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When it comes to activism, creativity and focus count

Editor’s note: This the third in a four-part series of interviews between expert panelists for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls.Today’s interviewer, Kate Garvey, is the co-founder of Project Everyone, which aims to make progress in achieving the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 


Amika George is a 21-year-old activist who, after learning about the lack of awareness around period poverty, started a movement in the UK that turned into a tidal wave of change. She went on to write a book about the lessons she learned from that experience…all before graduating from university.  

Her commitment to this issue made her the perfect fit to be an expert panelist for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls. Along with 27 other incredible women, Amika and I have the honor of helping select the grantees — nonprofits and social enterprises that are leading the way to a better future for women and girls — who will be announced later this year.


Until then, here’s my conversation with Amika George.


What drove you to become an activist? 

At first I didn’t identify as an activist because I didn’t know what it meant and it felt like a loaded term. But the issue of period poverty — when people who menstruate can’t afford period products — made me think more critically about activism. I started Free Periods in 2017 after learning about girls in the UK who miss a week of school every month as a result of period poverty. I was shocked and upset by the reality of it.


Free Periods began online as a petition and branched out to organizing protests and events. Our efforts led to a legal case that required schools to provide free menstrual products. Now we can confidently say that every student in England can get the products they need.


What is one lesson about activism that you would pass on?

For many marginalized people, or even people who aren’t old enough to vote, activism is how you can have an impact in a productive way. For young people, the issues we’re most scared of — structural racism, the climate crisis, widening gender inequality — aren’t always prioritized or reported on. You need your own way to have an impact and shape our future.

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Why Shakira says there’s no limit to what girls can do

Shakira takes a beat to talk to us about her philanthropic work and her involvement in the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls.

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What’s next for you?

My generation is realizing that it’s more productive and effective when you focus on one thing. I often get asked, “What about the climate crisis, is that what you’re going to focus on next? Are you going to address poverty as a whole?” But no one individual can end poverty or the climate crisis. You can choose one small thing, find your niche and focus on that. And frameworks like the UN’s Global Goals are useful — they’re the roadmap to a better world. You can take the one thing you’re working on and see how it links to one of the Goals.


There must have been low moments or moments when things went wrong. What advice do you have to deal withthat?

I learned too late that you can’t do things on your own. There wasn’t a huge amount of public discussion about period poverty before Free Periods, and it gave me a platform to reach people. But I was still only 17. 


There’s a whole chapter in my book on mental health and how it wasn’t sustainable for me to carry the movement on my own. It’s difficult not to take things personally, but when you have a community you can find strength when everyone is working hard and committed to the cause. 


Any final words of wisdom for the grantees of the Impact Challenge, and those fighting for women’s economic empowerment?

Be creative, especially right now. In lockdown, our lives changed in a drastic way and we had to think differently. We couldn’t have protests or speak face to face, and we continue that creativity going forward. Creativity is an essential part of activism.

New support for Southeast Asia’s COVID-19 response

In many parts of Southeast Asia and beyond, the impact of COVID-19 remains severe. More than 18 months after the virus first began spreading, high caseloads and new variants are putting pressure on health systems. It’s a difficult time for people across the region, and heartbreaking for those who’ve lost loved ones.  


Vaccines offer a path to stability and recovery, and Google is working closely with governments, health authorities and nonprofits as inoculation programs roll out. But there’s also an urgent need for the equipment that health workers depend on as they battle the pandemic and care for patients on the front lines. 


Today, through our philanthropic arm, Google.org, we’re announcing a new, $2.5 million grant to help UNICEF and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) — as well as partners on the ground — scale up the COVID-19 response in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Pakistan.This will provide critical, life-saving support to the people who need it most.


In addition to funding this immediate medical response, Google.org will provide a further $5 million in ad grants so local government agencies and organizations like UNICEF can run public information campaigns — ensuring important health messages reach the widest possible audience.   


The new Google.org funds are part of Google’s broader contribution to the response to COVID across Asia-Pacific, including in Southeast Asia. In partnership with health authorities, we’re sharing the latest health information and supporting news sources people can trust. We’re also contributing in every way we can to Southeast Asia’s economic recovery, from providing small business owners and workers with digital skills training to fostering the next generation of startup founders. Through a separate Google.org grant, we’re helping ASEAN, the Asia Foundation and local nonprofits close digital divides in marginalized communities. 


