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<strong>September</strong> <strong>2021</strong>, Volume 5 Issue 3
profiles<br />
7<br />
CONTENTS<br />
Helping Refugees Settle in the US<br />
Kristen Bloom set up a non-profit to<br />
help refugees settle in better.<br />
13<br />
“Changing the World, One<br />
PowerPoint Slide at a Time!” Sue<br />
England on running Human Rights Law<br />
training for women.<br />
20<br />
27<br />
Organizing the<br />
<strong>Women</strong>’s<br />
March in<br />
Norway Karin<br />
Blake helped<br />
organize the<br />
Norwegian<br />
protests.<br />
From Pastry to Protests Lindsay<br />
Nygren started in the kitchen but now helps<br />
develop safer cities for women.<br />
39<br />
46<br />
“Justice is Truth in Action” Kelsey<br />
McKay stands up for victims with her<br />
work for RESPOND Against Violence.<br />
The Righting<br />
of Wrongs<br />
Wherever<br />
Possible Rena<br />
Levin on how<br />
she got into<br />
activism.<br />
32<br />
Working to<br />
Support<br />
Refugees Ann<br />
Birot-Salsbury tells<br />
us how she got<br />
involved in the<br />
FAWCO Refugee<br />
Network.<br />
52<br />
56<br />
I Decided to Become a Lawyer<br />
When I Was Only Nine! Lauren<br />
Mescon on her journey into law and<br />
the courts.<br />
The Gentle Touch of Hands-on<br />
Help Ulrike Näumann does what she<br />
can for the refugees she meets.<br />
2
features<br />
11<br />
The UN<br />
Sustainable<br />
Development<br />
Goals and Justice<br />
Katja<br />
Malinowski<br />
explains how<br />
important justice<br />
is for the SDGs.<br />
19 Introducing the FAWCO Human<br />
Rights Team Karen Castellon on what<br />
the team does.<br />
36<br />
43<br />
What is Justice?<br />
The FAWCO Human<br />
Rights Team<br />
answers this tricky<br />
question.<br />
Justice is About Transformation<br />
Learn more about Ascend: Leadership<br />
through Athletics, which was given a<br />
FAWCO Foundation Development Grant<br />
in <strong>2021</strong>.<br />
24<br />
Stand Up with<br />
Hope—Five Years<br />
Later Mary<br />
Adams coauthored<br />
a book<br />
about human<br />
trafficking victims.<br />
She looks back on<br />
the experience.<br />
49<br />
55<br />
A Club Inspires<br />
AWA Vienna,<br />
Austria.<br />
Why Did I Join The HR Team?<br />
FAWCO HR Team members share their<br />
motivations for involvement in the<br />
team.<br />
30 Legitimation Station Lauren Mescon<br />
explains what the Legitimation Station is all<br />
about.<br />
in every issue<br />
4<br />
Our Advertisers<br />
59<br />
<strong>Inspiring</strong> You<br />
5<br />
A Note from the Editor<br />
Liz MacNiven<br />
60<br />
More About This Issue<br />
6<br />
Working Toward An Equitable<br />
World For All More about what you<br />
can find in this issue from Elsie Bose.<br />
61<br />
62<br />
Coming November 18<br />
That’s Inspired!<br />
3
advertisers index<br />
We appreciate the support of our advertisers!<br />
The Short List p.38 The Short List assists students with the college<br />
admissions and application process. If your child is about to start<br />
or is in the midst of the admissions process, register for their next<br />
FAWCO Clubs Workshop webinar scheduled for October 6 th . Your<br />
questions will be welcome!<br />
London Realty Intl. p.35 London Realty Intl. is owned by AWC<br />
London member Lonnée Hamilton, a worldwide property<br />
consultant. Her firm works with the best agents across the globe to fulfill your property needs.<br />
London & Capital p.18 London & Capital is a sponsor for the FAWCO Human Rights in Focus November<br />
4-7 th , see p.17 for more details. Jenny Judd, a London & Capital Director, will present a FAWCO Clubs<br />
Workshops webinar “A Woman’s Roadmap to becoming a High-Net-Worth Investor” on November 17 th .<br />
Lauren Mescon, Rodan + Fields p.56 Lauren, member of AWC Amsterdam, works with the no. 1<br />
premium skincare brand in North America, Rodan + Fields, offering you the best skin of your life.<br />
Ponte Travels p.31 Ponte Travel Operating Director and FAWCO member<br />
Mary Stange offer customized service and exclusive access to the world’s<br />
most fascinating places while working responsibly to give back to local<br />
economies.<br />
Janet Darrow Real Estate p.10 Around the corner or a world away,<br />
contact Janet Darrow, FAUSA member, to find the best properties. FAWCO<br />
member referrals to Janet help the Target Program. Her hard work has<br />
paid off in a big way to the Target Project fundraising campaign, a win-win<br />
for all.<br />
The Pajama Company p.54 The Pajama Company, founded by Ellie<br />
Badanes, member of FAUSA and AW Surrey, sells pajamas that are cozy,<br />
cheerful and online!<br />
Yummylicious Serums, Paris p. 15 Yummylicious Serums are an ecofriendly,<br />
pure, all organic and all natural line of healthy serums for our skin<br />
and hair designed by AWG Paris member, Kristina Soleymanlou.<br />
Throughout the years FAWCO has relied on advertisers and sponsors to augment its<br />
income. This revenue has allowed FAWCO to improve services and the flexibility to try the latest<br />
innovations to enhance the FAWCO experience. FAWCO’s advertising partners believe in our<br />
mission and support our goals. Some directly support our activities and<br />
projects.<br />
We encourage club leadership throughout the FAWCO network to share our<br />
publications with their membership. Please support them! Our advertising<br />
partners have valuable products and services and we want your members to<br />
take advantage of what they offer. For more information on these<br />
advertisers or if you have any questions about FAWCO’s advertising program, please contact<br />
Elsie Bose: advertising@fawco.org.<br />
4
“W<br />
e must be the<br />
change we wish<br />
to see in the<br />
world.” Gandhi<br />
A Note from<br />
the Editor<br />
When the <strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> team is considering<br />
what themes we should have for our next issues,<br />
we never quite know who is out there in the<br />
FAWCO world. In other words, will there be<br />
enough women to feature? But time after time we<br />
are happily surprised to find that there are FAWCO<br />
women who are involved whichever different field<br />
we have chosen, and of course they are inspiring.<br />
The women in this issue are without doubt an<br />
awesome group. They go the extra mile to “be the<br />
change we wish to see in the world”. Where they<br />
see wrongs, they do their best to fight for justice.<br />
Where they see people, and especially women,<br />
mistreated, they work to improve their lot. They<br />
aren’t fazed by the idea that as an individual<br />
woman they might not be able to make a<br />
difference. They just get on and do it.<br />
I am sure that you, like me, will be in awe and<br />
humbled by their stories. It can be hard not to feel<br />
slightly inadequate yourself when you read about<br />
them! So I would like to encourage you to put<br />
those thoughts to one side. They are not going to<br />
help you, let alone the world!<br />
Instead let’s think about Gandhi’s words and what<br />
WE can do to change things in our own<br />
communities. It doesn’t have to be setting up a<br />
non-profit organisation like Kristen, or training<br />
people in matters of law like Sue, or organising<br />
women’s marches like Karin and Rena, or<br />
designing safer cities like Lindsay, or working with<br />
refugees like Ann and Ulrike, or standing up for<br />
victims of violence like Kelsey or becoming a<br />
lawyer and judge like Lauren.<br />
Maybe there is<br />
something you can do<br />
in your neighbourhood,<br />
or in your home or<br />
family that would<br />
change the world for<br />
the better. Perhaps<br />
that is something you<br />
have already done in<br />
the fight for justice and<br />
change, or perhaps it is<br />
