1978: UNICEF
I joined the UNICEF Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand as a social development officer. I had the amazing chance to put my anthropological theory into practice and learn first-hand about women and children’s issues. My work took me to villages and development projects throughout Southeast Asia and Pakistan, where I met women leaders working to develop their villages and urban slums, feminist activist demonstrating in the streets, labor union leaders organizing peddlers, government officials fighting corruption, and UN defenders of women and children’s human rights. They gave me enough inspiration to last a lifetime.