And we continue to be humbled and inspired by the generosity of Googlers. Our global employee giving campaign — matched by Google.org and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — has helped fully vaccinate more than 1 million people globally. Here in Southeast Asia, Googlers have donated $80,000 and counting for local nonprofits’ COVID response efforts in Indonesia and Vietnam.  


We’re sending our best wishes for safety and wellbeing to everyone affected by the pandemic throughout the region. Looking ahead, we’ll keep standing with the communities we serve — and working with our partners to shape a sustainable recovery for the long term. 


Why Shakira says there’s no limit to what girls can do

When you hear Shakira’s name (or when her catchy lyrics inevitably get stuck in your head), you may think of her as an international pop sensation, Latin American icon or stunning performer. But there’s a fourth characteristic to add to that list: philanthropist and advocate for education.

Shakira has been a champion of this work for over 20 years, dating back to the creation of her charitable organization Fundacion Pies Descalzos, which expands access to education in Colombia and Latin America. And now, she’s bringing her passion for philanthropy to the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls. Shakira joins 28 other incredible women as expert panelists who will help us determine which organizations will receive a grant to continue their work supporting economic empowerment for women and girls.

We grabbed the mic to ask Shakira a few questions about why this cause is so important to her. Put on your favorite Shakira hit, and read on. 

Your amazing philanthropic work has focused on education for kids. What is the biggest barrier that young girls face in getting a quality education?

Girls are too often vulnerable to gender-based violence, relied upon to care for others in the household, or lack access to basic facilities like running water or proper bathrooms that would allow them to attend school during menstruation. The irony is that investing in girls’ education has one of the best returns on investment that a society could ask for, and it creates real economic impact. If every girl completed 12 years of education, their lifetime earnings could increase by $15 trillion to $30 trillion. It’s not only about lifting girls up — lifting them up will do the same for entire communities. 

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A conversation between two changemakers uplifting women

A Q&A between two expert panelists from the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls

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Why did you get involved with the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls?

I think there’s no limit to what girls can achieve, and companies like Google can lead the way for girls —  particularly in fields where there is still a noticeable disparity such as STEM disciplines. 

When you envision a more equitable world for women and girls, what do you see?

I want to see a world where girls have the same amount of choices and opportunities at their disposal as boys. I want to see more women leaders, and policies made for women by women that acknowledge both the needs of women and their unique perspectives and ways of contributing to society at large. 

What’s one message that you would give to every woman around the world?

Don’t take no for an answer.

If there was a playlist for empowerment for women and girls, what song would you put on it?

Beyonce “Run the World (Girls)”

Give it up for the woman who helps Googlers give back

Over the past month, Googlers around the world have virtually volunteered in their communities — from mentoring students to reviewing resumes for job seekers. It’s all a part of GoogleServe, our month-long campaign that encourages Googlers to lend their time and expertise to others. GoogleServe is just one of many opportunities employees have to give back, and one of the projects that Megan Colla Wheeler is responsible for running. 

As the lead for Google.org’s global employee giving and volunteering campaigns, Megan’s role is to create and run programs like GoogleServe and connect the nearly 150,000 Googlers around the world to them. Ultimately, her job is to help Googlers dedicate their time, money or expertise to their communities. How’s that for paying it forward?

With more than ten years of experience at Google, we wanted to hear more about how she ended up in this job, her advice to others and all the ways volunteering at Google has changed — particularly this past year. 


How do you explain your job to friends?

My goal is to create meaningful ways for Googlers to contribute to their communities — by offering their time, expertise or money — and help connect them to those opportunities. 


When did you realize you were interested in philanthropy and volunteering?

I was a Kinesiology major in college. Toward the end of my sophomore year, I took a course on social justice and it struck a chord in me. Though I loved sports, I realized I wanted my career to be about something bigger, something meaningful. I wanted to lend my skills for good. So even though I graduated with a kinesiology major, I focused my job search on the nonprofit sector and got a job working for a nonprofit legal organization.


How did you go from there to leading volunteer programs for Google.org?

I never knew that the job I have now was even possible. I left my nonprofit job to become a recruiting coordinator at Google. My plan was to do it for a year, diversify my skills, then go back to the nonprofit world. 

