Two weeks ago GlobalSolutions.org CEO, Don Kraus, reminded us of the proliferation of bullets worldwide and of the essentially non-existent regulations currently governing international trade of weapons and ammunition. These issues are especially relevant as we start a new year, resolving to make right the mass tragedies of 2012.

The growing number of gun violence victims in our country hit home for me on Dec. 1, 2012 when Kassandra Perkins, a 22 year-old in my high school graduating class and a loving mother, was killed by her Kansas City Chiefs linebacker boyfriend after being shot nine times in the head with a firearm. Sadly, I had hardly interacted with Kassandra, but I was nonetheless overwhelmed by the shock and sadness of knowing someone close to me had been viciously killed. Her death made the tragedy that had already occurred in Aurora feel all the more real to me.

They put their lives on the line for us daily. They make sacrifices that I myself could not be able to fathom. Yet women in the military are denied the same rights to basic health care that other citizens have.

Under current law, if a woman solider is raped and becomes pregnant, she cannot use her military health plan to pay for an abortion. She would be forced to seek health care outside of the military base, which often is very dangerous. But Senator Jeanne Shaheen is working to reverse this glaring human rights violation. 

The New Hampshire Senator is the creator of Amendment 1120 (also known as the Shaheen Amendment), which would protect enlisted women so that they can have the same health care as the very citizens they protect. A case where an enlisted woman was raped by a fellow soldier reveals how unjust our current laws are. Jessica Kenyon* was raped and denied access to health care on the military base in Korea where she was stationed. There were no other safe health care alternatives where she was, and because of these circumstances that were beyond her control, she was given no other choice but to leave and give up her military career. She later miscarried.

In 2005, several hundred small bags of fertilizer began washing up on in the mangroves of a village in Guinea-Bissau. The villagers were catching it on their fishing lines and began using it to fertilize their soil until they realized that it seemed to be killing plants instead of enhancing their growth.

What they did not realize until later was that this white powdery substance that washed up from a run-aground cargo ship, was not, in fact, a fertilizer; but rather, it was the narcotic drug cocaine. And by the time the majority of the population realized it, an illicit drug trade was already underway.

US researchers currently estimate that over 30 tons of cocaine pass through Guinea-Bissau every year. In 2010, before Sierra Leone's international airport had security measures like metal detectors and scanners, it was estimated that over 60 tons of cocaine passed through it in transit. By some estimates, a quarter of all European cocaine arrives from a transit point Africa.

Men, boys, let us be bold. Let us speak the truth and stand up for the rights of girls and women to equality, dignity, and the rights we all share.  –Desmond Tutu, Chair of The Elders

Today we celebrate the first ever International Day of the Girl.  If you have read my past blog posts, you know how I feel about how essential girls are for the prosperity of the world’s nations.  International studies have declared the biggest untapped resource lies in girls and their potential to contribute to society.  Yet, girls and women all over the world are being held back.

Held back by child marriage and sex trafficking.

Held back by injuries and death in childbirth—80% of cases that are preventable.

Held back by domestic abuse, violence, and rape.