What’s Keeping Us Hopeful This Winter

Welcome to the winter issue of Stories of Hope—our quarterly collection of stories, videos, photos and news that highlight the impact we’re making together. Despite the rise of hate and intolerance at home and worldwide, we are deeply grateful that our AJWS community is making a difference.

That is why we’re excited to share this collection of stories, videos, photos and news that highlight the impact we are making together. These are stories of hope and perseverance: a courageous group of women and girls in India who are tackling gender equality; an LGBTQI group in Kenya transforming homophobic taxi drivers into allies and protectors; and photos from the powerful experience of 15 rabbis who traveled with AJWS to Guatemala last month on a journey of solidarity, learning and activism.

Thank you for your passion for building a better world.

Reimaging What Women and Girls Can Do in India

Meet Kausar: She helps teenage girls in Mumbai gain the confidence to stay in school and pursue careers. She has come a long way since her mother forced her to marry a man who treated her like a servant when she was just 15. Click through these powerful photos of Kausar’s work and learn how she found the strength to forge a new life on her own terms.

Rabbis Bear Witness to Human Rights Work in Guatemala

Fifteen rabbis. One powerful week in Guatemala. A shared passion for justice. Click through these photos to witness how our Global Justice Fellows were inspired by the human rights defenders they met on their journey to Central America with AJWS.

From Assailants to Allies: Kenyan LGBTQI Community Finds Support

In coastal Kenya, a group of motorcycle taxi drivers who used to attack and harass LGBTQI people in the streets have become some of the community’s greatest friends and allies. This 1-minute video chronicles how an innovative startup supported by AJWS is promoting tolerance and changing lives.

What We're Reading

Finding Inspiration and Connection in Guatemala

On a recent trip to Guatemala with AJWS, Rabbi Michael Knopf met some of the inspiring human rights activists we support. In an interview for his local Richmond, Virginia paper, he describes the journalists and midwives he met who do their work under challenging circumstances, often at great risk to their personal safety.

Style Weekly

Sri Lankan Women Fish for Their Families

Fishing is usually a job for men in the coastal village of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. But with so many men killed and injured over decades of civil war, women have increasingly been the ones to net fish to feed their families. This article, written by an AJWS grantee, explores how women are stepping into their new roles.

Global Press Journal

Restoring America's Global Human Rights Leadership

We have a vision for the role the United States should play in global human rights: upholding our shared values of liberty, equality and dignity by standing up to dictators and protecting the rights of women, LGBTQI people, ethnic minorities and indigenous people. Read this opinion piece from AJWS’s Director of Government Affairs Rori Kramer to learn more.

The Hill

Rohingya Children Have the Right to Education

More than a million Rohingya refugees now live in sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh, having fled genocide in Burma. One of the tragic byproducts of this crisis, according to a new report, is that a generation of Rohingya children have no access to education. Tun Khin, President of AJWS grantee the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), is quoted in this article and advocates for Rohingya people to be leaders in their communities.

Al Jazeera