something you could<br />
consider doing at some<br />
point in the future.<br />
Whatever it is, remember that however small an<br />
action, it really is or will be part of “the change we<br />
wish to see in the world”, and so it is well worth<br />
doing and makes YOU awesome, too! It is my firm<br />
belief that ALL FAWCO women are inspiring in<br />
some way or other!<br />
I hope you enjoy reading the profiles and features.<br />
Please do let us know what you think by<br />
completing our survey (p.58) or sending me your<br />
thoughts at inspiringwomen.editor@fawco.org<br />
Liz x<br />
Liz MacNiven,<br />
inspiringwomen.editor@fawco.org<br />
5
Working Toward<br />
An Equitable World<br />
For All<br />
<strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> Founder, Elsie Bose<br />
introduces our justice theme.<br />
I am not a lawyer so the definitive answer to “What<br />
is Justice?” will not be found on this page. To me it<br />
means an equal and balanced distribution of the<br />
rule of law. Fairness - a concept so easy to<br />
understand and yet seemingly so incredibly hard<br />
to achieve.<br />
Justice was selected as one of the themes for the<br />
<strong>2021</strong> issues of <strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> in the latter part<br />
of 2020. George Floyd was murdered in May of<br />
that year. This horrific incident brought the Black<br />
Lives Matter movement to a crescendo and the<br />
tympanic roar for justice resounded around the<br />
world. How the rule of law would be disseminated<br />
would be a crucial measure of how we value this<br />
basic human right now and in the future. Would<br />
the outcome help bring the systemic change<br />
needed to move all of us to a more perfect union,<br />
universe? The trial is over yet I am still not<br />
sure. There is a great deal of hard work ahead<br />
before those who are marginalized feel<br />
comfortable using the full throttle of their voices<br />
in the conversation about equality and justice.<br />
However, I am personally inspired that the future<br />
has a chance to make these changes after reading<br />
the profiles and features in this issue. The women<br />
profiled are “on the ground” dealing with the most<br />
difficult issues and situations: refugees and<br />
immigration policy, women’s rights, discrimination<br />
in education as a barrier to equality, and sexual<br />
violence against women, to highlight a few. And<br />
because justice is at its best when there is a<br />
balance in the distribution of the rule of law, a<br />
program for fathers’ rights.<br />
A bandage will not fix the imbalance. Success will<br />
be achieved by taking the “long view.” Advocating<br />
for good laws and implementing thoughtful<br />
policies will change the system. Educating the<br />
public will reduce fears and dispel myths. Hard<br />
work will bring acceptance.<br />
There is no specific career path that allows one to<br />
arrive at a solution to these challenges. These<br />
women come from various educational and<br />
cultural backgrounds; they are lawyers, educators,<br />
activists, and innovators. But no matter how they<br />
started their journey and where it has taken them,<br />
they all want to achieve the same thing - a better,<br />
more equitable world for everyone.<br />
Elsie<br />
advertising@fawco.org<br />
6
PROFILE<br />
Helping Refugees<br />
Settle in the US<br />
Kristen Bloom, a member of<br />
FAUSA, could see that refugees<br />
arriving in the US were struggling,<br />
so she set up a non-profit to help<br />
them.<br />
I grew up in North Adams, Massachusetts. I lived<br />
in the same house from the day I was born until<br />
the day I left for college. I loved living in my small<br />
town. We didn’t have much family in the area, so<br />
our friends became our family. I loved going to<br />
school with the same kids my whole life and<br />
always seeing someone I knew at the grocery<br />
store. I didn’t realize how special that was until I<br />
left. My dad owned a stained-glass restoration<br />
studio which often hosted visiting artists from<br />
around the world. Because the studio was in our<br />
backyard, the artists frequently stayed at our<br />
house for periods.<br />
When I look back on my childhood, I think a lot<br />
about the times spent with these visiting artists. I<br />
remember my friends coming over and thinking it<br />
was strange that we always had people from<br />
around the world living with us, but I thought it<br />
was so cool! Meeting all of those artists really<br />
sparked in me a love of connecting with others<br />
and getting to know someone who is “different”<br />
than me. That desire for connection has stayed<br />
with me and is the main reason I started my own<br />
non-profit.<br />
Leaving home<br />
Kristen Bloom<br />
I left home when I was 18 to go to college at<br />
American University in Washington, D.C. My<br />
parents moved to CA during my sophomore year<br />
of college. I was heartbroken to say goodbye to<br />
my childhood home. I still consider North Adams<br />
my home and always will.<br />
I studied abroad in Santiago, Chile during my<br />
junior year of college and was lucky enough to<br />
have the opportunity to visit both Brazil and<br />
Argentina during that time. After graduation, I<br />
served as a Youth Development Peace Corps<br />
Volunteer in Peru where I lived in a rural<br />
community at 8,000 feet of elevation and worked<br />
in the schools and health center.<br />
From Peru, I came back to the United States<br />
briefly to get married, and four days later, my<br />
husband and I flew to Okinawa, Japan where we<br />
lived for four years. I taught ESL in Japan. We<br />
absolutely loved it there! My husband is an Officer<br />
in the Air Force. We have moved nine times in the<br />
past 16 years – quite a contrast from my<br />
childhood! We have also lived in Oklahoma, Texas,<br />
Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Although<br />
challenging in many ways, I never could have<br />
imagined how much moving around so much<br />
would enrich my life.<br />
My life today<br />
Kristen with her family<br />
I currently live in Tampa, Florida with my<br />
husband, eight-year-old son, five-year-old<br />
7
that drives my work. Leveling the playing field<br />
toward the balance of justice is something that<br />
deeply motivates me.<br />
Where did it start?<br />
I have always been concerned with fairness. As a<br />
kid I remember my mom always saying “even<br />
Steven” so maybe that’s where I got it! I see this<br />
concern for fairness in my kids, too. Although at<br />
times it drives me crazy (e.g. arguing over who got<br />
more treats), I see their sense of justice coming<br />
out in positive ways, too.<br />
Our family on vacation<br />
daughter and our two cats (who we got in Japan!).<br />
This is our second time living in Florida with the Air<br />
Force. The first time was in Miami and while living<br />
there, I started a non-profit organization called<br />
Refugee Assistance Alliance (RAA). RAA helps<br />
refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa<br />
learn English and navigate their new lives in the<br />
US. Starting over can be overwhelming, isolating<br />
and lonely, especially in a new language and<br />
culture, so we pair refugees with local volunteers<br />
and have seen many incredible relationships form<br />
from these pairings.<br />
Although we do not live in Miami anymore, I still<br />
run the organization. My husband and I are both<br />
from the North, so we think it’s funny that our<br />
whole Air Force career has been in warm climates.<br />
New England is my happy place, but I don’t think I<br />
could survive there anymore! We have been in<br />
Tampa for two years, and we really love it here.<br />
We love living in a place where we can be outside<br />
365 days a year.<br />
