One small change can have an enormous impact. Just ask the photographers behind Ripple Effect Images.

Last week I heard an amazing lecture here at Chautauqua by Annie Griffiths, a National Geographic photographer and the founder of Ripple Effect Images, an organization that reaches out to impoverished girls and women around the world. Her incredible photographs were both beautiful and shocking and serve to document lives that are far from our own in distance but every bit as important and meaningful.

“The key to empathy is understanding, and with empathy, we can get rid of so much fear if we know, if we understand, if we truly see our fellow human beings as just as relevant and human and invested in their lives as we all are,” she said, adding that “women and girls are the best investment the world can make in our shared future.”

I found Annie’s words and photos, as well as her organization so inspiring. To learn more, click on the illustration above and prepare to read more and view Ripple Effect Image’s extraordinary work.

What kind of ripple effect are you creating in your life?