As I stepped into one of the safe spaces created by Lean on Me Foundation for Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Kisumu, Kenya, I was instantly wrapped in warmth – not just from the sun streaming through the windows and the smiles of beautiful babies, but the strength and resilience that the young mothers …
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Ten-year old Magret lives in coastal Kenya, a rural region currently devastated by drought and famine, where many families have only enough food to eat one meal a day. The nearest reliable water source is an hour’s walk away from Magret’s home. And yet, despite her young age, Magret is making an outsized impact in …
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Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at “Child Marriage: Emerging Trends in the Media,” an event that brought together diverse experts to discuss how news media currently covers child marriage—a phenomenon that drastically limits the lives and choices of about 15 million girls across the globe every year. AJWS was thrilled to contribute to this event, which introduced a rich variety of perspectives, stories and research findings to a packed room of nonprofit professionals at Washington D.C.’s National Press Club. I left inspired, and I wanted to share just a few of the highlights from the program with you.
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At the age of 15, I was an optimistic young teenager in New York, inspired by the civil rights movement and dreaming about how I might contribute to creating a better world. Looking back, my ambitions at 15 laid the foundation for my entire career—a full 60 years of fighting for social and global justice. Just like me, every 15-year-old girl deserves a chance to pursue her dreams. Sadly, many girls never get those opportunities.
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Originally published in The Washington Post. Five years ago this month, a terrible earthquake struck my country. I was in the capital city, Port-au-Prince, when suddenly the earth shook and buildings around me and across the city collapsed—taking with them hundreds of thousands of lives and the hopes of my nation. The world stood with …
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Ending child marriage through philanthropy
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Escaping child marriage and guiding girls to choose their own paths
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Giving girls control over their bodies and futures
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In Guatemala, very few young people have access to quality reproductive health care and sexual health education. Only 44 percent of women of reproductive age use any kind of contraceptives. The maternal mortality rate—the proportion of pregnancies that end in the mother’s death—is the second worst in Latin America and is especially high among indigenous …
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Tostan—which means “breakthrough” in Wolof, the national language of Senegal—is among the highest-profile social change organizations working on the African continent. AJWS was one of its earliest supporters, first funding the organization just a year after its launch in Senegal in 1991. AJWS stood by Tostan and its founder, Molly Melching, as the organization grew …
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