My eight-year-old won a pair of tickets to the zoo<br />
and asked me if he could give them back to school<br />
because “we already have a membership, and<br />
some kids have never been to the zoo.” Parenting<br />
books advise that our kids will not remember what<br />
we say, but they will always remember what we<br />
do. In that moment I felt this so strongly. I can talk<br />
about fairness and justice all day, but it is the work<br />
they see me doing every day that is really teaching<br />
the lesson.<br />
Getting involved<br />
I think I have always looked for ways to help the<br />
underdog – either a person or group I felt was not<br />
getting what they deserved. As a Peace Corps<br />
Volunteer, I focused most of my efforts on helping<br />
young girls in my community because I saw so<br />
many of them not going to school or getting the<br />
same opportunities as their brothers.<br />
When I met some Syrian refugees in Miami, I was<br />
shocked to hear they were not getting the services<br />
they were entitled to just because they don’t speak<br />
English or Spanish and didn’t know how to access<br />
those services. I was compelled to help because it<br />
didn’t feel fair. I didn’t want them to feel isolated<br />
My definition of justice<br />
I think of justice in terms of fairness and respect.<br />
For me, justice goes hand in hand with equity and<br />
recognizing that we are not all starting out from<br />
the same place. Just because someone is given<br />
additional assistance does not imply that it is<br />
unfair or unjust: not everyone is afforded the<br />
same resources from the outset.<br />
I am constantly thinking about how life<br />
circumstances play such a key role in access to<br />
opportunity. It is something that really struck me<br />
while living in the rural mountains of Peru where<br />
so many of the families I worked with lived in<br />
poverty. Thinking about access to opportunity and<br />
how it is affected by life circumstances is a concept<br />
With some of the RAA refugees<br />
8
or without assistance, so I established a non-profit<br />
organization to help them learn English and to<br />
navigate their new life in the US.<br />
Concerns for today<br />
My biggest concern today revolves around my<br />
work with refugees. Refugee resettlement in the<br />
United States has always had bipartisan support<br />
and, in fact, more refugees have been admitted<br />
under Republican Presidents than Democratic<br />
ones. However, in the past four years, refugee<br />
resettlement has become very politicized.<br />
The refugee admissions cap, traditionally around<br />
100,000 per year, was slashed from 85,000 to<br />
15,000 between FY2016 (Fiscal Year) and 2020,<br />
which gutted and dismantled the resettlement<br />
system. The US has always been a leader in<br />
welcoming refugees and offering a safe haven<br />
from the atrocities they have suffered. We have<br />
been a beacon of hope for so many.<br />
However, when refugee admission becomes a<br />
political matter, it has a profoundly negative<br />
impact on so many individual lives. I think that the<br />
government should pass legislation to create a<br />
fixed refugee admission cap, so that these<br />
innocent people are not caught in the middle of a<br />
political battle.<br />
Injustice issues today<br />
Many readers are probably familiar with the fact<br />
that we are in the middle of the worst refugee<br />
crisis in history right now, but one thing they<br />
Taste of Syria event<br />
might not know is that of the 26 million refugees<br />
worldwide, less than 1% are actually offered<br />
resettlement worldwide.<br />
The US typically takes the most vulnerable cases,<br />
yet the majority of refugees coming to our country<br />
only receive assistance for three to six months;<br />
they are then left on their own even though many<br />
still cannot speak our language or navigate their<br />
lives! Can you imagine?!<br />
On top of that, refugees entering the US start their<br />
life in debt because their plane ticket to the US is a<br />
loan. Refugees have been through more in a few<br />
years than most of us experience in a lifetime.<br />
They do not expect to come to the US to find life<br />
even more difficult and isolating.<br />
A life goal I have!<br />
I tell everyone my goal in life is to meet Michelle<br />
Obama. Although I do have other goals, I would<br />
love to meet her. If any readers out there know<br />
her, please introduce me! I love her authenticity.<br />
At my non-profit organization, we often say, “it’s<br />
harder to hate up close.” I believe this to my core,<br />
and it is the main reason I have dedicated so<br />
much of my career to cross-cultural<br />
understanding and really getting to know people<br />
for who they are. I think so many of our<br />
differences could be resolved if we only took the<br />
time to listen and get to know someone from the<br />
“other” side.<br />
I would ask Mrs. Obama how we could connect<br />
people to help them really understand someone<br />
who is “different” from them. I’m ready to help<br />
make those connections, to help people discover<br />
our shared humanity.<br />
Waving a magic wand<br />
At an Refugee Assistance Alliance event<br />
I wish I could magically be in more than one place<br />
at once – or at least travel anywhere I want at any<br />
time. Through my many moves and travels<br />
around the world, I have met some really<br />
incredible people who have had a profound<br />
impact on my life. Although I love exploring new<br />
9
places, it can be really hard to start all over<br />
somewhere. This is the main reason I felt<br />
compelled to help the refugees I met. Although I<br />
have never experienced the trauma they have<br />
been through, I do know a lot about having to<br />
start over. It is hard and can be so lonely and<br />
isolating. I have many people all around the world<br />
who I love dearly, and I wish I could magically see<br />
them any time I want.<br />
Pulling silly faces<br />
We’re Inspired.<br />
Former AWA Vienna and current FAUSA member, Janet Darrow, is one of<br />
the hottest real estate agents in Southern California! And FAWCO is so<br />
fortunate to have her support. Janet pledged 5% from her<br />
commissions on any transaction that closes because of a FAWCO<br />
referral to the FAWCO Target Project, “Project S.A.F.E.”.<br />
With her recent donation of $5,000, Janet has personally donated<br />
close to $10,000!<br />
10
PROFILE FEATURE<br />
The UN Sustainable Development<br />
Goals and Justice<br />
Katja Malinowski, AWC Berlin member, explains how important justice<br />
is in the context of the SDGs.<br />
Justice for all<br />
The adoption of this global commitment to<br />
promote access to justice for all and a stand-alone<br />
commitment to gender equality and the<br />
empowerment of women and girls (SDG 5) were<br />
revolutionary. These goals recognize that there<br />
can be no justice for all without justice for<br />
women. Equal and effective justice for women<br />
and girls provides a foundation for more<br />
sustainable and inclusive patterns of<br />
development and is essential to reaching the<br />
furthest behind. Among the 12 targets for SDG 16,<br />
there are six gender-specific indicators.<br />
Every year I ask my students which SDG they<br />
believe to be the most important one; many of<br />
them immediately say SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and<br />
Strong Institutions. One of my inspiring students<br />
explains that SDG 16 is like a moral compass for<br />
all other goals. Any and all development is only<br />
moral and sustainable if it builds on just and<br />
equitable systems. It’s at the heart of the “leave<br />
no one behind” mission because strengthened<br />
institutions are only valuable when everyone has<br />
equal access to them. Essentially, all plans for<br />
