Mother’s Day is a time for taking note of the unique strength of women, and for celebrating the impact that women have on their children, their families, and their communities. Through our work, WCI strives to celebrate the strength of women on a daily basis. We recognize the innate skills, strength, leadership, and determination of women who are already providing incredible assets to their communities, and give these women the added skills to truly maximize their potential as agents of change. Through the women we work with entire communities are pulled from economic and social injustice, and given fresh hope. Martha Sayklon is an example of a woman who transformed her community.

Martha Sayklon is a 48 year old woman and mother from River Gee County in Liberia. During the civil war she, like many other women, was forced to flee her home to escape from the atrocities of the war. She travelled to Kakata, in Margibi County, and lived there throughout the heat of the Liberian crisis. Once she arrived, she began to search for a way to make sense of the chaos going on around her. The mother of seven children, Martha decided she could do more and opened an orphanage. Within no time at all, Martha’s orphanage was responsible for caring for 94 children, rescued from the Ivory Coast and Liberian border area, and Maryland, Sinoe, and River Gee Counties. Before arriving at Martha’s orphanage, most

of the children had become separated from their families, or were abandoned during the struggle for survival. Martha’s orphanage home offered security, and a stable family environment. She was committed to keeping it up and running, and as a way of supporting the orphanage, she started an agricultural farm.

While the GALS program focuses on building the capacity of our participants in a number of areas, the Financial Literacy workshop is especially relevant to the needs of young girls today.  Statistics show that 2 out of 3 women ages 18-35 feel that they do not have enough financial education and, unfortunately, only 25% of Americans feel well informed about managing household finances.  At this early stage of their lives, the GALS Financial literacy trainings provide vital tools and information to empower these young girls to be able to monitor and manage their current and future finances.  And of course, the goal of the financial literacy training is not only to improve the financial literacy of our participants, but also to teach them how to make well planned budgets for their own advocacy campaigns.

This year, the Financial literacy workshop started with a new enthusiasm, and participants and coaches alike were very excited to start building the skills they would use to develop a budget for their advocacy campaign.  They were especially interested in a presentation by  WCI Board member and Goldman Sachs executive, Edie Hunt, called “The Basics of Financial Literacy”. Edie had the girls take “financial IQ” tests to measure their knowledge of credit cards, credit scores, and budgeting basics.  The materials we created were fun and interactive, and our GALS team was amazed by how much these young girls were interested and eager to learn.

To really empower them to create their own campaign budgets, Program Manager Nickie Sene covered the concept of budget management, and reviewed common mistakes people make when managing money. After going over handouts describing useful tips for creating a budget, including saving receipts, accurate reporting and documenting, the advocacy teams got together to complete their own Budget Worksheets.  The girls spent the rest of the afternoon working on budgets for their advocacy campaigns.

The ideas that came out of the different groups’ budgeting sessions were fantastic, and really creative.  Some groups budgeted for t-shirts to advertise their campaign’s mission.  Other groups designed bracelets, buttons or magnets to enhance their campaigns, and help build awareness of the issues they selected.  The financial literacy workshop is a crucial part of the GALS philosophy, intended to  help our participants to feel confident in managing their finances throughout their lives, and based on the high energy and positive reception of this year’s workshop, we’ve succeeded!

These gatherings are momentous for the ALWANE Coalition. It will be the first occasion where the various committees can meet one another in person and learn more about what each group is working on. Seizing this wonderful opportunity of regional collaboration and exchange, committee members will work hard to develop a unified, common vision of what they hope the coalition can accomplish vis-a-vis the advancement of women’s leadership and full participation in society. This meeting is also a valuable opportunity to build the capacity of each committee as they work to identify their issue of focus and develop a strategic advocacy plan. A team of trainers from ASK for Human Capacity Building will conduct two days of workshops and trainings aimed towards solidifying and strengthening mentorship pairings, team building, and strategic planning.

