The AJWS community has a lot to say about what's happening in the world. Read our insights about the struggle for justice and human rights around the globe — and meet the activists on the frontlines of the fight to build a better world.
Shyleen recalls the moment that sparked her activism. A woman was giving birth in her backyard near her home in Kisii County, southwestern Kenya. As midwives hurried about helping her, passersby crowded around, gawping. What should have been a private moment turned into a spectacle. Even now, years later, the memory of it is still …
Growing up in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, Richa was taught the do’s and don’ts of being a “good Indian girl.” “I actually had training on how to be a perfect wife and daughter-in-law according to Hindu society,” she said with an incredulous laugh. “My grandmother and mother always told me to behave a certain way. ‘Don’t …
Activism is in Flor Ángel’s DNA. The 28-year-old Dominican activist works with AJWS grantee Mujeres Sociopolíticas Mamá Tingó, a collective of social justice and community organizations fighting for equal rights for all women and girls. She comes from a long line of community organizers. Growing up in the southern locality of Batey La Altagracia, she …
For most of her life, 20-year-old Meriya Alpa Ramjibhai grew up doing what was expected of her: taking care of her siblings, doing household chores and keeping her opinions to herself. She was also expected, like so many young women, to marry when her parents found a suitable husband. But things are changing for Alpa. …
For generations, Indigenous communities within Chiapas — the southernmost region of Mexico — have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the land they inhabit. The people nurture and support their ancestral lands, and in return, the land provides them food, shelter and clean water. But in recent decades, mining companies have descended upon the region, poisoning …