progress in achieving the goals by 2030 rely on<br />
the right institutions for implementation and<br />
systems for maintenance. When those institutions<br />
and systems aren't equitable and are weak,<br />
advancements and plans will achieve little.<br />
Adopting SDG 16<br />
When all 193 UN member states adopted the<br />
2030 Agenda in 2015, they included SDG 16, a<br />
goal that seeks to create peaceful, just and<br />
inclusive societies. Such an overarching ambition<br />
was unprecedented as it was not included in the<br />
Millennium Development Goals, predecessor to<br />
the SDGs. However, there was no clear path to<br />
how this aspirational goal should be implemented<br />
and no agreement on how to turn it into an<br />
agenda for action.<br />
11
ole in preventing conflict and forging and<br />
maintaining peace and justice; this is why it is<br />
crucial to bring women to the peace table to back<br />
their engagement as mediators, negotiators and<br />
signatories. Yet, women are still excluded from the<br />
formal peace processes. And if women do raise<br />
their voices against injustice and human rights<br />
violations, they often pay with their lives.<br />
The global challenges we face today all come with<br />
an ethical and moral dimension from climate<br />
justice to vaccine justice. How can we achieve a<br />
sustainable world and overcome the challenges of<br />
COVID-19 if we don’t ensure equality and equal<br />
access to vaccines, especially for those in<br />
developing countries?<br />
The importance of SDG 16 for FAWCO<br />
Although feminist movements around the world<br />
have achieved a significant transformation in<br />
women's legal rights over the last century, we are<br />
regularly confronted with the harsh reality that the<br />
laws that exist on paper do not translate to<br />
equality and justice. Without fair and effective<br />
institutions to access justice and essential services,<br />
instability and injustice spread and discrimination<br />
is exacerbated. In both developing and developed<br />
countries, institutions continue to fail women and<br />
girls, especially through impunity for genderbased<br />
violence. This is precisely why SDG 16 plays<br />
such a central role for FAWCO. These issues are<br />
close to FAWCO’s heart as we can see in many<br />
global initiatives and the Target projects.<br />
What can you do?<br />
One of my favorite quotes that is associated<br />
with Robert F. Kennedy says: “Some men see<br />
things as they are, and ask why. I dream of<br />
things that never were, and ask why not.” On<br />
behalf of FAWCO’s SDG Awareness Team, I ask<br />
us all to take action now! Will we really live in a<br />
peaceful and just world if we achieve all 17<br />
goals? We can only hope so. By fully protecting<br />
women's rights, peaceful and inclusive societies<br />
will be within reach. “There can be no<br />
sustainable development without peace [and<br />
justice] and no peace without sustainable<br />
development.“ (https://<br />
sdgs.un.org/2030agenda)<br />
COVID-19 Impacts<br />
The impacts of COVID-19 have proven how fragile<br />
women’s rights and safety really are, with much of<br />
the previous progress reversed. This is especially<br />
apparent when we look at the intensification of<br />
domestic violence during lockdown and how it has<br />
become a shadow pandemic within the pandemic.<br />
Too often women endure injustice but women are<br />
far more than merely victims; they are essential<br />
agents of change.<br />
Justice is central to the effort to help women<br />
become equal partners in decision-making and<br />
development. Without justice, women are<br />
disenfranchised and disempowered. But with<br />
strong legal and justice systems, women can<br />
flourish and contribute to the advancement of<br />
society as a whole, including by helping to improve<br />
those very same systems for future generations.<br />
The role of women in the recovery<br />
<strong>Women</strong>’s full and equal participation will be crucial<br />
as the world turns it around and builds back<br />
better from the pandemic. This is attributed in<br />
part to a faster response by women leaders and<br />
greater emphasis on social and environmental<br />
well-being over time. Likewise, women play a vital<br />
Katja Malinowski is a<br />
teacher at an international<br />
school in Berlin where she<br />
puts the SDGs at the core<br />
of her teaching as<br />
TeachSDGs Ambassador<br />
and newly appointed<br />
Advocate for SDGs and<br />
Education for Sustainable<br />
Development by the Global<br />
Schools Program, an<br />
initiative of the UN<br />
Sustainable Development<br />
Solutions Network in support of UNESCO’s Global<br />
Action Program on Education for Sustainable<br />
Development (ESD). She is a member of AWC Berlin<br />
and is a co-leader of FAWCO’s SDG Awareness Team,<br />
alongside Alexandra Vo/De Jager (FAUSA) and<br />
Meredith Mani (AWC Amsterdam) who are equally<br />
passionate about raising awareness for the SDGs and<br />
the Decade of Action and creating ripples of<br />
transformative change in the FAWCO community.<br />
12
PROFILE<br />
“Changing the<br />
World, One<br />
PowerPoint Slide<br />
at a Time!”<br />
Sue England, member of Munich<br />
International <strong>Women</strong>'s Club, tells<br />
us about her life and work<br />
running sessions on human rights<br />
law for women.<br />
Sue England<br />
I am Welsh by birth, but my family lived in<br />
England where I went to school. Looking back, I<br />
was very lucky to go to a very academic all-girls<br />
school, I do not envy the young women now,<br />
having to go to mixed schools and put up with so<br />
much abuse (in June, there was big report on how<br />
bad it is in all mixed schools in the UK). I loved<br />
finding out about the world, history and<br />
geography and got seduced by the idea of law.<br />
A lot of the family had spread round the world, so<br />
I felt part of the world, as well as seeing the<br />
difference between Welsh and English cultures. A<br />
really important thing was taking the opportunity<br />
to learn Russian, with a woman who had been a<br />
refugee from St. Petersburg in the Second World<br />
War. This gave me a real way to touch another<br />
culture, and her experiences of the war were<br />
terrifying. Touching real history, I will never forget<br />
all that. Of course later it gave me the opportunity<br />
to study the law and economics of the post-Soviet<br />
system and work for the EU in Ukraine.<br />
Leaving home<br />
I went to university at 17, no gap year for me (!),<br />
studied law and became an attorney in short<br />
order. I thought it was great and I enjoyed total<br />
independence. After a few years in the UK<br />
learning the trade, (see the baby lawyer setting off<br />
to some meeting), I wanted to see more of the<br />
world and went to study international law and<br />
economics in Belgium, with students from all<br />
over. New country, new culture, it was wonderful.<br />
Working in international law<br />
Then I was able to work for a legal firm<br />
specialising in European Union law in Brussels,<br />
and began to feel like a real European, in that<br />
multi-national, highly political city. EU law is a type<br />
of international law: this meant I could go on to<br />
work in other countries, which I did, the US and<br />
then Ukraine, because the wall had come down<br />
and it was fascinating to see the changes really<br />
happening, in Kiev and Moscow. Another swing<br />
took me through Scotland (where I met my<br />
German husband at the university at which we<br />
both worked), Switzerland and now Germany,<br />
teaching law. Now, I’m living with him in Bavaria, I<br />
am semi-retired and have plenty of time to work<br />
with FAWCO and other women’s organisations.<br />
Early days as a young lawyer<br />
13
