These Women are Paving the Road to Justice in Senegal
The road to justice in Senegal is rarely a straight path. Especially for women.
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Justin Jacobs
Unity is Our Strength: Inside Kenya’s Growing Movement of Indigenous Leaders
Myriad challenges plague Kenya’s Indigenous communities. The effects of climate change have hit them hard.
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Hip-Hop in their DNA: How Senegalese Activists are Building a Movement with Their Music
Just after sunset on a Friday night in Pikine, Senegal — one of the poorest neighborhoods in the capital, Dakar — the energy at a local community center is electric. Spotlights make the courtyard glow as a headphone-clad DJ plays music from two massive speakers. Kids and teenagers — hundreds of them — sprint through …
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Activists Up Close: Meet Pisey, who’s Leading the Movement for Marriage Equality in Cambodia
Ly Pisey grew up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where LGBTQI+ people are alienated and pushed to the fringes of society. But Pisey — along with the activist organization she co-founded, Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK) — is working to change what’s possible for her community nationwide. Today, with cultural acceptance of LGBTQI+ on the rise, Pisey …
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Activists Up Close: Meet Misael, a Water Defender in Mexico
Misael was born into a family of Indigenous farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico — his connection to the land goes back generations. Today, he works for Flor y Canto, an AJWS grantee organization that mobilizes local communities to fight for their rights to land, water and other natural resources. In 2005, the Mexican government restricted farmers’ …
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Activists Up Close: Meet Mercy, a Girls Boxing Coach and Mentor in Kenya
Mercy Musila Musikali grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, like so many girls in her community: shy, lacking confidence and feeling limited by the social expectations of what women can be or do. But then she discovered boxing, and an entire world opened up to her. Today, Mercy is a coach and mentor for adolescent girls …
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Claiming a Seat at the Table: The Feminization of Politics in Senegal
In the corner office of a municipal building in Dakar, Senegal, Adama Mbengue sits behind a huge, wooden desk. She interlocks her fingers and stretches her mouth into a wide grin. It took a long time to get here — generations, even — but Adama has arrived: in January 2022, she was elected as the …
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Know Your History, Master Your Future: How One Senegalese Activist is Mobilizing Youth By Illuminating his Community’s Forgotten Tragedy
In Thiaroye, Senegal—less than 10 miles from the country’s bustling, metropolitan capital of Dakar—a rusty metal gate separates bumper-to-bumper traffic and densely-packed produce markets from a painful but forgotten piece of Senegalese history. Inside the gate, the noise of the city disappears. Tall palms offer some shade, but the sun bears down on unmarked stone …
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The Fight for Safe Abortions in Kenya
In Kenya, seven women die every single day from complications related to unsafe abortions — conducted at home or in backstreet clinics, often using dangerous methods like knitting needles or bleach. This astounding figure, far higher than the global average, is directly correlated to a simple fact: while abortion is a constitutional right in Kenya …
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Medicine, Tents, Tarps and Seeds: How Activists Took Action to Save Lives After Haiti’s Earthquake
At 8:30 a.m. on August 14, 2021, a massive, 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern Haiti, its epicenter in the heart of a rural region home to many of the country’s poorest communities. Globally, it was the deadliest natural disaster of 2021, with nearly 2,500 people killed. In Haiti, the earthquake was the latest blow to …
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