Women as Changemakers

Mercy Corps’ Boss Lives the Inescapable Joy of Helping Others

Damilola Banjo
• December 31, 2023

Tjada D’Oyen McKenna is the first woman — and Black — to head the international charity Mercy Corps, an organization based in the United States that she has led since 2020. She has moved in and out of the public …

Categories: Development, Humanitarian Aid, Poverty, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

The Only Way to Deal With the Taliban? Talk to Them, Says Activist Fatima Gailani

Anastasiia Carrier
• August 9, 2023

Fatima Gailani, a pre-eminent Afghan woman activist, believes that engagement with Taliban is essential, but that doesn’t imply recognition. She says: “In my religion, in my national interest, …

Categories: Asia, Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Taina Bien-Aimé: A Fierce Crusader for Women’s Rights and Lifelong Enemy of Human Traffickers

Damilola Banjo
• April 19, 2023

Taina Bien-Aimé started speaking up for women’s rights when she was still a teenager. A daughter of two Haitians who had met and settled in New York City, she was only about 15, some childhood friends recently reminded her, when …

Categories: Gender Violence, Human Rights, Human Trafficking, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

From a Paid Internship to a Nobel Peace Prize: The Amazing Journey of Beatrice Fihn

Damilola Banjo
• January 22, 2023

Beatrice Fihn, a 40-year-old Swede, grew up wanting to make a big difference in humanity, but she did not know how she could do that. First, she thought she would “stitch people up” after they suffered an accident or make …

Categories: Nuclear Disarmament, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

A Ukrainian’s Crusade to Fix the International Justice System for Everyone

Dawn Clancy
• October 18, 2022

Documenting the “dozens of thousands” of Russia’s war crimes that have been committed so far in Ukraine isn’t a problem for Oleksandra Matviichuk, a human-rights lawyer and civil society leader based in Kyiv. But having a fully developed international criminal …

Categories: Human Rights, International Justice, Ukraine-Russia War, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Born Under Apartheid, Navi Pillay Has Climbed to Global Heights in Promoting Human-Rights Law

Barbara Crossette
• September 12, 2022

Nations of the world have taken giant steps in recent decades to build international structures and strengthen institutions to deal with mass human-rights abusers. At almost every stage, Navi Pillay, a South African lawyer, was there, advancing the rights of …

Categories: Africa, Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame’s Blindness Does Not Stop Her From Helping Others

Laura E. Kirkpatrick
• August 15, 2022

When she was only 10 years old, Gertrude Oforiwa Fefoame realized that she could no longer read her classroom’s blackboard at her school in eastern Ghana. She eventually learned that she had retinal dystrophy, an irreversible degenerative condition that would …

Categories: Disabilities, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Reporting in Afghanistan: Listen, Ask Questions. You Are Not the Story, an Award-Winning Journalist Says

Barbara Crossette
• May 30, 2022

Kathy Gannon never wanted to be a journalist. That changed when she was urged by a journalist brother to give the profession a try. She became a successful reporter and editor of local newspapers in Ontario and British Columbia. With …

Categories: Asia, Gender Violence, Journalists, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Meet Comfort Ero, the First Black Woman to Lead the International Crisis Group

Damilola Banjo
• April 3, 2022

Comfort Ero knew that her appointment as the president and chief executive of the International Crisis Group, a New York City-based think tank working to prevent wars, would be arduous. But taking up the role in December, two months before …

Categories: Africa, General Assembly, Peace and Security, Security Council, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Rebeca Grynspan: No Woman Will Be Marginalized at Unctad

Barbara Crossette
• March 8, 2022

Rebeca Grynspan, the first woman and first Latin American to lead the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, has a lot of work to do. The organization, founded in 1964 as a standing committee, now has 195 member nations. …

Categories: Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Nigeria’s Champion of Maternal and Child Health

Damilola Banjo
• January 19, 2022

It was the death in childbirth of a dear friend that spurred Adepeju Jaiyeoba, then a young lawyer in Lagos, Nigeria, to take action. It was 2011, and 978 out of every 100,000 Nigerian women — 40,000 a year — …

Categories: Africa, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Celia Umenza Risks Her Life to Defend the Rights of Indigenous People in Colombia

Maurizio Guerrero
• November 16, 2021

Celia Umenza, an Indigenous leader who has survived three attacks on her life while advocating for the self-determination of Indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant communities in the northern Cauca region of Colombia, recently told the United Nations Security Council that its …

Categories: Latin America, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

An American Feminist, Honored by France, Carries On a Tireless Global Fight for Women’s Rights

Barbara Crossette
• October 6, 2021

Jessica Neuwirth, a pivotal force in promoting and supporting the rights of women and girls worldwide, was appointed to the rank of chevalier in the French Legion of Honor by the French government in a ceremony in New York City …

Categories: Gender Violence, Human Rights, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

Women Will Achieve Equality, No Matter What: Natalia Kanem of UNFPA Explains

Barbara Crossette
• August 24, 2021

For Natalia Kanem, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund since 2017, the last couple of years have been a wild ride. In 2020, women the world over were getting ready to celebrate important anniversaries: 25 years since …

Categories: Health and Population, Secretary-General, UN Agencies, Women as Changemakers

WOMEN AS CHANGEMAKERS

This Japanese Astronaut Says ‘Space Diplomacy’ Can Save the Earth

Elizabeth Colton
• July 22, 2021

Naoko Yamazaki made space history not only as the second woman astronaut from Japan, but also by participating in the record-setting 2010 NASA space shuttle mission STS-131 to the International Space Station, or ISS. Launched from the Kennedy Space Center …