Working on Human Rights with FAWCO<br />
I work on the Justice and the Human Rights Team<br />
running sessions on Human Rights Law for<br />
<strong>Women</strong>, for non-lawyers. This began in February<br />
2019 from MIWC and then moved online, because<br />
of COVID-19. Now it’s all gone truly international,<br />
we are on Series Seven and women come from<br />
inside and outside FAWCO, they hear about it<br />
through the grapevine. <strong>Women</strong> have come from<br />
everywhere in the world, Canada to Australia,<br />
Columbia to India and all places in between.<br />
beginning to change then, and as a young liberal<br />
woman I got many abused women as well as gays<br />
and people who were trans coming to me, they<br />
feared prejudice from the older, mainly male<br />
lawyers. This was the time when women began to<br />
go into the legal profession in bigger numbers, but<br />
many of the older judges and lawyers were very<br />
sexist. Some even made a fuss about women<br />
wearing trousers in court (!) and all sorts of silly<br />
stuff. I got to take cases for women using the new<br />
domestic violence laws and also to help set up a<br />
<strong>Women</strong>’s Refuge, which were new in the 1980s. It<br />
was hard stuff to see, but so necessary. In one<br />
case I was commended for bravery by a judge, for<br />
trying to help a heavily pregnant women and<br />
putting myself at risk of assault from her husband.<br />
I think a lot of the male lawyers did not want to go<br />
there, but they learned a bit, slowly. The system<br />
for protection is still inadequate in most countries.<br />
Getting involved in women’s justice issues<br />
On a Zoom call<br />
There are so many highly qualified and<br />
experienced women and when we are all together<br />
we can exchange information and create many<br />
new ideas together. It’s a really good networking<br />
thing. <strong>Women</strong> find it really useful for campaigning,<br />
they grab useful legal rights and new ideas and go<br />
back home with them. I call it my attempt to<br />
‘Change the world, one PowerPoint slide at a time!’<br />
The Autumn Series has recently started and lasts<br />
until Christmas. The 60 minute live sessions are<br />
available mornings or afternoons to cover as<br />
many time zones as possible and it’s free of<br />
course! Everybody is welcome you just have to<br />
sign up! Email me at wettergruen@gmail.com for<br />
more details and the registration details.<br />
What is justice?<br />
We will have justice when women are treated with<br />
the same consideration and fairness as<br />
men. When women have the same financial and<br />
economic power as men. We are a long way off.<br />
Getting interested in the field of justice<br />
I was interested enough in the idea of justice to<br />
train as a lawyer, but as well as doing commercial<br />
work, I saw the push in the 1980s to begin to<br />
tackle domestic violence. The laws in the UK were<br />
Once I went to live and work in Brussels, I worked<br />
for big business clients on commercial and trade<br />
issues. My feminist interests switched to systemic<br />
cases of disadvantage for women, as the<br />
European Union was in the forefront of pushing<br />
through better policies and laws for women<br />
workers, equal pay, better pensions, and better<br />
maternity policies. These policies were far in<br />
advance of what the UK would have done on its<br />
own and several of the other European countries<br />
were pushed into having more women friendly<br />
laws than they would have done on their<br />
own. Getting it all actually working fully of course<br />
is still an ongoing process.<br />
What does the future hold?<br />
The most really frightening new thing is the<br />
focused effort to shut down women’s voices on<br />
the Internet and political life. <strong>Women</strong> are fighting<br />
this in the courts now, as so many political parties,<br />
politicians (usually male) are uninterested or<br />
actively colluding with this. It’s crucial of course,<br />
women must have freedom of speech and access<br />
to the media and social media. As I write in June,<br />
there has been a very important success in a case<br />
in the UK to protect women’s rights to free speech,<br />
which should stop the regression. The decision<br />
should have an effect internationally in the next<br />
couple of years, and the first thing is women need<br />
to get out there and use their voices again and not<br />
let them be shut down another time!<br />
But of course the biggest problem is the same old,<br />
same old, violence of so many kinds against<br />
women. The UN Secretary-General Guterres said<br />
in early 2020 , “Violence against women and girls is<br />
the most widespread human rights violation”.<br />
A role for women<br />
If we really want change, women have to get ‘not<br />
nice’. <strong>Women</strong> have to stop putting others first. I<br />
see so often women still do. Rule one, when I have<br />
14
got what I need, then you can ask me to help<br />
you. <strong>Women</strong> are not to be pushed to the end of<br />
the policy queue as usual.<br />
There is currently a huge upwelling of women’s<br />
activities and new organisations are being<br />
created, because of the backlash against<br />
women’s rights that is going on, all over the<br />
world. It’s a shame so many powerful<br />
movements want to obliterate women’s rights,<br />
but it’s woken many women up.<br />
The COVID-19 effect<br />
The damage to women’s jobs and financial<br />
independence from the COVID-19 crisis pushed<br />
women back to their homes and made it harder<br />
to combine work and caring, whether they<br />
simply lost their jobs or were disadvantaged<br />
when they had to work at home compared to<br />
men. It’d bad in Germany, but also, nearly as bad<br />
in other countries too.<br />
A couple of extra things about me:<br />
1. I would love to be one of those people who<br />
can magically pick up languages, knew one or<br />
two people like that, it was quite astounding to<br />
see. But it never rubbed off on me. Learning<br />
languages is hard work for me.<br />
2. One of my most treasured possessions is a<br />
wonderful bright sculpture made from fabric and<br />
embroidery that I bought from a craftswomen in<br />
Ukraine. It cheers me up completely.<br />
15
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18
FEATURE<br />
Introducing the FAWCO<br />
Human Rights Team<br />
Karen Castellon, member of AWC Berlin, explains how the FAWCO<br />
Human Rights Team works.<br />
Human Rights this was (originally signed on<br />
December 10, 1948).<br />
Over time the Human Rights Team has evolved to<br />
include the committees on:<br />
• Ending Violence Against <strong>Women</strong><br />
• FAWCO Refugee Network<br />
• Political Empowerment for <strong>Women</strong><br />
• Economic Empowerment for <strong>Women</strong><br />
• Ending Human Trafficking.<br />
The FAWCO Human Rights team comprises 30+<br />
members from five regions and is chaired by<br />
Karen Castellon, AWC Berlin. Ann Birot-Salsbury<br />
(AAWE Paris) and Ulrike Naeumann (Heidelberg<br />
IWC) lead the FAWCO Refugee Network.<br />
The FAWCO Human Rights Team is a network of<br />
advocates from FAWCO clubs, working to ensure<br />
human rights for all women. The Team keeps<br />
members aware of developments impacting<br />
women’s rights through human rights articles,<br />
postings, and other advocacy work. We also<br />
engage FAWCO Members in awareness and action<br />
campaigns, particularly the 16 Days of Activism<br />
against Gender-based Violence. Our goal is to<br />
leverage FAWCO’s unique strength as a global<br />
women’s organization to help end violence and<br />
discrimination against women and girls.<br />
The Human Rights Team meets on a monthly<br />
basis (except in July and August) to build<br />
