Overworked and underslept. Most parents just want a good night’s sleep so they can function oh-so-much better.  But if multitasking is difficult for most moms and dads, imagine the compounded challenges of parenting a special needs child. There are 16.8 million families in America with special needs children, and these parents must constantly be “on alert.”  Frequently, they struggle to balance basic care for their special needs child with the activities of other children.  The U.S. Department of Health and... Read more

Did you know that an estimated 27 million slaves exist in the world today?  Yes, you read that correctly.  There are more slaves in the world today than ever before in human history.  Twenty-seven million slaves, and three out of four of them are women. In 2012, it is projected that over 800,000 people will be sex-trafficked; 80 percent of them will be female and 50 percent will be children.  Today, human trafficking is the second largest and fasted growing global... Read more

It gets me every time.  You’d think that after visiting India 13 times, I’d be accustomed to seeing the extreme poverty on display, but there’s no way to prepare for it. Literally as soon as I drive out of the New Delhi airport – in my chauffeured car with my six pieces of luggage – I am confronted with signs of desperation and dire need.  Women holding babies come up to the car window begging for money.  So do barely... Read more

Two weeks ago, China was caught up in state of troubling reflection as a national audience viewed a security camera recording of a small girl not only hit by a couple of passing motorists, but more disturbing, casually disregarded by all forms of human traffic.  (Here’s an article explaining the horrific incident, with the security camera footage at the bottom.  Warning, obviously, it’s graphic.)  Like most parents, the sight of a defenseless child motionless in the path of oncoming traffic created no small... Read more