"Henriette Ernst’s idea formed over the summer, after a fateful walk in Lower Manhattan with her Morkie, an ewok-like cross between a Yorkshire terrier and a Maltese. She was joined by a neighbor she’d recently met named Yasmeen Hassan, a human-rights lawyer and global executive director for Equality Now. Over the course of a couple of hours, the two talked about many of the issues Hassan works on: rape cases, genital mutilation, child marriage, education for girls. Ernst became increasingly agitated by the discussion—and energized. “I said, ‘You know what? Maybe I can do something,’ ” she recalls. “ ‘Maybe I can make coffee for your organization, or organize an event, or be a volunteer.’ ”
