We’re proud to share that AJWS grantee OFRANEH (The Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras, Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña) is the international winner of the 2015 Food Sovereignty Prize! The Food Sovereignty Prize spotlights grassroots activists working for a more democratic food system. The honorees are recognized for promoting food sovereignty by raising public awareness, organizing on-the-ground action, …
Read More
This summer, we have certainly lived through some euphoric highs and devastating lows. As we continue to celebrate our country’s historic victory for marriage equality, we are also sobered by the loss of life in Virginia and Charleston, the threats to the Rohingya in Burma and the people of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic…
Read More
The monsoon is ending in Nepal. You probably won’t see this news making headlines, but it is of great interest to AJWS supporters and others moved to send aid in the wake of the tragic earthquakes earlier this year.
Read More
by Gitahi Githuku and Caroline Kouassiaman For over a month prior to President Obama’s visit to Kenya, “POTUS” was the hot topic of conversation, as much of the country was captivated by Obama’s first visit to his father’s homeland as President. The fact that President Obama had kin in Kenya coined the popular term “Our …
Read More
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 …
Read More
What a month! LGBT Pride Month has come and gone, but it will go down in American history as one of the momentous times for LGBT rights.
Read More
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.
Read More
“We are asking for your help,” said Jenny Moron. “We feel a tremendous sense of frustration when we use all of the political levers and nothing works.” With this call to action, Jenny, a Dominican legal advisor for AJWS grantee MUDHA (Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico Haitiana or the Movement of Haitian-Dominican Women) closed a June …
Read More
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 …
Read More
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, …
Read More