to be done.

“We have had a sustained national dialogue for less than six months, and people are saying it’s too much,” Burke says.

“We’ve got to shift from that,” she adds, urging the conversation to refocus on survivors rather than criticism. “Narrative change in this movement is so important because if we keep on talking about this in the ways that we’re talking about it, we’re going to lose an opportunity.”
Calling out the likes of Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn and self-help guru Tony Robbins, who have all fulminated against Me Too, Burke slams the critics: “How dare you say it’s too much?”

Despite the criticism, Burke is laser-focused on capitalizing on this moment so that she can use her newfound visibility and Hollywood resources to help survivors. She is a lifelong activist who began fighting for human rights at the age of 14 when she organized around the Central Park jogger case in 1989 (and against Donald Trump, who at the time called for a return of the death penalty in the state as punishment for the five black and Hispanic teens who were convicted of the crime but years later turned out to be innocent.)

The Me Too movement is raising funds to “build something that doesn’t exist” — a global community, both online and offline, to help guide survivors of sexual violence. So far, the movement has raised just over $100,000, with Viola Davis being one of the first to donate, after speaking to Burke at this year’s Golden Globes. Burke says she needs more than 10 times that amount to reach her goal of helping survivors reclaim their power.

“We were intentional about not asking for money in the very beginning until we were super clear about how we could scale up the work that we started on a community level in a way that could meet the needs of all of the survivors who we are hearing from regularly,” she explains.

While the discussion surrounding Me Too has become polarizing, Burke points out the severity of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace and beyond.

“In the first 24 hours of #MeToo going viral, just on Facebook there were 12 million engaged with the hashtag,” she says. “If, in this country, we had an outbreak of some communicable disease that 12 million people got in a 24-hour time period, we would be focused solely on the cure. That’s the difference in how people think about the disease of sexual violence.”

STORY BY ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER

“You can’t live within an explosion year after year.”

Margaret Atwood

Read MOre
LInk Goes Here and Here and Here and

Celebrated novelist and poet Margaret Atwood stands with the brave chorus of survivors who have come forward to share their horrifying stories of sexual abuse and harassment, but she wonders what will happen next.

“It’s a volcano,” Atwood says. “There’s no outlet and no legitimate way of dealing with some stuff. So there was an explosion. But you can’t live within an explosion year after year. Either the explosion will die down and things will go on the same as they did, or you put structural support in place.”
That’s why the Toronto-based author of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is backing AfterMeToo, a movement working to end workplace sexual violence. Atwood thinks it’s important for women to learn how to properly report inappropriate behavior with evidence and documentation. “It’s necessary to build that in,” she says. “Otherwise, you alienate a lot of people from feminism, because they see it as not being fair.”

AfterMeToo was launched last year by Mia Kirshner, an actress who joined the dozens of women with stories of abuse at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. Following the success of Time’s Up, organizers set a goal of raising $7 million to support this cause. In partnership with the Canadian Women’s Foundation, an organization that aims to achieve gender equality, AfterMeToo has established a fund that will provide resources to sexual violence support services across Canada.

“We are going to make sure the money gets to the right community organizations,” says Beth Malcolm, the foundation’s director of community initiatives and grants. “In Canada, there are communities where there are no services for people who have experienced sexual violence. They might have to drive hours to get any kind of support. We want to look at where the need is the greatest.”

Although she’s had a long career as a writer, Atwood has seen her profile rise recently as a result of the success of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which returns for a second season on April 25. The series’ showrunner, Bruce Miller, has said that he envisions as many as 10 seasons of the Emmy-winning show. “Ten sounds like an awful lot to me,” Atwood says with a shrug. “We need to sit down and see how it can be 10.”

Atwood isn’t directly involved in the series, but she consults on the plots and reads the scripts for new episodes. What happens? “I’m not allowed to talk about it,” she says.

Donald Trump’s presidency gave “The Handmaid’s Tale” a new resonance, as people saw many parallels in the dystopian society where the rights and freedom of women have been stripped away. “They were in the middle of shooting the first season when the election happened,” Atwood says. “And they woke up the next morning and said, ‘We’re a different show.’ Nothing about the show changed, but the frame changed.”

STORY BY RAMIN SETOODEH