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Why Obama Should Address Human Rights in Kenya

President Obama will make his historic visit to Kenya this weekend—his first trip to his father’s homeland as president.  As Kenya’s people eagerly anticipate his homecoming, AJWS’s Kenyan grantees are urging President Obama to address the critical human rights issues affecting marginalized communities in Kenya—including women, girls, LGBT people, and Kenya’s rural populations. Since 2004, AJWS has supported grassroots organizations in Kenya that …

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Moral Courage in the Face of Injustice: A Call to Action from a Global Justice Fellow

I, along with twelve other participants in this year’s New York based Global Justice Fellowship of American Jewish World Service, returned last week from Santo Domingo where we engaged in powerful encounters with representatives of seven NGOs. The deadline of June 17th hovered over most of these meetings, several of which involved Dominican activists of Haitian descent who are not migrants and whose families have lived for generations in the Dominican Republic.

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Nepal Can Recover, But Only If We Change What Is Happening

Originally published in The Huffington Post.   I lived in a tent in Nepal as a refugee from Bhutan in the 1990s. And so it broke my heart this month, when I traveled to Nepal in the wake of the recent earthquake and witnessed Nepalese families living in a sea of plastic tents, much like …

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On the Ground in Nepal: 4th Update from AJWS Staff

AJWS’s Director of Disaster Response & International Operations, Samantha Wolthuis, and Associate Director of Risk Management and Administrative Services, Aaron Acharya, traveled to Nepal last week to lead AJWS’s response to the earthquake. This is the fourth on-the-ground update from Samantha and Aaron. Read their first, second, and third updates. Yesterday, we headed east to the Kavrepalanchok district, …

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Nursery school students help repair the world

Our President Ruth Messinger met with some adorable, charitable four-year-old students at the JCC Manhattan’s Nursery School this morning to thank them for their generous contribution to our Nepal Earthquake Emergency Relief Fund. The students organized a bake sale last week after learning about the devastating Nepal earthquake, raising more than $1,000 for our Nepal Fund! The students …

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On the Ground in Nepal: 3rd Update from AJWS Staff

AJWS’s former Director of Disaster Response & International Operations, Samantha Wolthuis, and former Associate Director of Risk Management and Administrative Services, Aaron Acharya, were in Nepal leading AJWS’s earthquake response. This is the third on-the-ground update from Samantha and Aaron. Read their first update here and their second update here. Aaron wrote the update below after …

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On the Ground in Nepal: 2nd Update from AJWS Staff

AJWS’s Director of Disaster Response & International Operations, Samantha Wolthuis, and Associate Director of Risk Management and Administrative Services, Aaron Acharya, are in Nepal this week leading our response to the earthquake. This is the second on-the-ground update from Samantha and Aaron. Read their first update here. Today, Aaron and I went on a site …

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Media Advisory: New US Special Envoy for LGBT Persons will join Ugandan Human Rights Advocate to Speak at National Policy Summit for American Jewish World Service

Washington, D.C. – Randy Berry, newly appointed as the first ever U.S. State Dept. Special Envoy for the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) persons, will speak at the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) Policy Summit on Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Washington, D.C. Berry will be joined by Dr. Hilda Tadria, founder and current executive director of the Mentoring and Empowerment Program for Young Women (MEMPROW).

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