1. International Women’s Day Panel

Monday, March 8th 7:00pm

Location: International House Philadelphia, 3701 Chestnut Street Phila PA 19147

Join us for a global celebration of the economic, political, and social achievements of women. This event is sponsored by International House Philadelphia; Women’s Campaign International; United Nation’s Association of Greater Philadelphia; and the University of Pennsylvania’s African Studies Center, Center for East Asia Studies, South Asia Center, Middle East Center and the Penn Women’s Center. This event is free and open to the public.

Link for more details: http://www.phillyfunguide.com/event/detail/63521

2.  Wing Tsun Self-Defense Fundraiser

In honor of International Women’s Day 2010, Women’s Campaign International (WCI) would like to offer community members the chance to participate in a Wing Tsun – Based Self-Defense Class in University City. If you are interested in this activity, please e-mail aileene[at]womenscampaigninternational.org so that we can let you know about upcoming class dates and times.

Cost of Class: Women’s Campaign International, a registered 501c3 nonprofit, would like to ask all participants to give a tax deductible donation of $20 for this class. WCI encourages businesses, agencies or groups to sponsor a team of their employees or members to attend. No other supplies or equipment needed.

Wing Tsun:

• Was developed by a woman, and is designed for a smaller person (man or woman) facing a larger attacker.
• Is considered a “soft” martial art, in which one learns to give way to greater force and allow attacks to pass. One learns to use the opponent’s force against him, as well as to use her own body weight to her greatest advantage. Wing Tsun practitioners learn to compensate for smaller size with speed and aggression.
• Wing Tsun is direct and deadly; it does not involve acrobatics or exceptional flexibility, and is appropriate for men and women, as well as for a broad range of ages and body types.

Participants will leave the class having learned:

• Awareness and control of personal space
• Effective responses to aggression
• How to strike an attacker: defenses against a variety of grabs and chokes, punches and palm strikes
• Common attacks experienced by women and basic defenses against them

Structure of the class (about 2 hours):

• Intro and Demo (10 minutes)
• Striking (10 minutes)
• Effective responses to aggression (10 minutes)
• Defenses against grabs and chokes (1 hour 10 minutes)
• Questions (15 minutes)

Honorees at this year’s event included: US Vice President Joseph R. Biden. Jr., author of the landmark Violence Against Women Act; John Legend, six-time Grammy Award winner and founder of the Show Me Campaign; Sheryl WuDunn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and co-author with her husband Nicholas Kristof of the new book Half the Sky; Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women Initiative, a five-year campaign to foster greater shared economic growth by providing 10,000 underserved women around the world with a business and management education; and emcee Mariska Hargitay, Emmy Award-winning actress and star of NBC’s  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

The Vice President was introduced by his sister and WCI trainer, Valerie Biden Owens and discussed the invaluable importance that women bring to families and community development worldwide, as well as the Obama administration’s commitment to women’s empowerment both in the United States and around the world.  Of WCI’s work worldwide, he said, “Because of your efforts, more women are realizing their value in their communities, more women are finding their voice, more women are leading the world. The empowerment of women will be the defining issue of the 21^st Century.” A spirited live auction following Vice President Biden’s remarks raised $53,000 in ten minutes for women’s causes worldwide due not only the generosity of the crowd but the expertise of Eliza Osborne of Sotheby’s.

The event raised more than $200,000 which will help support WCI’s rapid response programming in post conflict countries to fund programs such as a safe house in Liberia for young girls who have survived rape and sexual assault.  There, WCI works to support the young women so that they can get an education and begin to recover from their traumatic experiences.

“The work we are doing is not only essential to the countries we work in, but it is also essential for civil society to have women’s voices at the decision-making tables,” said founder and president of WCI, Marjorie Margolies.  “WCI is so thankful for the amazing work our honorees have achieved for women worldwide.”

The evening’s activities were a testament to the generosity and social consciousness of its honorees and sponsors. Honoree John Legend said, “I am a true believer in the work that you’re doing… and I’m humbled and I’m honored to be in the presence of people who work so hard and do so much; it makes me feel I do so little… you really are doing such great work and I’m just honored to be among you.  A lot of work is going to be done in the coming years, the coming decades, and sign me up, to be your friend, or anything else that you need, sign me up to be a part of it.”

