As the media looks to the sky for a cosmic event today, governments should look inward to remember their roles in the Rwandan genocide. It has been 30 years since the start of 100 days of torture, sexual assault, and murder in Rwanda. What have political leaders implemented in the three decades since the conclusion of that genocide to prevent mass violence and ethnic cleansing? The lessons from Rwanda have started to feel more like faint echoes instead of righteous calls to action to prevent crimes against humanity. Nowhere are those seemingly ignored lessons more apparent than in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

This week, our Girl Friday team had always intended to honor the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, but we were even more compelled to talk about gun violence in the U.S. after the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory parade. We are enormously grateful to Rachel Feldman of GIFFORDS for talking to us about the impact of mass shootings on families and communities, as well as what personally drives her work to end gun violence. 

Special Edition: We've compiled a list of resources and organizations that are accepting donations in case you're looking for ways to help Maui after the tragic wildfires.

On Tuesday, Uganda's parliament passed a law criminalizing individuals who identify as LGBTQ.  This is now one of the world's most punitive and discriminatory laws against the LGBTQ community. Punishments for offenses are steep, including jail time and even the death penalty in some cases. What can we do to stand up for the LGBTQ community in Uganda?

Child labor in the U.S. is not a new phenomenon. The recent exposés about migrant children working in dangerous places like slaughterhouses and on construction sites have renewed investigations into the exploitation of children in the U.S. workforce. Addressing this issue on the House floor, Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI-3) said, “Stories of kids dropping out of school, collapsing from exhaustion, and even losing limbs to machinery are what one expects to find in a Charles Dickens or Upton Sinclair novel, but not an account of everyday life in 2023, not in the United States of America.” What can we do to protect migrant children - and all children - from labor exploitation? 

On February 6, Turkey and Syria were struck by two devastating earthquakes and more than one hundred frightening aftershocks. Buildings were leveled, and homes were completely destroyed. Rescue groups deployed as quickly as possible to save people who were trapped and crushed by tons of rubble. The videos of families and first responders digging by hand to free trapped victims have been harrowing. The number of people presumed dead now totals more than 21,000, an unimaginable and tragic figure.