community with a focus on human rights issues of<br />
the day. By knowing each other better, we hope<br />
to foster a diverse range of voices to articulate<br />
and discuss, learn and debate, and grow as<br />
human beings who endeavor to improve the lives<br />
of others who may not enjoy freedom of their<br />
human rights.<br />
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, Gender<br />
Equality, is the chosen SDG for the Human Rights<br />
Team, while we fully acknowledge that all the<br />
SDGs pertain to human rights.<br />
The Human Rights Team is open to all FAWCO<br />
Members wherever they live.<br />
Click here to find out more.<br />
Karen Castellon is a<br />
native New Yorker (Staten<br />
Island). After college she<br />
moved to Venezuela to<br />
become fluent in<br />
Spanish. Following a brief<br />
career marketing blood<br />
pressure machines, she<br />
earned an MBA at the<br />
Darden School (University<br />
of Virginia). She became<br />
an executive coach after<br />
10 years working in<br />
corporate America.<br />
Karen moved to Berlin,<br />
Germany in 2016 with her family; highlights<br />
include biking the path of the former Berlin Wall and<br />
chairing USA Girl Scouts Overseas. As AWC Berlin's<br />
FAWCO Rep., she coached many FAWCO Foundation<br />
grant applicants and enjoys chairing the fierce<br />
activism of the Human Rights Team. She recently<br />
repatriated to Virginia, USA.<br />
As a tradition, the Team promotes an annual<br />
reading of the United Nations Declaration of<br />
19
PROFILE<br />
Organizing the<br />
<strong>Women</strong>'s March<br />
in Norway<br />
Karin Blake, member of AWC<br />
Oslo, has been involved in politics<br />
from a young age. Here she tells<br />
us more about her life journey.<br />
I grew up in Atlanta, GA though my family was not<br />
originally from the South. My parents moved<br />
there before I was born when my father got a job<br />
as a medical epidemiologist at the CDC (Centers<br />
for Disease Control and Prevention). He spent his<br />
career investigating outbreaks of disease all over<br />
the world.<br />
All four of my grandparents were Methodist<br />
missionaries in Africa. My mother’s parents left<br />
Norway for Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), where my<br />
mother was born. My father’s parents left the<br />
American Midwest for Angola where my father<br />
lived many of his childhood years.<br />
Growing up in Georgia<br />
You can’t grow up in Georgia without thinking<br />
about race, and I first started thinking about it<br />
when I was 10 years old. In 5th grade, I was<br />
accepted to a new magnet school for highachieving<br />
kids across DeKalb County, GA.<br />
In our county, most of the white kids lived in the<br />
With my twin brother, Andrew, and friend, Sarah in 1992<br />
north, while most of the black kids lived in the<br />
south. So one of the goals of the school was to<br />
have an integrated student population, and there<br />
were countless discussions on what percentage of<br />
students should be white, black and other<br />
minorities. But even in an integrated school, the<br />
teachers found that we still segregated ourselves<br />
into groups according to race.<br />
At one point the teachers noticed that we tended<br />
to sit only with students of the same race in the<br />
cafeteria. So they required us to sit in integrated<br />
groups at lunch. I have thought a lot about my<br />
experiences at that school (which I attended<br />
through 8th grade) in light of all of the current<br />
discussions about race, police brutality, equal<br />
representation, and voter suppression.<br />
Leaving home<br />
Karin Blake Granå<br />
I attended a small, liberal arts school outside<br />
Philadelphia, Haverford College, where I majored<br />
in History. In 1997, I attended the International<br />
Summer School at the University of Oslo and I felt<br />
the pull to return to Norway after graduating from<br />
college in 1999. The plan was to spend a year in<br />
Bergen, then go to law school in the US. But I<br />
stayed for two and a half years and attended<br />
courses at the University of Bergen – first in the<br />
Scandinavian Area Studies program, and then at<br />
the Law Faculty. I lived in a dorm with<br />
international students, and I loved it. I also<br />
happened to meet my future husband there.<br />
When my student visa ran out, I went back to<br />
Atlanta for 14 months where I worked in a law<br />
office and planned our wedding. We married in<br />
2003 and have been living in Norway permanently<br />
ever since.<br />
20
Early years of marriage<br />
We moved a lot in the first years of our marriage<br />
while my husband was completing his medical<br />
training. I had my hands full with two little boys.<br />
We added a third boy to the mix in 2012. Our sons<br />
are now 9, 15 and 17.<br />
Having taken a break from working outside the<br />
home when my oldest was born in 2004, I started<br />
my own business, Stavanger Kids Sale, in<br />
Stavanger, Norway in 2008, which I continue to<br />
run to this day. This is a consignment sale through<br />
which parents can sell and buy gently used<br />
clothes, gears, toys and more for their kids. I<br />
arrange two weekend sales a year – in the spring<br />
and fall. During COVID-19, we modified the sale by<br />
selling items in an online pop-up shop. The<br />
customers purchased the items online then picked<br />
up their orders outside our sale location.<br />
I love my job as it gives me the flexibility to work<br />
from home and be there for my kids. It also<br />
means I have time to devote to volunteer work. It<br />
is a fulfilling job as I help families earn money on<br />
the items their kids have outgrown, and also save<br />
money by purchasing gently used items at bargain<br />
prices. We are teaching our kids to think of the<br />
environment and that it is okay – and cool – to buy<br />
second hand.<br />
I worked in Human Resources at NATO’s Joint<br />
Warfare Center in Stavanger in 2010-2011. But<br />
since we moved to Oslo in 2011, my focus (aside<br />
from my family) has been on my sale and my<br />
volunteer work.<br />
Our family, 2019<br />
Joining AWC Oslo<br />
I joined American <strong>Women</strong>’s Club of Oslo in 2011<br />
and quickly became active in the club. Rena Levin<br />
and I became good friends when we served<br />
together on the board from 2013-2015 – Rena was<br />
President, and I was first VP. Rena and I have since<br />
volunteered together with Democrats Abroad<br />
Norway, PAAL, and <strong>Women</strong>’s March Norway. We<br />
have the AWC of Oslo to thank for bringing us<br />
together. In fact, three of the five people who<br />
organized the first women’s march in Oslo met<br />
each other through the AWC!<br />
What is justice?<br />
Justice means that all people should be able to<br />
have a life of dignity and to reach their full<br />
potential regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual<br />
orientation, religion, age, or the community in<br />
which they live. I also believe that justice means<br />
that everyone should have access to quality health<br />
care, education, and a healthy environment.<br />
Early connections to the Justice world<br />
I come from a politically engaged family and have<br />
been passionate about politics since elementary<br />
school. From an early age, I believed that to<br />
achieve justice we needed competent and caring<br />
people running the government. We discussed<br />
politics at the dinner table. I proudly wore a<br />
Mondale/Ferraro sticker to school in the second<br />
grade. I went with my family to put leaflets in<br />
mailboxes for a candidate for Congress.<br />
Working at Stavanger Kids Sale<br />
The church I attended from birth – North Decatur<br />
Presbyterian Church – also shaped my views on<br />
justice. The progressive congregation at NDPC is<br />
deeply committed to justice and service. I<br />
participated in the Hunger Walk and served food<br />
at homeless shelters. The announcements during<br />
the weekly services always included ways to<br />
become politically active (marches, protests, letterwriting<br />
campaigns) and volunteer opportunities to<br />
21
help families in need. They didn’t just talk the talk,<br />
they walked the walk.<br />
Making a Difference<br />
My interest and participation in justice issues took<br />
off in high school. I was bitten by the campaign<br />
bug at age 15 after completing an internship for a<br />
US Congressional candidate. When he lost the<br />
Primary election, I spent my weekends in the city<br />
volunteering for the Clinton/Gore campaign,<br />
handing out stickers and leaflets at local events,<br />
and phone-banking. I recognized the power of<br />
each vote. I couldn’t yet vote but I could convince<br />
others to vote for my candidates. And that’s how I<br />
could make a difference.<br />
One of the most formative experiences of my life<br />
was working on Comer Yates’ US Congressional<br />
campaign in 1994. I was only 17, but Comer<br />
entrusted me with a lot of responsibility both in<br />
the office and at campaign events. It was this<br />
experience that taught me how to network,<br />
organize, and plan events – skills that I use in my<br />
current job running a children’s consignment sale,<br />
as well as in all the volunteer work I do. Comer<br />
and his wife, Sally, believed in me, gave me<br />
confidence in myself and my abilities, and were<br />
supportive of all my endeavors. They both have a<br />
strong commitment to social justice and to serving<br />
the community, and to this day, they continue to<br />
inspire me to keep on fighting for what I believe in.<br />
With my mentor, Comer Yates in 2019<br />
A passion for politics<br />
My passion for politics and justice has not waned.<br />
I returned to the US to participate in one large<br />
protest there – the <strong>Women</strong>’s March on<br />
Washington in January 2017. But since living in<br />
Norway, I have found new ways to contribute and<br />
make a difference through volunteer work in Oslo.<br />
For example, I am involved in the Progressive<br />
Americans Action League (PAAL) in Oslo. We are<br />
engaged in local Norwegian community issues as<br />
well as US and international politics.<br />
Campaigning in Norway<br />
The <strong>Women</strong>’s March, Norway<br />
I sit on the board of <strong>Women</strong>’s March Norway.<br />
(WMN). Together with five other women, we have<br />
organized three large marches in Oslo since 2017<br />
as well as a workshop to help other groups use<br />
social media to promote their causes. Our focus is<br />
on promoting equality, justice, and human rights<br />
worldwide while also drawing attention to the<br />
ways in which Norway could improve its standing<br />
in these areas. We use our platform to promote<br />
other groups whose ideals align with ours, and we<br />
participate in the Oslo Pride parade, the<br />
International <strong>Women</strong>’s Day march, in addition to<br />
other protests and marches in Oslo.<br />
I remain very interested in US politics, and were I<br />
living in the US, I would be working on campaigns.<br />
Through Democrats Abroad Norway (DAN), I have<br />
done phone-banking to help mobilize Democrats<br />
living abroad to vote in the elections, and I have<br />
volunteered at DAN events. I recently chaired the<br />
Nominations and Elections Committee which ran<br />
the board elections for Norway.<br />
Working on the WMN team<br />
One reason that our <strong>Women</strong>’s March Norway<br />
team works so well together is that we divide up<br />
the work according to our strengths. As a team,<br />
we generate ideas and plan events. But I am<br />
specifically in charge of making videos and<br />
graphics for social media and posters as well as<br />
developing our overall social media plan (including<br />
advertising and promoting our events). I gave a<br />
talk about graphic design at our social media<br />
workshop. I am extremely detail-oriented, so the<br />
team is happy for me to take on these tasks!<br />
22
them where they are. Many migrants and refugees<br />
are leaving their countries due to war,<br />
persecution, severe poverty, and climate disasters.<br />
Seeking asylum is a human right, and, in my<br />
opinion, sending money isn’t a solution to this<br />
humanitarian problem.<br />
What would I change from the past?<br />
Marching at the Pride Parade<br />
Event planning<br />
I am an event planner by profession so these skills<br />
come in handy when I plan the AWC of Oslo’s<br />
American Christmas Market. Leading up the event,<br />
I spend my days communicating with vendors,<br />
scheduling volunteers, promoting the event on<br />
social media, and making sure everything will run<br />
smoothly. This past year we were unable to have<br />
an indoor market due to COVID-19 so I put the<br />
market online, customers picked up their items<br />
outside the location where we hold our indoor<br />
Christmas Market. We set up a raffle and bake<br />
sale outside to raise money for the scholarship we<br />
give every other year and for the Oslo Crisis<br />
Center. Despite COVID-19, we made it work!<br />
Can I erase COVID-19? While we have been stuck<br />
at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, I have<br />
thought a lot about all of the things I have done in<br />
my life. And fortunately, I have few regrets. I am<br />
very thankful for my education, my friends and<br />
family, the traveling I have done, and the<br />
experiences I have had. I am happy with my life in<br />
Norway, and so glad that (outside of COVID-19) I<br />
have the chance to travel back to the US one or<br />
two times a year to see family and friends and<br />
show our kids my home country. I do my best to<br />
let people know how much they mean to me and<br />
how much I appreciate them. I am looking forward<br />
to seeing my family in the US again, hanging out<br />
with friends, participating in all of my usual<br />
activities (including many with my AWC friends),<br />
going to concerts, and traveling.<br />
What would I change about me?<br />
If I could, I would clone myself. There are so many<br />
things I want to do and many more ways in which I<br />
would like to offer my time and skills. But there<br />
are only so many hours in a day, and I do not get<br />
enough sleep as it is.<br />
My biggest concerns today<br />
I am very concerned about the rise of extremism<br />
and the spread of disinformation not only in the<br />
US but around the world. It is frustrating that so<br />
many people distrust the government, do not<br />
believe in science, and argue that climate change<br />
is not real. Grassroots organizing is the key to<br />
educating people and mobilizing them to vote so<br />
that we have the best representation in<br />
government – from local races like the school<br />
board all the way up to President.<br />
I am also worried about the measures many state<br />
governments are trying to put in place to restrict<br />
voting access. It means that we will need to fight<br />
that much harder to get these voters to the polls.<br />
Injustices in Norway<br />
While Norway tends to give generously to the<br />
international community, I have been<br />
disappointed in their response to the refugee<br />
crisis in Europe. Here, too, there is a rise in<br />
extremism, Islamophobia, and anti-immigrant<br />
sentiments. There is a segment of the population<br />
that thinks that instead of allowing refugees to<br />
come to Norway, we should give money to help<br />
At the <strong>Women</strong>’s March in Washington<br />
23
FEATURE<br />
Stand Up with Hope<br />
— Five Years Later<br />
Mary Adams, member of AWC The Hague, co-wrote a book, Hope is the<br />