2009 honorees

U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden

Author of the landmark Violence Against Women Act

To be introduced by his sister and WCI trainer, Valerie Biden Owens

John Legend

Six-time Grammy Award winner and founder of Show Me Campaign

Sheryl WuDunn

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and author of the new book Half the Sky

with a special musical performance by John Legend

Monday, November 2, 2009

The Metropolitan Club

One East 60th Street at 5th Avenue, New York, NY

Doors open at 6:00pm

6:30-7:30pm Cocktail Reception, The Great Marble Hall

8:00 pm Dinner, The West Lounge

Tickets may be purchased here.

Individual ticket price is $1,000 and tables of ten may be reserved for $10,000.

Please call Aileene Halligan at 267-879-4914 for more details.

The TRC was created to promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation by investigating gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law during Liberia’s armed conflicts from January 1979 to October 14, 2003.  Part of the TRC’s mandate included providing a forum in Liberia and in the Diaspora for both victims and perpetrators of human rights violations to share their experiences as to facilitate genuine healing and reconciliation.

The Forum will feature discussions by Cllr. J. Augustine Toe, the Executive Director of the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Catholic Diocese in Liberia, Sarah Paoletti, Clinical Supervisor and Lecturer and Director of the Transnational Legal Clinic, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Sam Togba Slewion, former Secretary General of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), and Coordinator of the Technical Committee of the Liberia Media Support Initiative (LIMESI).

The forum is being sponsored by the International Human Rights Advocates student-group at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in the Levy Conference Center at 3443 Sansom Street from 5 pm- 6:30 pm. The event is free and open to the general public.

WCI has been working in Liberia on increasing women’s political and grassroots participation in sustainable peace building initiatives since 2008 and has worked with the TRC.  Our program encouraged war affected women to come forward and testify as part of the TRC hearings.  Read more about WCI’s work in Liberia and with the TRC here.

WCI’s film screening and panel featured on Action News from Women’s Campaign International on Vimeo.

M Power Productions’ The Stoning of Soraya M. is a film adaptation of the sobering true story of an Iranian woman who was unjustly accused of adultery and stoned to death in 1986.  French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam first brought the story to the international stage in 1994 with his best-selling book of the same name. Soraya’s story exposes the harsh realities and injustice that women face worldwide, especially those living in strictly traditional, rural communities. The film demonstrates how quickly a lack of fair trial, legal transparency and respect for women’s human rights can spiral into a horrifying fate that is impossible to forget.

On Thursday, June 18^th, Women’s Campaign International (WCI) hosted 200 guests at the Bridge Theater in Philadelphia for a preview film screening of M Power Productions’ The Stoning of Soraya M.  Following the screening, WCI was honored to host the star of the film, Oscar-nominated actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, and University of Pennsylvania professors Dean Richard Gelles, and Professor Susan Sorenson for a post-film discussion panel.  The panelists touched on the topics of international women’s rights, domestic and gender-based abuse, secondary traumatization and mob violence. Guests then were invited to a reception where they could speak to the panelists and WCI staff more in depth on these topics.

Ms. Aghdashloo was pleased to announce that the film would be released this week in Philadelphia’s Ritz theaters. The actress will be in town to promote the film further and raise awareness about such devastating practices that threaten human rights and particularly women’s safety throughout the world.

The Stoning of Soraya M. film screening proved to be a very timely event, as recent elections in Iran have yielded great public dissent and protest worldwide. The topic of Iranian women’s rights has become an especially contentious topic during this election cycle – both for Iranian citizens and Iranian Americans. The declaration of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “landslide victory” in recent elections has been fervently opposed by tens of thousands of voters in Iran, many of whom have taken to the streets of Tehran in protest.  The implication of his continued leadership is a cause of concern for many in Iran, but most notably for women and women’s rights advocates. Although female candidates were prohibited from running in the past election cycle, women in Iran have been at the forefront of those visibly speaking out and protesting the results of the election.  Mr. Ahmadinejad has done very little to promote women’s empowerment and has  been known to jail women leaders of the One Million Signatures Campaign, a movement to reform Iran’s legal system to end gender discrimination.  Meanwhile, his main opposition candidate and a former prime minister, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was well regarded among Iranian women and ran his campaign with promises to end discriminatory laws against women, appoint women to high positions, and disband the morality police that arrest women for immodesty in dress and behavior.

While the future of Iranian politics remains uncertain, The New York Times has reported as of Monday, June 22nd, that Iran’s most senior panel of election monitors has determined that the recent elections were flawed, and that the number of votes cast in 50 cities exceeded the actual number of voters.