I remember going to my first GoogleServe event. We helped paint and organize a senior citizen community center — all during the workday! It blew me away that Google placed such an importance on volunteering. Coming from the nonprofit world, it felt meaningful seeing a company that cares deeply about these things and encourages employees to get involved. So I stayed at Google and kept finding ways to work on these programs. 


Fast forward 10 years and you’re one of the masterminds behind these events. How has employee volunteering and giving at Google changed over the years?

So many of the things that Google has created, like Gmail, came out of grassroots ideas that then grew as the company did. The same is true of our work to help Googlers get involved in their communities. 


Take GoogleServe for example. In 2008, a Googler came up with the idea to create a company day of service. Over a decade later that campaign has gone from a day-long event to a month of service that encourages over 25,000 employees to volunteer in over 90 offices around the world. And it all started with one Googler saying, "This would be a cool idea." Along the way, more Googlers have come up with ideas to get involved in the communities where we live and work through giving and volunteering. Although the programs have grown and evolved over the years, we’ve maintained the sentiment that inspired those campaigns in the first place.


We’ve also been focused on connecting Googlers to opportunities that use their distinct skills, like coding or data analysis. For example, a team of Googlers - including software engineers, program managers, and UX designers - are currently working with the City of Detroit to help build a mobile-friendly search tool to help people find affordable housing. 


How has it changed in the past year?

At the core, these programs are about giving back, but they’re also culturally iconic moments at Google. They’re a chance for teams to connect and do something together that’s more than just your average team-building activity. You’re building a shared experience and meeting people from completely different roles and departments. They’re also a chance for teams to learn and grow from people outside of Google and to bring that perspective back to their job. 


Over the past year, people have felt generally disconnected. So even though our volunteering has become virtual, it’s still a chance to interact and contribute. Virtual or not, it really does create a positive work culture. 


What advice would you give to people who have a day job in one area and a passion in another?

Be willing to work hard and get your core job done and carve out time to keep doing what you’re passionate about. When you are working on projects that you love, it keeps you engaged in a really special way. And you never know when those passion projects will intersect with your core work, or when they’ll turn into something bigger. 


How working at Google allows me to keep giving back

I was born in a small town in the South of France to an Algerian dad and a Vietnamese mom. Like many kids from immigrant families, I took school seriously because I saw success in the classroom as a way to fit in. 

I was incredibly lucky to have teachers in high school who spent extra hours after school pushing me and surfaced opportunities I wouldn’t have heard of otherwise. Without them, I probably would have settled for less. Instead I’m the first in my family to go to university. The helping hand I got from them growing up is what motivates me today to find opportunities to give back — and thanks to Google there’s plenty of ways for me to give back at work. 

The Google.org Fellowship team and their partners at Generation pose for a group photo.

Vanessa, third from right, with other Google.org Fellows and the team at Generation, a nonprofit that helps job seekers get placed into life-changing careers.

Giving back at Google

I’ve been at Google for five years, and currently work in strategy and operations in London. Last year, I learned about the Google.org Fellowship, where Googlers could spend up to 6 months working full-time, pro bono for a nonprofit. When I saw that Generation — an organization with the mission to prepare and place people into life-changing careers — was one of the nonprofits looking for Fellows, I knew I wanted to participate.

Generation focuses on providing training and support to underserved jobseekers from diverse and low-income backgrounds. They’ve found that with the right skills, non-traditional candidates can be a boon for employers — in fact 84% of employers say that graduates from Generation programs outperform their peers. 

However, innate biases still exist in recruitment that overlook talented and qualified people from nontraditional backgrounds. In France, for example, the first filters recruiters apply when looking for job candidates is often where someone went to school and their degree. Working with Generation, we wanted to figure out how to surface alternative applicants in order to give them a chance to be seen and considered.

Three other Fellows and I worked with the Generation team to design a “reverse job board” that advertised the candidate rather than the job. This would help ensure each jobseeker was seen as a top-notch candidate, rather than an alternative choice. We then conducted employer research for feedback. The Generation team springboarded off that work to build the portal, which launched as a pilot in Spain in March 2021. As the tool becomes more sophisticated and more jobseeker profiles are added, Generation plans to launch it globally. 

