• Six out of ten of world's poorest people are still women and girls (UNDP)
• Two thirds of all children shut outside the school gates are girls (UNDP)
• The majority of civilian casualties in conflicts are women and children
• Sexual violence is increasingly used as a method of war. In Rwanda, up to 500,000 women were raped during the 1994 genocide. In Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, an estimated 60,000 women were raped during the 1990s conflict*. Read our Factsheet on Sexual and Gender-based violence.
• After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the death rate of women was at least three times higher than that of men in some communities *.
• Women own just 1 percent of land in the world, according to UNDP, while they produce most of the food worlwide.
• Every minute, another woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth (UNFPA).
• According to WHO and UNAIDS global estimates, women comprise 50% of people living with HIV.

*Courtesy www.alertnet.org.

As an organisation dedicated to fighting the deep roots of poverty, CARE International puts a special emphasis on women and girls, because we believe that, equipped with the right resources, they have the power to become catalysts for change in their families and in their communities. Watch our video, the Girl Effect.

Read our stories of inspirational women who changed the lives of their communities: