http://catapult.org – Maz Kessler

About Maz Kessler

Catapult Founder, Creative Director Maz designed and developed Catapult as a way to help address the huge global problem of gender inequality. Maz began as a musician, songwriter and synthesist in New York's downtown music scene at the center of the digital music revolution. In the '90s, she joined Microsoft's Social Interface Group, going on to co-found FunArts Software in San Francisco. FunArts helped pioneer socially intelligent and voice user interfaces, and clients included Microsoft, General Magic, Schwab, Bandai Entertainment, and BMW. In 2002 Maz helped to found Keep a Child Alive, an HIV/AIDS foundation focusing on families and children, then joined Advocacy International as Creative Director. At Advocacy International, Maz worked with Ann Pettifor to design and develop a multidisciplinary DfID program focused on increasing maternal and newborn survival across six countries. Maz has also consulted with Women Deliver, ICEC, AIDS-Free World, Options and DfID.

On Day of the Girl 2014, Malala and Impact

“You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.” -- Mahatma Gandhi

SOS Children’s Villages Benefit from Catapult’s “Support Girls’ Education” Campaign

SOS Children’s Villages announced today the successful completion of a crowdfunding project with Catapult that is fighting inequality for girls in Nigeria.

Celebrate Solutions: A True Story of A Child Bride from New York

This year, 14 million girls – some as young as eight years old – will be married against their will, often to men decades older than themselves.

Update from Nigeria

This report is from KIND (The Kudirat Initiative for Democracy), who is a beneficiary of the Support Girls’ Education project. Their team travelled to Maiduguri, Borno State, from May 13-18, 2014, to assess what the communities in the region need following the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls.

Start 2014 In The ‘Rights’ Direction

Girls and women are disproportionately more affected than men by armed conflict, sexual violence, injury, death, intimidation, and human trafficking. Yet less than 7.5 percent of private foundation funding goes towards girls and women's rights, and two years ago one in four of women's organizations were in danger of closing.

“Girl Friendly” Toilets Help Girls Stay in School

Girls and women are disproportionately impacted by lack of clean water and sanitation—of the 2.5 billion people without toilets, 1.25 billion are women.

Catapulting Roots of Health to Greater Heights

Crowd Sourcing is a concept that appealed to us at Roots of Health from the start. It’s a good way to give groups of our friends and supporters a chance to work together to support specific parts of our work.

Raising A Global Citizen: Perspectives From A Mom & Teenage Daughter

I recently saw the word “philanthroteen,” referring to our next generation of global philanthropists in a United Nations Foundation article. As the mother of two teenagers, the concept of teens as change-agents to improve the lives of others is intriguing.