"I was on the ground going from village to village on foot or on a moped teaching basic accounting and business skills, sometimes in a hut, sometimes outside with the content nailed to a tree. I checked up on the microloans the women received as part of this program - seeing how the loan changed their life - increasing their income by 4x, allowing them to expand their business and afford things like fresh water and healthcare for the first time.

The trip was a huge turning point for me in fully realizing my privilege of growing up in a country with a healthy and mature economy, schools that allowed upward mobility and job prospects. What struck me the most about the women I worked with was how passionate and driven they were - but how the system failed them - and now they are single mothers with children trying to scrape together money to send their children to school for a better life.