Demonstration of the Generation Employer Portal

The Generation Employer Portal that Vanessa and other Google.org Fellows helped build. 


Keeping the culture of giving back going

My fellowship with Generation ended when COVID-19 grew into a global pandemic. I was shocked by the scale of the crisis and knew I wanted to do anything I could to help. In April 2020, I volunteered to lead Google.org’s UK COVID taskforce to help businesses and charities impacted by the pandemic. We brought together Googlers across the UK who wanted to help, and spent more than 2,700 hours volunteering across 100 projects for 50 charities. 

To keep that spirit of giving back going beyond the pandemic, I created an employee group called Giving Back UK to encourage Googlers to spend time volunteering. This year for GoogleServe, our company-wide volunteering campaign that takes place every summer, I’ve helped create more than 500 volunteering opportunities. As for me, I’ll be spending my time working with Hatch, a nonprofit organization that supports entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups to develop the skills and knowledge they need to grow their businesses. 

Being able to bring a positive impact to others is incredibly rewarding — and I love being able to encourage others to do the same.

Supporting inclusive recovery in Central & Eastern Europe

In January, we opened the call for applications for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

Thankfully, the region is in a different place now than it was then. As vaccine rollout progresses across Europe, people are thinking about how to reopen businesses and develop careers. But there’s still a long journey ahead, particularly when it comes to building a sustainable, inclusive economic recovery for the region.

We need to make sure no one is left behind as we build back the economy. To help, today we’re announcing 13 brilliant organizations across Central and Eastern Europe that will receive Google.org funding to support their work on digital inclusion across the region.

Together with our partner INCO and our panel of experts, we’ve selected ambitious and wide-ranging projects from organizations working in each of the 11 countries of the CEE region that put digital innovation and inclusion at the heart of economic recovery. Each organization will receive between €50,000-€250,000 in funding from Google.org and mentoring from Google to help make their project proposals a reality. You can read more about the projects here.  

Supporting these incredible organizations is just one way that we plan to help Central and Eastern European economies on their path to a digital-led recovery. Last year alone, through our Grow with Google programs, we helped 250,000 people in the region grow their digital skills or transition to a digital-focused career — and we look forward to doing even more in the coming months.

  • Organizations: Listen Up Foundation (Bulgaria), Tuk-Tam (Bulgaria), Green Energy Cooperative (Croatia) and Lean Startup (Czechia)
    Organizations: Listen Up Foundation (Bulgaria), Tuk-Tam (Bulgaria), Green Energy Cooperative (Croatia) and Lean Startup (Czechia)

  • Organizations: Startup Wise Guys (Estonia), Marker’s Red Box (Hungary), Riga TechGirls (Latvia) and Lithuanian Gay League (Lithuania)

    Organizations: Startup Wise Guys (Estonia), Marker’s Red Box (Hungary), Riga TechGirls (Latvia) and Lithuanian Gay League (Lithuania)

  • Organizations: Fundacja Studio M6 (Poland), Digital Nation (Romania), Touch & Speech (Slovakia) and AmCham Slovenia (Slovenia)

    Organizations: Fundacja Studio M6 (Poland), Digital Nation (Romania), Touch & Speech (Slovakia) and AmCham Slovenia (Slovenia)


  • Organization: University of Primorska, Faculty Tourism Studies (Slovenia)

    Organization: University of Primorska, Faculty Tourism Studies (Slovenia)

  • Listen Up Foundation (Bulgaria) is helping infants, children and adults who are deaf and hard of hearing achieve equality through improved educational systems and empowerment practices.

  • Tuk-Tam (Bulgaria) provides a network of social, educational and career opportunities to disadvantaged students, connecting them with Bulgarians living around the world who serve as role models. 

  • Green Energy Cooperative (Croatia) is building an application to educate 10,000 people on photovoltaic panels and prepare them for green jobs in Croatia.

  • Lean Startup (Czechia) is setting up a program to help create equal opportunities for rural startup founders.

  • Startup Wise Guys Foundation (Estonia) is creating a social and digital startup incubation program to create 1000+ jobs in 11 countries in CEE.

  • Maker’s Red Box (Hungary) is providing hands-on digital skills learning methodologies for children from disadvantaged families and in foster care.