Screening 7pm-9pm
Reception and Panel to follow 9pm – 9:45pm

Panelists include: Oscar- nominated Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice Dean Richard Gelles and University of Pennsylvania Professor of Social Policy Susan Sorenson.  Panel will be moderated by WCI’s President and Founder, the Honorable Marjorie Margolies.

THE STONING OF SORAYA M. is a heart‐rending film which unmasks the cruelty of an Iranian husband who sought to get rid of his wife, and the hypocrisy of the mullahs who colluded with him. Based on the International best‐selling book by French‐Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, the film stars Oscar® nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jim Caviezel and Mozhan Marnò as Soraya.

Link to trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi559874841/

Rating: R (for a disturbing sequence of cruel and brutal violence, and brief strong language)

Please RSVP as soon as possible to:
Aileene Halligan at Aileene@womenscampaigninternational.org
215 387 2601.

Thursday, May 28th 6:00pm – 9:00pm

University of Pennsylvania, Hall of Flags

Houston Hall 3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia PA 19104

Students from the University of Pennsylvania attend a WCI program in Loti, Malawi, May 2008

“Local Leaders form Strong Global Partnerships”

On Tuesday, March 3rd WCI will celebrate International Women’s Day  2009 with co-sponsors from the University of Pennsylvania as well as Philadelphia’s International House and United Nations Association.  This global panel will feature speakers from around the world, from Afghanistan to Philadelphia, as they discuss the status of women worldwide and their concerns for how the global recession will disproportionately impact women.

Guests sign into the 2009 International Women's Day Panel

WCI President Marjorie Margolies speaks on the panel

Panelists:

Suraya Pakzad

Executive Director of the Voice of Women Organization. VWO is one of the leading and most effective NGOs in Afghanistan. The charity’s main goal is to strive for the freedom and empowerment of women in Afghan societies.

Marjorie Margolies

President, Women’s Campaign International. WCI is a U.S.-based, nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing the participation of a diverse population of women in political and democratic processes worldwide. WCI works towards this goal by providing women of all groups with the skills and knowledge needed to participate fully in decision-making and policy formation activities.

Aldo E. Magazzeni

Aldo created Traveling Mercies, a non-profit foundation that is dedicated to helping others, while creating a vehicle to remove barriers between cultures so that individuals can share their strengths, assets and blessings with each other. Aldo has traveled to, and worked, with communities in Italy, Jamaica, Haiti, Mexico, South America, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Kenya, Ethiopia and others.  His affiliation with volunteer groups include local churches, The Salvation Army, The Women of Hope, and The Nyumbani Children’s Home, to name a few.

Raphia Noumbissi

Raphiatou Noumbissi is a Bilingual HIV Case Manager working with Action AIDS. Her case load consists of 40% immigrant families. Prior to this job she worked for 5 years in Belgium as a social worker with physically and sexually abused women from North Africa. Raphiatou was born and raised in Cameroon located at the intersection of West and Central Africa; she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Family & Sexuality in Belgium before moving to Philadelphia in 1999.  Four years ago she started a medical outreach in Foumban Cameroon where each year she leads a team of 6 people including pediatric and adult nurse practitioners, dentist and social workers to provide free medical consultation and education for 4 weeks. The next trip is being plan for May 09.

Moderator:

Connie Hoe

Project Coordinator, SP2 Feldman Initiative – Hancock County. Connie is responsible for the overall coordination and implementation of the SP2 Feldman Initiative-a project to rebuild the mental health service system of Hancock County, Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She achieves this by developing excellent relations with key players in the region, recruiting and managing student volunteers and ensuring University participation and collaboration.

Please join us!  7pm at Philadelphia’s International House: 3701  Chestnut Street, Ibrahim Theater.  Free admission and refreshments.

Sponsored by: African Studies Center www.africa.upenn.edu, Middle East Center www.mec.sas.upenn.edu,South Asia Center www.southasiacenter.upenn.edu, International House Philadelphia www.ihousephilly.org, Women’s Campaign International www.womenscampaigninternational.org, United Nations Association of Greater Philadelphia www.una-gp.org/

On Wednesday, January 28^th, WCI Executive Director Kerri Kennedy was featured as a speaker at the University of Pennsylvania’s panel discussion on “The Causes and Consequences of Global Homelessness.”  The event was sponsored by Penn’s African Studies Center and featured other local experts such as Dr. Dennis Culhane and Dr. Marja Hoek-Smit. Kerri brought an international and gender-based perspective to the event, explaining that many of the women WCI works with in conflict-affected regions are refugees or internally displaced persons. Specifically in Colombia, Liberia, Sri Lanka and Sudan, the majority of WCI program participants have been forced from their homes by armed actors and eruptions of civil war in their communities.  Kerri educated the audience about how homeless women in these countries participate in WCI programs to become leaders, rebuild their communities and transform from victims to agents of change.

