Meet the women keeping up the fight

"Real change, enduring change happens one step at a time." - Ruth Bader Ginsburg This weekend, we celebrate women defending their communities and helping others in our new documentary series DEFENDERS. We hope these stories will inspire you to take action in your own community, no matter how big or small. Check out all five episodes and then let us know: Who's a defender in your life? Tag @greatbigstory on Twitter & Instagram with the hashtag #GBSDefenders. Crusading to End Child Marriage Girls and women across the country are being coerced, pressured, threatened and physically forced into marriages against their will, with little to no recourse. Fraidy Reiss was one of those women. Today, she runs the first and only non-profit aimed at helping women in the U.S. resist or escape forced marriages. The Immigration Attorney Keeping Families Together By most accounts, living in Georgia as an undocumented immigrant is exceptionally difficult. But in the face of hopelessness, immigration attorney Pamela Peynado Stewart is there, ready to fight until the end. A Home Away From Violence Diane Latiker thinks a 12-year-old kid should be worried about his grades—not about getting shot on his walk home from school. What's mundane in other parts of town can be deadly in Roseland—Diane's South Side Chicago neighborhood. So she's doing something about it. Fighting Homelessness at the Library Cuica Montoya knows first-hand how drugs can turn your life upside down. Now, she's a peer navigator at Denver's Central Public Library, offering a hand and a home to those affected by drugs and homelessness. Hope and Healing After Escaping a Cult Briell Decker was chosen to become FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs' 65th wife when she was just 18 years old. Then, she miraculously escaped. Now, she's helping her fellow survivors embrace their freedom. And she's doing it in Jeffs' own house.  Don't miss the television premiere of CNN Films' documentary "RBG" on Monday, September 3 at 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. EST/ 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. PST. Copyright © 2018 Great Big Story, LLC, All rights reserved.You are receiving this message because you subscribed to the Great Big Story newsletter. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list