  • Riga TechGirls (Latvia) is promoting digital skills among female artists, healthcare professionals and teachers.

  • Lithuanian Gay League (Lithuania) promotes an inclusive social environment for all within the LGBTQ+ community through education and support. The organization offers digital marketing and programming courses to a diverse group of underprivileged individuals.

  • Fundacja Studio M6 (Poland) is rehabilitating disadvantaged areas in Poland through joint housing and employment support via an internet-based platform. 

  • Digital Nation (Romania) is creating a job matchmaking program that connects young people with digital skills in need of employment with small and medium-sized businesses that need hands-on expertise to grow their business.

  • Touch&Speech n.o. (Slovakia) is developing a more effective approach to navigating touch smartphones for people who are blind — regardless of their digital skills or access to assistive services.

  • AmCham(Slovenia) is creating a program to raise the profile of the teaching profession, recognise teachers’ work and support peer-to-peer skills development.

  • University of Primorska, Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica (Slovenia) is designing a platform to support local entrepreneurs and enhance rural tourism.

A Matter of Impact: June updates from Google.org

This week we wrapped up Pride Month, and while events looked a little different than usual, I was happy to still take part in virtual celebrations at Google and in my community. For me, Pride represents a time to celebrate progress, and also reflect on how much work is left to be done. 

Like it has for so many marginalized groups, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a distinct impact on LGBTQ+ people. Research from The Trevor Project and BeLonG To,  both Google.org grantees, shows that LGBTQ+ youth are experiencing more isolation, anxiety and loneliness than their straight and cisgender peers. A March 2021 poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation adds that LGBTQ+ adults have lost jobs and experienced mental health impacts at higher rates. And OutRight Action International found that these communities have been excluded from humanitarian interventions because of narrow definitions of family, binary gender classifications, biased staff and more.

That’s why, for Pride this year, our support was focused on inclusive recovery from COVID-19. In this month’s digest, we highlight these efforts that range from a new fund to help LGBTQ+ people in over 60 countries access basic resources to ongoing support for the Trevor Project’s use of AI to help with crisis intervention. 

Of course, work for LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion doesn’t start and end with Pride month, and we will continue to support those who advocate for LGBTQ+ rights year round and across the world.

In case you missed it 

As part of our cross-company celebration of Pride Month, Google.org granted $2 million to OutRight Action International’s “Covid-19 Global LGBTIQ Emergency Fund,” to help provide resources like food, shelter and job training to those in need. To further support advocacy for LGBTQ+ human rights globally and share critical community resources, we also provided $1 million each in Ad Grants to OutRight Action and the Transgender Law Center and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. 

Hear from one of our grantees: Marsha P. Johnson Institute 

Elle Moxley is the founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute

Elle Moxley is the founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute.

Elle Moxley is the founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI), an organization inspired by the famous activist, self-identified drag queen, performer and survivor. MPJI protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people by organizing, advocating and creating an intentional community to heal, develop transformative leadership and promote their collective power.

“Last year, we created a Marsha P. Johnson Institute COVID-19 Relief Fund that received strong support from Google.org in the form of a $500,000 grant. The funding helped us provide one-time direct relief payments of $500 to BLACK transgender or non-binary identified people, furthering The Institute’s mission to support those most beyond the margins. Thousands of BLACK LGBTQ+ people from across the U.S. applied for the grant program and recipients spanned 40 U.S. states and also included Columbia, Puerto Rico and Mali.We’re so proud to be able to offer our own stimulus check, if you will, to BLACK transgender people from around the country. By the end of last year, we were able to donate over $250,000 to more than 500 individuals.”

A few words with a Google.org Fellow: The Trevor Project

Riley Wong is a machine learning engineer at Google. They recently completed their Google.org Fellowship with The Trevor Project.

Riley Wong is a machine learning engineer at Google. They recently completed their Google.org Fellowship with The Trevor Project.

"As a mental health advocate and community organizer for queer and trans people of color, working with The Trevor Project was an excellent opportunity to apply my background in machine learning, natural language processing, and language generation to benefit a community I care deeply about. Many queer and trans youth, especially those who are Black and/or trans-feminine, face unique challenges with accessing mental healthcare and support. Especially in the face of COVID-19, a lack of safe and stable home environments can exacerbate the need for crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for our communities. Collaborating with The Trevor Project and other Google.org Fellows was an extremely rewarding experience." 


