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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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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With authoritarianism on the rise, for American Jewish World Service, investing in social movements led by young people is one of the best ways to safeguard democracy and democratic rights. And so, as consciously political grant-makers, we are ramping up our efforts to invest in youth movements — and calling on other funders to do …
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American Jewish World Service (AJWS), the leading global Jewish human rights organization, is calling on the U.S. and international leaders to take bold action to protect democratic rights and the rule of law to combat the growing threat of authoritarianism around the world. AS THE NATION MARKS ONE YEAR SINCE THE JANUARY 6 INSURRECTION AT …
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Tragically, the Trump administration is encouraging authoritarian leaders around the world to indulge their baser instincts—and many of our grantee partners and their communities are feeling the repercussions firsthand.
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“We are telling the truth. We want to be heard, and we want justice,” said a petite, elderly woman to a room full of journalists and human rights activists in Guatemala City on February 13, 2016. A survivor of sexual slavery during Guatemala’s decades-long civil war, the woman’s face was obscured by a Mayan scarf to protect her identity.
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Mobilizing women to make peace
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Grace is the mother of seven children. She lives in Democratic Republic of Congo, a country rife with ethnic conflict that has been called “the rape capital of the world” by U.N. officials. In addition to the vulnerability of being a woman in a war-torn region, Grace and her family are Pygmy, an ethnic minority …
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Investigative journalists keep Haiti’s officials accountable for responsible reconstruction. Billions of dollars in foreign aid and reconstruction projects have flooded into Haiti since the earthquake, but the process for deciding how the money will be spent is not transparent. While displaced earthquake survivors languish in tent camps, U.S. government funds have sometimes been directed toward …
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This award-winning NGO helps activists stay safe, so they can keep speaking out against injustice. In recent years, activists who defend human rights in Guatemala have faced a rising wave of targeted violence that aims to crush their growing movements for social change. From 2008 to 2011, there were 1,286 reports of attacks against human …
Read MoreSitting in the dusty courtyard of Challenging Heights, in Sangor, Ghana, surrounded by children rescued from slavery, I realized I was not truly present. It was 2012, and I was on an AJWS rabbinical delegation intended to inspire American clergy to deepen our commitment to global justice by connecting with people in the Global South whom we seek to help.
Read MoreTo the Burmese government, the Rohingya Muslims do not exist. This group of approximately 1.2 million people living in western Burma has been referred to by the United Nations as “one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.” The Rohingya consider themselves a distinct ethnic minority, but the Burmese government disputes this claim. In addition to refusing to recognize the group’s identity, the government has also inflicted widespread human rights violations against the Rohingya, including restricting marriage and child-bearing, depriving them of freedom of movement, and forcing them to live in deplorable conditions in internally displaced persons camps. The human rights organization, Fortify Rights, argues that the government intends “to make life so intolerable that they [the Rohingya] will leave the country.”
Read MoreAs an activist, learning about the work of previous generations can be inspiring—and terrifying. I begin to wonder if I will ever be able to accomplish what the leaders of eras past did, or be willing to take the same risks. For example, when I was in elementary and middle school, the fight to end South African apartheid was often in the news and many of the young activists were not much older than I was. I remember thinking: “What would I be able to do to show such strong moral leadership and live up to their example?”
Read MoreParashat Matot opens with a list of the laws governing vows—in particular, vows made by women. The basic principle that underlies these laws is that if a woman makes a vow, her husband or father can nullify the vow. However, if her husband or father is aware of the vow and voices no objection, his silence signals his consent and her vow stands. While the power dynamics with regard to gender are certainly troubling, the principle expressed in these laws—that silence means assent—suggests a powerful lesson about using our voices as we work to build communities committed to the pursuit of justice.
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