More information about MLK week:

http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/ohe/mlk/calendar.php

More information about One Book, One Philadelphia:

http://libwww.freelibrary.org/onebook/obop09/index.cfm

Metropolitan Club of New York
November 20, 2008

On November 20, 2008, Women’s Campaign International (WCI) hosted an impressive gathering of worldwide women leaders at the Metropolitan Club of New York.  The year-end event, entitled Shattering the Glass Ceiling: Honoring Inspirational Women around the Globe, sought to recognize the groundbreaking work of courageous women who have pioneered in their fields and overcome the boundaries that normally hinder women’s effective participation in politics, business and social change.

The evening’s festivities kicked off with a VIP cocktail hour in the Governor’s room, where distinguished WCI donors and special guests gathered to enjoy light fare and mingle to the Afro-Cuban rhythms of the revolutionary all-women drumming troupe Okan Iloro. After the VIP hour, all guests were invited to take their seats in the President’s Ballroom.  As appetizers were served, WCI President, Marjorie Margolies, took the stage to welcome all guests and explain what a great honor it was to top off WCI’s 10th anniversary in such notable company.  Ms. Margolies then passed the mic to the event emcee and first honoree, Katie Couric.  Throughout the night, Ms. Couric’s charisma kept the crowd entertained as she introduced an array of inspirational honorees, each one delivering an equally inspirational speech highlighting their past struggles and current triumphs as women pioneers in their field.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was the next honoree, and she was met with a standing ovation and energizing applause as she walked up to the podium.  Senator Clinton’s speech spoke to her unwavering conviction that educating women is the critical component worldwide to changing a village, a nation and eventually, the world.  She spoke of WCI’s critical role in achieving this end, and reminded the crowd that such groundbreaking work for women must also be done at home in the United States as well as in the world’s poorest countries.  The Senator’s riveting speech set the tone for the evening, and more honorees took to the podium to tell their amazing stories: Honorable Callista Chimombo, Malawi’s Minister of Culture who traveled halfway around the world to address the crowd; Muriel Siebert, the first woman to earn a seat on the New York Stock Exchange; Sara Miller-McCune, the founder and president of Sage Publications; and Fran Weissler, producer of the musical Chicago and many other Broadway hits.  Honorable Marjorie Ngaunje of Malawi, Helen Thomas, and Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine were also recognized and applauded although they could not be in attendance that evening.

All honorees were presented with a one-of-a-kind, beautifully colored and hand-painted ceramic sculpture made by HIV positives artists in South Africa.  Ardmore ceramics generously donated these unique pieces which aptly complemented the night’s theme of supporting dynamic, community-driven change abroad.  These pieces and many more were also available for purchase throughout the night at WCI’s World Market, where exotic necklaces from boutique vendors and crafts from Global Goods Partners were sold.  In addition to the honorees and international shopping, dinner guests were entertained by comedian Jane Condon and special recognition was given to other notable guests in the crowd such as Geraldine Ferraro, Gloria Steinem and Chelsea Clinton.

To wrap up the evening, closing remarks were read on behalf of WCI’s last honoree, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.  As the first woman elected head of state of an African nation – and one of few female heads of state throughout the world – President Sirleaf and her remarks held special meaning to a group so dedicated to the cause of women’s equality.  The President’s thoughts were read by the one of her key campaign managers, Edith Gongloe-Weh, and they spoke to the urgent necessity of supporting women’s civic participation, most notably in post-conflict countries such as her own.  “This award signals for me the hard work that lies ahead, but Liberian women have joined our counterparts worldwide in the fight to overcome decadent structures of inequality stacked against our progress. With your [WCI's] help and continued support to Liberia and the women of the world, our story is bound to change for the better. As women around the world continue to unite to address their shared plight, the glass ceiling can definitely not remain in place.”

Senator Clinton delivers the keynote speech at the event

Honored guests Katie Couric and Lewis Katz chat over dinner

Edith Gongloe-Weh, on behalf of her Excellency Madame President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and Sara Smith, friend of WCI

Host Committee Members Nancy Manket, Cara Manket and Keely Bisch

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