Girls and young women across much of Latin America and the Caribbean face more challenges in everyday life than their male counterparts. Teenage pregnancy; sexual and gender-based violence; little choice in when, whether and whom to marry; lack of sex education; few options for good paying jobs; being forced to drop out of school and …
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When a massive power company proposed a coal-fired power plant to accompany a damaging new port in Lamu, a UNESCO Heritage Site in Kenya, an activist movement to stop it turned into a nation-wide campaign. The coastal plant threatened the local community’s health and livelihoods, from polluted fishing areas to toxic air pollution and displaced …
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The Sri Lankan economic crisis that began in 2019 was so severe that, at one point according to the World Food Programme, over 30% of Sri Lankans were not getting enough to eat. Inflation soared. Sri Lankans faced a shortage of life-saving medical supplies. People waited in long lines for hours to purchase gasoline. The …
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María Herrera did not expect to be quoted in international newspapers, meet with the Pope or see her name on TIME Magazine’s list of the 2023 world’s 100 Most Influential People. Fifteen years ago, she was busy caring for her family and running a jewelry and clothing business. Her life forever changed when two of her …
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In the verdant, mountainous Omkoi district of Thailand, the Indigenous Karen community is gripped in a battle over the land they have lived on for generations. The 4,258 people living in the village of Kaboe Din trace their lineage far before the existence of modern land deeds—and even the Thai nation itself. The villagers are …
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Carmen Vásquez was nine months pregnant when she felt an extreme pain in her lower back, causing her to pass out after calling for an ambulance several times. She woke up in police custody rather than a hospital and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for suffering a stillbirth. Manuela* was also sentenced to …
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In honor of Pride Month, AJWS asked LGBTQI+ activists around the world what Pride means for them. Koyel Ghosh, a managing trustee at AJWS grantee Sappho in India, shared: “You cannot experience Pride individually; it’s a collective feeling of Pride when we are able to do things for the community that has given us so …
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In the bustling metropolis of Bangalore, India—home to over 13 million people and known as “India’s Silicon Valley”—a young couple is following their passions for sustainable farming and social justice. Kavitha and Narendra are devoted to protecting the planet through their work, while also striving for equality in their marriage—something that’s not a given in …
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The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare in alarming ways how unprepared the world has been to weather such a storm. Health care systems have buckled or broken under the strain of surging cases. Prolonged isolation and uncertainty has spawned a global mental health crisis, and people with other medical conditions have gone untreated. The pandemic …
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“Men and women are equal!” “Let us read, let us study!” These are some of the slogans shouted by over 200 girls as part of a rally—organized by AJWS grantee Nishtha—in West Bengal, India, to push for women’s safety and equality in late February of this year. The girls, mostly high-school and college aged, proudly …
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