Take a deeper look at our stories from around the world.
Watch our videos to learn how AJWS is supporting people around the world who are fighting to improve the lives of millions.
We support women, girls and LGBTQI+ people, as they organize to end discrimination, stop violence and live with dignity, safety and health.
A tribute to a truly extraordinary leader, AJWS’s former President and its first Global Ambassador.
Get to know Robert Bank! Robert joined AJWS in 2009 as our Executive Vice President. As of July 1, 2016, Robert became the President and CEO of AJWS.
A look at the work we do to end poverty and promote human rights in the developing world.
We aid communities and movements organizing to protect the land, water and natural resources that people depend on for their survival.
Each year, 15 million girls worldwide are married before the age of 18—sometimes against their will. AJWS supports efforts to end child marriage by bringing girls and young women together to define their own futures.
We aid communities and movements that speak out against injustice, hold governments accountable to respect the rights of all people, and work to recover from civil wars and other conflicts.
Witness social change up close through these videos from around the globe. You'll watch a day in the life of an activist AJWS supports and learn how they change lives and build social movements for justice.
In celebration of AJWS’s 30th anniversary, we profiled 30 global leaders who have partnered with AJWS to build a better world.
We believe that everyone has the right to live free from violence and constant threat. Yet around the world, an estimated 1 in 3 women will experience assault, rape or other abuse in her lifetime. Nicaragua is no exception, where each year dozens of women are murdered while their attackers roam free. AJWS grantees in …
Sonali’s parents forced her to marry at age 14, and her husband turned out to be abusive. Sonali found the strength to start her life over with the help of MBBCDS, an Indian organization in West Bengal funded by AJWS. She is now pursuing her goals, continuing her studies and working to prevent child marriage …
In El Salvador, local rural communities depend on the mangroves and the creatures that thrive in them for food and their livelihood. Mangroves also act as buffers against the threats posed by climate change by bolstering shorelines from rising seawaters and trapping carbon emissions.[1] La Unidad Ecológica Salvadoreña (UNES)—an organization supported by AJWS—is protecting endangered …
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 …
Zeenat is 17 years old and has already been married and divorced three times. All of these marriages took place against her will, and all three husbands abused her. Unfortunately, Zeenat’s experience is common in her impoverished community in Hyderabad, India. As is the case for many families living in poverty, Zeenat’s parents viewed marriage …
“Hope for Her Daughters” tells the story of Rekha, who was married at 12 and had her first child at 13. She earns her living by sorting out recyclables from garbage, a difficult and sometimes dangerous job that’s fallen to extremely low-income families in India. Rekha presumed her daughters would have no choice but to follow the same path–until she got involved with Kashtakari Panchayat, an AJWS grantee.
At just 14 years old, Mangal Waikar’s parents pressured her into a marriage she didn’t want. As she began raising her own children, she wondered: how could she keep them from following the same path? Set in rural Maharashtra, India, “Something Different for Our Daughters” tells the story of how Mangal and her daughter, Shital, …
Prosecuting powerful adversaries of indigenous rights
Raising a voice for women amid the horrors of war
“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.