The Global grassroots readings all came from the website globalgrassroots.org, an organization that advocates for “conscious social change for women”. The website details the organization’s history as well as their general mission in improving the lives of women everywhere. The founder of the organization is Gretchen Steidle Wallace who was inspired to found Global Grassroots after a trip to South Africa to research HIV and AIDS. During her trip she discovered that women and girls suffering from HIV knew what they should have done to prevent contracting it, but did not have the “economic freedom, sexual rights, or personal voice” to control their sexual activities. Wallace thus realized that helplessness was the root cause of the spread of HIV, not economic…show more content… Wallace’s experience in South Africa led to the founding of Global Grassroots, which was established as an organization to provide funding and training for “grassroots change agents”, or women ready to make a change in their communities. Another incident that inspired Gretchen Wallace to become a change maker was her brother’s experience in Darfur. Her brother, Brian Steidle, was a military observer in the Sudan where he witnessed the Darfur crisis. Part of his job was to visit bombed out villages to take statements from the women there who had been raped. After hearing about her brother’s experiences, and after visiting the Sudan herself, Wallace decided to find out if the most vulnerable of women had ideas for improving their lives but did not have the resources to do so. Wallace succeeded in finding grassroots ideas and next designed a training program to help these people to put their ideas