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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