Lucy Wanjiku Njenga always believed she was meant for something more than the life she was born into: “I saw myself getting from a place of poverty to success — I knew there was something else waiting for me.” Lucy was born and raised in Dandora, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods of …
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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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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Jyoti Gadari got married when she was just 17. Like many young women, she wanted to explore: go to college, try out different jobs, see what kind of opportunities might unfold. And according to local custom, she didn’t have to live with her husband yet. She thought she had time. But her husband’s family had …
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Raising a voice for women amid the horrors of war
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