Find out about some inspiring Atlas Corps Fellows who are doing incredible work to empower all women and girls across the world. They are focusing on bringing gender-based issues to the forefront.
 
With global momentum behind women’s equality and gender parity movements, Atlas Corps continues its commitment to empowering global women.

Adelide Mutinda (Class 25, Kenya) writes,

“I am passionate about the equality and empowerment of women and girls both from a personal and professional level. The opportunities I now enjoy are a result of sacrifices made by others who have fought for women especially in the global south to have every opportunity possible extended to them. I run a non profit that supports young entrepreneurs with a strong focus on female entrepreneurs and/or enterprises that directly engender the rights of women. 60% of program participants are female founders and 70% of all ventures have a direct positive impact on women in the community. As a female founder in a largely male dominated “founder” scene,I work to empower other women with the tools to take on sustainable business and leadership roles. As those most affected by poverty and other SDGs related issues, the equality and empowerment of women and girls is integral to achieving the SDGs.”

Aida Merabet (Class 27, Algeria) writes,

“I am the founder of Power Harmony Solution, a social enterprise which supports women and youth through self-development programs. I have over ten years’ experience in the NGO and corporate sector focusing on women’s business and entrepreneurship initiatives, and youth educational programs. I have also held posts with Middle East and North Africa Businesswomen’s Network (MENABWN) in conjunction with Vital Voices Global Partnership, Alwane-Algeria with Women Campaign International , and the Algeria Model United Nation conference. Working with women from around the world on empowering women by supporting each other impacted and uplifted my life positively in different areas. Investing in women is a key for a better world.”

Ala Oueslati (Class 27, Tunisia) writes,

“I have been working on gender equality and women’s rights for 5 years. It all started with my fellowship at Women Deliver, where I took several e-courses on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), advocacy, and human rights project design and participated at the Women Deliver Global Conference in Copenhagen in 2015. I then founded my initiative SHE Mobile Clinic to advance women’s health and wellbeing in rural areas, and a few months later, I was awarded the 120 Under 40 Women’s SRHR and Family Planning Award by the Gates Foundation and Johns Hopkins University. I am also the founder of an online think tank called YaLa Women, where I support young people from the MENA region about women’s rights and feminism and mentor them in blogging, citizen journalism, and storytelling. Furthermore, I have been writing on gender equality on various media outlets such as the Huffington Post, YaLa Press, Make Every Woman Count, the UN, amongst others.”

Arwa Guesmi (Class 26, Tunisia) writes,

“I started an initiative in Tunisia called women leaders in technology WOLTECH. the mission is to empower women in STEM through mentoring and peer to peer connection. We have completed the first mentoring program for women in STEM in Tunisia funded by the US Embassy in Tunis 25 participants graduated and we are launching version two of the program very soon.”

 

Disha Arora (Class 24, India) writes,

“Driven by the passion to create a stronger focus on women’s rights in India, I made a solo journey of 300 days across 5500 miles in the country to shoot the documentary- Women and Religion in India. During that journey, I interviewed around 200 women and girls from five major religions (Hinduism, Islam. Christianity, Buddhism, and Sikhism) to highlight the discriminatory practices promoted by religion and/or its misinterpretation. The most important part of my journey was to meet these remarkable women and to understand their thoughts and beliefs. They are women from all walks of life who are not afraid to address the difficult issues, both through words and actions. Some of the issues covered in the documentary include menstruation and purity; the impact of growing religious fundamentalism on women’s rights; women as religious leaders; and women’s entry in religious places. I strongly believe that a woman’s human and constitutional rights should be upheld above religion or traditions. Certain religious practices which are discriminatory towards women need to be highlighted and addressed and that is what I have attempted with the documentary. “

Genesis Luigi (Class 24, Venezuela) writes,

“I have been involved in the movement for gender equality by more than 4 years. My contributions go from the community service volunteering for sexual and reproductive rights to managing Comprehensive Sexuality Education programs on the local government sector, My team and I achieved to reach more than 3,000 adolescents and train more than 150 teachers of venezuelans schools. I firmly believe that education is a key element to achieve gender equality, but also I advocate for the cause of accountability and transparency within the public sector, without it, even the more innovative strategies to promote and ensure gender equality will not transcend to the whole population.”

Maxsalia Salmon (Class 23, Jamaica) writes,

“I have had seven years’ experience in the non-profit sector, particularly engaged in activities related to youth development, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. I am passionate about women’s empowerment and has had significant advocacy experiences over the past 7 years as part of local, regional and international NGO networks. My experiences, as a youth leader and advocate, have included many opportunities to lead capacity building workshops for young women, lobby local and international policy makers and donors, as well as attend several regional and international United Nations conferences including the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Currently I am serving as an Advocacy in Practice Advisory Board Member for the International Women’s Health Coalition. I have previously served as a member of JSTAR, a council of young people who worked to improve policies related to adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights. I am also the co-founder of the M&N Foundation for Aspiring Youth, which aims to provide scholarship, mentorship and social skills training for young Jamaicans. Through my foundation’s scholarship program I have provided young women with bursaries to further their academic ambitions.”

Mehak Toseef (Class 20, Pakistan) writes,

“As a Program Manager at Amal Academy, I’m training future women leaders who come from a constrained environment at public universities, providing them with a safe and inclusive platform where they can discover themselves, develop their professional skills to compete with their male counterparts in the industry, and achieve their career aspirations, ultimately becoming active working professionals. 

 

Sara Tariq (Class 24, Pakistan) writes,

“As a Registrar, working for Nur International University we launched a university last year. My main focus was to encourage female enrollment into all of our programs and we did that by providing extra scholarships to deserving candidates who we new would be great for our university but had financial constraints. In our first batch for our undergraduate program we had 29 female students and four male students. In addition to the university we also launched an intermediate college/ High school in another district of Lahore. The senior management was convinced that the intermediate college was going to be a boys only school however, I along with my team was able to convince them to not restrict it to boys only as already there were lack of colleges providing good quality education in that district. That was only the first challenge. The biggest challenge was then to convince families living in that district to send their girls to school. It took us three months of rigourous awareness campaigns to convince these families to allow their girls to be sent to school and how it was not only the right for their sons to acquire good quality education. I am happy to state that my team and I were able to convince over 30 families in two different communities to send their girls to school.”

Will you join us in our commitment to empower global women? It all starts NOW! Take action. Sign up to get involved! To know more visit: EmpowerWomen@atlascorps.org

 

 

 

 

 

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