Rachel Butacha, 25, Democratic Republic of Congo Rachel Butacha smiles when she explains that “my family name means ‘hope’ in my language. Even if someone is sick or upset, they can never abandon their ‘butacha.’” Somehow, neither has she. Today, Rachel lives at the KARIBU building in Dakar — the safe house for activists in …
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Mohamad Cisse, 35, Guinea Conakry “Since independence from France, my country has only known dictatorships — we have never truly known freedom,” says Mohamad Cisse about his home, West Africa’s Guinea-Conakry. Growing up in a middle-class family with eight other siblings, Mohamad finished university and became an engineer. But he saw how the high cost …
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On a recent afternoon in Bangalore, India, almost 100 people pack the auditorium of the city’s National Gallery of Modern Art. For over an hour, they witness something extraordinarily rare: eight middle-aged queer and trans people talking about their lives and dreams, their families and friends. It’s a professional performance complete with music, lights, sets, …
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For many rebel soldiers who fought in Senegal’s 40-year armed conflict in the Casamance region, the decision to pick up a weapon was straightforward — they believed their cause was noble, and violent resistance was justified. The decision to put down those weapons has been far more difficult. Peaceful civilians caught in the middle have …
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When Uganda passed its Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) in 2023, countless headlines around the world denigrated the archaic law for its extreme punishment — including the death penalty — for same-sex relationships. But for many queer Ugandans inside the country, a less obvious impact was nearly as devastating: the law meant that safety required silence. That …
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By now, we all know how social media has sown division in societies around the world — creating echo chambers that elevate tensions and give platforms to those spouting hate speech. In areas of extreme political division, these echo chambers have led to violence: from the January 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C., to the genocide …
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The first thing you notice in Esperancita del Rio — a tiny farming village in northern Guatemala’s lush Alta Verapaz region — is the quiet. The gentle bubbling of the nearby San Roman river, the whinnying of a family of horses… and that’s about it. But every 15 minutes, a massive truck roars down the …
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Good design stays with you, from viral social media infographics to bumper stickers. Pro-democracy activists in Thailand — fighting to establish essential freedoms — put this fact into practice. No one has done as much to create the look of this movement’s look as Patcha “Phar” Chaimongkolsub; the Bangkok graphic designer has catapulted her talent …
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AJWS grantee Isaan Land Reform Network (ILRN) is the epitome of ‘grassroots’ — a coalition of 36 Thai communities of small-scale farmers, banded together to support each of their struggles for land rights. Thousands of farmers across Thailand have been forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands by the state or private corporations; ILRN gives them …
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When Ana Elizabeth Pop Jor was growing up outside Chisec in rural, northern Guatemala, violence was never far away. The oldest daughter in a family of 11 children, Ana still remembers the day that the low ceilings of their small home saved her mother’s life. “My father lunged at my mom with a machete and …
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