Justin Jacobs
Life beyond survival: How activists are transforming homeless shelters for women and LGBTQI+ people in India
Losing shelter can be one of the most traumatic experiences of a person’s life. There’s no single cause behind this global crisis, but all people pushed into homelessness face the same question: Where do I go now? In India, a coalition of grassroots organizations from across the country, including four AJWS grantees, are answering this …
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“Nothing more human than art”: Revealing untold history in the Dominican Republic
“You won’t see our history in schoolbooks,” says Michelle Ricardo, standing in the shade of an Higüero tree in a village in the heart of the Dominican Republic. “So we’re adding our story to the conversation.” Michelle is the co-founder of Anticanon RD, a feminist artist and writer collective creating dialogues about Dominican identity, culture, …
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Three Women, Endless Impact: Thoughtshop Foundation empowers young leaders to tear down India’s patriarchy
“We always start with a question — that’s where everything begins,” says Himalini Varma, the director of AJWS grantee Thoughtshop Foundation. Her organization, co-led with her partner Santayan Sangupta in 1993, has transformed the lives of thousands of young women across West Bengal, India, by approaching change through this lens: opening up space to …
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Munmun’s Story: Putting ‘design thinking’ into action
In a tiny, bright blue room tucked away from a chaotic market street in Kolkata, India, 24-year-old Munmun Das has created the neighborhood’s only safe space for girls to express themselves freely. Munmun is one of nearly 150 youth mentors trained by Thoughtshop Foundation to lead a Youth Resource Cell and guide conversations about taboo …
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Ruksana’s Story: Realizing an impossible dream
“As a child, I was awestruck by what nurses could do. And yet I knew that was an impossible dream for me,” says Ruksana Khatun. Ruksana saw her life spread out before her: She’d be forced to drop out of school to work in the fields and support her family, as her father had a …
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“Why change for someone else when I know I am shining?”: Changing LGBTQI+ norms in India
Like most Indians, Ritwik “Ritu” Chakravarty was raised with a strict notion of traditional gender roles. But for Ritu, who identifies as a trans woman, such rigidity never made sense. “My name, Ritu, means ‘weather’ or ‘season,’” she says today. “And my gender was fluid, changing like the weather.” This openness has allowed Ritu to …
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