Grace is the mother of seven children. She lives in Democratic Republic of Congo, a country rife with ethnic conflict that has been called “the rape capital of the world” by U.N. officials. In addition to the vulnerability of being a woman in a war-torn region, Grace and her family are Pygmy, an ethnic minority …
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New York, NY – Ruth Messinger, president of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading Jewish international development and human rights organization, issued the following statement in advance of First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to Cambodia: “I commend First Lady Michelle Obama for her historic trip to Cambodia this week to promote the Administration’s ’Let …
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Homophobic hatred sizzled in Haiti’s streets last summer. Religious leaders marched throughout the country to protest same-sex relationships and stir up anti-LGBT sentiment. As these extremists launched a vicious campaign, Haiti’s small, but growing number of advocates for LGBT rights—like the aptly named AJWS grantee Kouraj (Courage)—spoke out.
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This award-winning NGO helps activists stay safe, so they can keep speaking out against injustice. In recent years, activists who defend human rights in Guatemala have faced a rising wave of targeted violence that aims to crush their growing movements for social change. From 2008 to 2011, there were 1,286 reports of attacks against human …
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Many Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent work in low-wage jobs on the country’s sugar and banana plantations, or as construction workers or laborers in the informal economy. They reside in bateyes—poor districts that were established to house sugar plantation laborers and their families. Because Haitians and their descendents are often denied citizenship rights …
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New York, NY – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of three women currently sitting on the United States Supreme Court, has co-authored a feminist reading for the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins at sundown on Friday, April 3, 2015.
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On Sunday, March 15th, AJWS’s first-ever NYC Half Marathon Team will race through Manhattan on a run for global justice! Through tireless training and dedication, our team has raised more than $7,000 for AJWS’s work in the developing world. We hope you’ll cheer on Team AJWS as they take on the city and race to the finish line …
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Washington, D.C. – Congress must act swiftly to stop the intensifying worldwide wave of violence against women and girls, including the targeting of women and girls by ISIS and Boko Haram and escalating sexual violence in India, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries.
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The headlines from almost every corner of the globe in the past few weeks have been endlessly depressing. February may be New York’s coldest month since 1934. And yet, I’m feeling rather elated because something spectacular just happened. On Friday, February 27th, AJWS President Ruth Messinger and I traveled to Washington, D.C. to represent AJWS at Secretary …
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David Lieberman is formerly a member of AJWS’s Los Angeles Global Justice Fellowship cohort. The Global Justice Fellowship is a year-long program designed to inspire, educate and train key opinion leaders in the American Jewish community to become activist leaders in support of global justice. David wrote this reflection at the end of his trip …
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