Read more about the project in this article from MIT Technology Review.

How I grew as a computer science educator

Editor's note: Shaina Glass is a computer science educator based in Houston. She shares how Google.org funding helped support an organization that has shaped her career. 

In 2018, I was one of only a handful of educators teaching computer science (CS) to students and teachers alike in my school district. I created after-school clubs, provided professional development workshops, and looked for ways to celebrate Computer Science Education Week. I was always looking for other like-minded educators who I could learn and grow with. Everyone I spoke with pointed me to the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), an organization focused on supporting computer science educators who are often the only ones in their schools and districts. 

Joining the local CSTA Chapter in Greater Houston has allowed me to share ideas and create a community with other CS educators. Local chapters like mine have always been a big part of CSTA's mission, especially in urban areas like Houston where only 49% of schools have a certified CS teacher. Local CSTA chapters have grown by more than 25% since 2019, thanks in part to Google’s support.  In 2019 Google.org committed a $1 million grant to CSTA, and today they’re investing $500,000 more to help grow membership and provide opportunities for equity-focused professional development. 

For me, CSTA has shaped my career in so many ways. Before the pandemic, I received a scholarship to attend my first CSTA conference in Phoenix, Arizona. There I learned how to build an equitable CS program in my school district and connected with a community that has sustained me while teaching throughout the pandemic. As a chapter leader, I’ve helped bring more CS educators together in Houston and created a plan to work with regional and state CS leaders to provide opportunities for more teachers to become certified CS teachers. 

CSTA teachers meet regularly, even virtually, to maintain community

CSTA teachers meet regularly, even virtually, to maintain community.

Most recently, I became a  CSTA Equity Fellow for the 2020-21 school year, joining 14 other educators to bring equity-based CS education practices into their schools and communities. One of our initiatives includes creating a podcast focused on equity in CS. As a part of my fellowship, I also serve on advisory boards for CS curricula and the development of a CSTA Coaching Toolkit that will help administrators and CS leaders evaluate and support teachers.  

If you’re a new or experienced CS or STEM educator looking for a network of education leaders that can provide support, resources, and professional growth, then consider becoming a member of CSTA. If you aren’t near a local CSTA Chapter, join to learn how to start one! Hope to see you at the upcoming virtual conference. We’re stronger together.  

Doing our part for California’s monarch butterflies

We’re always looking for ways to use our technology and resources to protect the planet and support our communities. This means setting moonshot goals — like operating entirely on carbon-free energy, every hour of every day by 2030, and it also means working together with governments and nonprofits, to address urgent and local sustainability issues in creative ways. 


Since 2014, we’ve been using our campuses to support wildlife and our communities. Our Ecology Program has created over 13 acres of new site-appropriate habitat on our campuses, with dozens more in the works.


As part of this work, we’re taking steps to help address the threat facing California’s monarch butterflies. Last year, California only saw 2,000 monarch butterflies during the winter: a 99.9% decline from the millions of monarchsthat visited the state in the 1980s and over a 90% decline just from 2019, when 29,000 monarchs were identified. Unfortunately, increased development, climate change and pesticides are all contributing to the rapid decline of the once-plentiful monarchs.  This threatens the species as well as the crops we eat and the entire ecosystems that the monarchs call home. 


We’re building on the state of California’s conservation efforts with $1 million to help restore and enhance an additional 600 acres of habitat for monarchs and other pollinators across California, including creating more habitat on our own campuses. Monarchs need more habitat to support their repopulation and migration, which means protecting and restoring key sites on the coast and adding more native milkweed and nectar plants in priority areas across the state.

Image of a monarch butterfly, flying over a green plant with a blue sky in the background.

 A monarch butterfly flies over a narrowleaf milkweed plant in California.

Google will spend $500,000 to create new monarch and other pollinator habitat on our Bay Area and Southern California campuses. And Google.org is granting $500,000 across the Xerces Society and Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), to help protect and restore hundreds of acres of important monarch habitat where it matters most across California, including habitat restoration south of San José in coordination with the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. 


We’ll also be sponsoring research to understand the science behind why the monarch population is crashing and will be monitoring monarchs on our Bay Area campuses to observe their habitat use, sharing our findings with local organizations and agency scientists to help identify other potential efforts that can reverse the trend.  