Although the WCI staff traveled just today, the ALWANE journey began many months earlier (late last November), and committees already have notable accomplishments and creative ideas to share with one another. The Yemen committee worked with Radio Sana’a to put together an official ALWANE radio ad encouraging the public to join the conversation and share their voices in this exciting initiative. The ad currently plays every hour on Reach 2.0s newly launched online radio station and will be aired on radio stations across the region. Most recently, artistic Yemeni committee members held an art workshop in the Cultural Artist House in the Red Sea coastal town of Hodidah, painting a large canvas of the ALWANE logo.  They plan to paint a larger version on the street walls of Sanaa when they return, just in time for the official launch of the “Color your Street with your Rights” initiative.

Palestine successfully held a panel in Hebron on the balance between work and family, in theory and practice. The event, attended by nearly 200 people, was described in numerous local and national print news outlets including Al Safeer Magazine and Al Hayat Newspapers and on a variety of online news sources. See links to articles here, here, and here. The Palestine Country Officer Abeer AbuGhaith was interviewed on a number of radio stations airing across the West Bank including Radio Raya, Nissa FM, and Marah FM Radio, and used this opportunity to talk about not only the event, but the Palestine committee’s goals and objectives, along with the greater vision of ALWANE. The Algeria committee, riding the wave of excitement surrounding the elections and newly established gender quota of 30%, held its launching event with the support and sponsorship of the Ministry of Gender. Stay tuned for photos. Through intensive outreach, the Iraq committee has brought on board an impressive list of 15 Iraqi officials including government officials and civil society leaders. This delegation will join the committee in Amman for a Future Search process that explores women’s leadership and participation in Iraqi society by discussing the past and present trends, and their hopes for the years to come. The Oman committee’s first meeting featured an international trainer and researcher in human rights, political development, and women’s law who held a session on the UN model for identifying policy priorities. The Oman committee will utilize this same model to identify their own issues of focus for their advocacy objectives and activities. See photos of the Oman committee here.

Showcasing what they have learned throughout the GALS program participants present their advocacy campaign work to their community, family and peers.

Global Advocacy and Leadership Series (GALS) participants will work with local professionals on their messaging, presentation and public speaking skills in order to raise awareness about their own advocacy campaigns.

Yemen Committee Member Marwa met with US Embassy Cultural Department diplomats to discuss the ALWANE’s initiative in Yemen. Also, Yemen Committee Member Sarah had a very good chat with Oxfam Gender Program Specialist Suha BaSharien. Yemen Committee Member Eftikar was also very engaged in informative discussions here and there seeking support of Yemeni business men. Other members in attendance included Wejdan, Ahlam, Layla, Gazzah and Mohammed who all also actively engaged other guests in discussions about their committee work, future, and goals.

We send a big thanks to Yemen Committee Member Layla Hayel for coordinating and inviting the whole group to such an exciting event. This event is only one small achievement of many to come from the country committees of the ALWANE Coalition. Stay tuned for further updates from this ground breaking initiative from Women’s Campaign International!

The 3rd Annual TEDx Teen event will be held Saturday, March 31st at the Scholastic Auditorium in New York City.

TEDxTeen is a platform for motivated people to come together and get inspired by what teens from all over the globe are doing to make an impact. Celebrate their passion and motivation and join the conversation!

Be sure to check out TEDxTeen.com and join our Facebook and Twitter pages to keep up with every part of the program. Following the conference all of the talks and performances will be available on TEDxTeen.com for everyone to watch, share and talk about.

This month, communities across Liberia will launch advocacy campaigns, raising awareness for community-identified issues relating to gender-based violence.  Each community will participate in a series of trainings and be given a small stipend to design, organize and implement a community wide advocacy campaign!

This month, communities across Liberia will launch advocacy campaigns, raising awareness for community-identified issues relating to gender-based violence.  Each community will participate in a series of trainings and be given a small stipend to design, organize and implement a community wide advocacy campaign!

This month, communities across Liberia will launch advocacy campaigns, raising awareness for community-identified issues relating to gender-based violence.  Each community will participate in a series of trainings and be given a small stipend to design, organize and implement a community wide advocacy campaign!