This week, not coincidentally, is National Pollinator Week. We hope today’s news raises awareness of the plight of the monarch butterfly, and encourages others to contribute to save this critical and beautiful fixture in the backyards, parks, farms and wildlands of our home state.

Photos courtesy Xerces Society

A conversation between two changemakers uplifting women

Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series of interviews between expert panelists for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls. 


As the President and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, I lead an organization that invests in women leaders solving the world’s greatest challenges — from gender-based violence to the climate crisis to economic inequities. 

Saskia Niño De Rivera is one of those leaders. She’s the co-founder of Reinserta, a nonprofit that supports mothers and their infants born in prison and helps adolescents who have committed crimes to reduce the cycle of crime and improve the prison system in Mexico.Saskia and her team at Reinserta work directly with those in the prison system to uncover underlying problems and advocate for the most effective solutions. Through doing so, they’ve impacted 2,600 people in prison. 

Saskia and I are expert panelists for the Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls, which will give a total of $25 million to organizations  around the world that are working toward economic empowerment for women and girls. As expert panelists, we’ll help evaluate applications from the thousands of organizations that sent in ideas. Economic empowerment is crucial to achieving gender equity for women everywhere, but it's a broad term that takes many shapes and touches different aspects of life across the world. To learn more about what economic empowerment means for women in Mexico, I spoke to Saskia about her path, her work with at-risk communities, and her advice for future changemakers. 

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Google.org’s call for a better future for women and girls

The global Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls is committing $25M to advance the economic empowerment of women and girls.

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How were you called to do this work?

When I was a teenager, my uncle was kidnapped which shaped how I see the world. It made me think: Why do these kidnappers exist? What have we done wrong as a society that people think it’s okay to take someone’s life into their hands and trade them for money? It was an “aha moment” that changed how I look at social justice.


Since then I’ve had the privilege — and it’s definitely a privilege — to have the time to find my passion. I work in what I love, which is a huge part of being good at what I do.


From there, you went to work for the police — first as a negotiator and then in the anti-kidnapping division. What did that teach you? 

It taught me a lot of compassion. I visited 138 prisons and walked the halls myself. I learned that no one is born an aggressor or violent person. No one is born a criminal.  


I would never justify a crime, but it’s interesting to learn about the background of the people in prison — the circumstances that led them to choose a life of crime. Justice has to do with a co-responsibility where no one is left behind, starting with victims and survivors and following with aggressors. We have to recognize people who commit crimes as a societal failure, and we are all a part of that failure.


I work in what I love, which is a huge part of being good at what I do.

Talk to us about the mission of Reinserta and how it has changed. 

The main objective of Reinserta was to change the prison system to better the security of Mexico. But when you go into the system, there are problems everywhere — so many special interests, so much corruption. So my partner Mercedes and I asked ourselves, “Where can we make a difference? What is urgent?”


This year we adapted the mission to work with children and teenagers that are in contact with the criminal justice system, starting with children who are born in prison. Reinserta is constantly adapting because we’re inside the prisons, inside the justice system, creating models based on what really happens in the prisons. 

Saskia visiting a classroom at a female prison

Saskia visiting a female prison in Mexico City where Reinserta gave a workshop to the women on topics like motherhood, positive parenting and self-care

You’ve been on this path a long time, and it’s a difficult path. What advice would you give to Google Impact Challenge grantees and other people who are trying to make positive change?

Make sure you’re completely passionate about what you’re doing and that you believe in it. You’re going to be in situations — especially in Latin America — where people will think you can’t do it because you’re a woman. 


The best thing I did was partner with Mercedes. When you’re an advocate and activist, doing it by yourself can seem like the best option. It’s not. The best option is having a team that supports you and lives what you’re going through. It’s the right choice for the organization, and it’s the right choice for your mental health and wellbeing.


What does true economic empowerment look like for women in Mexico?

We have to change the way these women value themselves. A lot of them come from “machista” backgrounds — your job is to stay at home and clean and you’re not worth the opportunity to work. How do we break that mentality for girls? We have to make sure that they know they have the same opportunities and abilities as anyone else, and then we have to create the safe conditions for them to be able to have that economic independence.