Thing with Feathers, as part of a FAWCO-led symposium in Human<br />
Trafficking. Five years on she looks back on the experience.<br />
In 2016, FAWCO and the FAWCO Foundation<br />
jointly sponsored the Stand Up Against Human<br />
Trafficking Symposium in The Hague in support of<br />
the 2013-2016 Target project. Johanna Dishongh,<br />
Target Chair, and I designed and managed the<br />
event with Coordinator Julie Mowat and the<br />
support of FAWCO club members.<br />
My-Linh Kunst was the emcee for presenters on<br />
sex trafficking. She had an idea to create a<br />
companion book called Portraits of Hope. We<br />
discussed the idea with author Robin Goldsby and<br />
the book was born. I was the project manager to<br />
develop/conduct interviews. Teresa Mahoney<br />
(AWC The Hague) led the creative team for design.<br />
The book was self-published with the help of<br />
sponsors Johanna Dishongh and Dr. Donna<br />
Adams. Hope is the Thing with Feathers was an<br />
instant success during the Symposium.<br />
After the Symposium, the book gradually faded<br />
into the bookshelf. However, the impact it had on<br />
me became even stronger. I eventually founded<br />
Sustainable Rescue Foundation. I am still in<br />
contact with most of the Symposium speakers. I<br />
24
ealized that their stories hadn’t ended. Why<br />
should the book? Would it be possible to republish<br />
and re-launch the book?<br />
Recently I (MKA) interviewed My-Linh (MLK) and<br />
Robin (RGM) to talk about our experiences in<br />
creating the book and share the impact of the<br />
FAWCO Symposium in human trafficking five<br />
years later.<br />
The Concept<br />
RMG: The original title of the book was Portraits of<br />
Hope. It was an accurate title, but it seemed cliché.<br />
I stumbled across the Emily Dickinson poem and<br />
thought this is exactly what we are talking about!<br />
How fleeting and elusive hope can sometimes be,<br />
like birds and feathers that drift away and come<br />
back to you.<br />
MKA: That gave me the idea to use the image of<br />
survivors holding feathers.<br />
RMG: Little did we know that My-Linh had a<br />
problem with handling feathers!<br />
The Impact on Us<br />
MLK: I had never met an actual survivor. They<br />
didn’t look like what I had imagined. What I saw<br />
was women of all ages. After the Symposium, I got<br />
more involved in preventing sex trafficking. I am<br />
now the regional advisor for Germany for an<br />
organization that works with Vietnamese<br />
trafficking victims in Europe. Reading the book<br />
and donating is a great way to engage and make a<br />
difference.<br />
RMG: The story about the hotel workers really<br />
opened my eyes. How could a hotel room could<br />
be rented out for a single day with one woman<br />
servicing thirty-five clients? I work in the<br />
hospitality industry. I play piano in a luxury hotel<br />
where the staff takes care not to confront guests.<br />
Now I wonder how many hotels have trafficking<br />
awareness training programs. Awareness and<br />
engagement are the two takeaway words from<br />
reading the book.<br />
The Pictures<br />
RMG: We need to be aware that trafficking<br />
happens and that it continues to grow as a global<br />
problem. My-Linh’s pictures give a face to human<br />
trafficking.<br />
MLK: The book represents an entire spectrum of<br />
faces. Policymakers and academia were<br />
comfortable to strike a pose, however not so for<br />
the social workers. I remember the two mentors<br />
from the Amsterdam care facility were shy at first,<br />
but eventually relaxed in front of the camera.<br />
Most of the survivors were not at all comfortable<br />
being photographed.<br />
The most memorable shoot for me was with three<br />
survivors at the Rotterdam safehouse who were<br />
willing to show their faces. There was one survivor<br />
from Albania who just bloomed as she became<br />
comfortable in front of the camera. I enjoyed<br />
seeing that gradual empowerment.<br />
MKA: The caseworker at the Bijlmer -<br />
Bridge2Hope project arranged for seven Nigerian<br />
survivors to be interviewed and photographed.<br />
When we arrived, a few women were clustered<br />
around the caseworker. Initially, they wanted<br />
nothing to do with us. It took time, but eventually<br />
some of the women agreed to be part of the<br />
project if we did not show their faces.<br />
MLK: I remember that shoot. I felt bad holding my<br />
camera because it seemed like exploitation. I<br />
didn’t expect to get any pictures that day. But<br />
25
when it finally happened, it was magical.<br />
MKA: One of the Nigerian survivors is now on the<br />
staff of Bridge2Hope Academy, and has posted<br />
My-Linh’s photographs on their website as a<br />
symbol of hope. In 2020, the Academy was<br />
awarded a development grant. In fact, another<br />
featured social worker and social entrepreneur in<br />
the book, Not for Sale, was awarded a<br />
development grant in 2019. Both nominating<br />
clubs, AWC Amsterdam and AWC The Hague,<br />
continue the philanthropic relationships.<br />
Hope is the Thing with Feathers will be launched<br />
with the upcoming Human Rights in Focus<br />
online event November 4-7, as an e-book. It<br />
will be available from the FAWCO website with<br />
a suggested minimum donation of $20 per<br />
copy. The money raised will be used to fund a<br />
FAWCO human rights development grant.<br />
Click here to get the book.<br />
Robin Goldsby is an<br />
author and Grammynominated<br />
lyricist, and<br />
member of AWC Cologne.<br />
As a Steinway Artist, she<br />
is a cultural ambassador<br />
with artistic ties to both<br />
Europe and the USA. Robin<br />
has presented her<br />
reading/concert program<br />
for numerous FAWCO<br />
clubs worldwide.<br />
www.goldsby.de<br />
26<br />
Mary Adams worked<br />
for 25 years in<br />
management<br />
consulting. In 2015, she<br />
left consulting to<br />
become more involved<br />
in human rights for<br />
women. She was<br />
FAWCO Foundation VP<br />
of Fundraising from<br />
2015 – 2017. Currently<br />
she is Director and<br />
Founder of Sustainable<br />
Rescue Foundation and<br />
a member of AWC The<br />
Hague.<br />
My-Linh Kunst is a<br />
former two-term<br />
FAWCO President and<br />
member of AWC Berlin.<br />
A published and<br />
exhibited<br />
photographer, she also<br />
works as an adjunct<br />
professor in business<br />
administration. She cofounded<br />
FAWCO's<br />
Ending Violence against<br />
<strong>Women</strong> Task Force<br />
(2008), and co-chairs<br />
the Human Rights in<br />
Focus FAWCO Event to be held in November <strong>2021</strong>.
PROFILE<br />
From Pastry to<br />
Protests<br />
Lindsay Nygren, member of AWC<br />
Central Scotland, started in<br />
restaurant management but<br />
today works with the YWCA in<br />
Scotland developing safer cities<br />
for women.<br />
Lindsay Nygren<br />
I grew up in Tucson, AZ as an active child. I was<br />
involved in numerous sports and activities from<br />
ballet, tennis, and swimming to helping at the<br />
church with my mom. For most of my life it’s been<br />
my mom and me. She always ensured I went after<br />
what I wanted and encouraged me to follow my<br />
passions, even if I suspect they probably scared<br />
her at times.<br />
I remember my first taste of international travel<br />
and volunteering. I was 15 in high school and<br />
there was a presentation for Amigos de las<br />
Americas. It piqued my interest to travel to<br />
Central America and live with a community to<br />
As a young girl at our ranch in Mexico<br />
support their chosen project. The summer of<br />
2009 I traveled to Honduras to live with a host<br />
family and teach about environmental<br />
sustainability in the elementary school. For five<br />
weeks I had no contact with my mom or the<br />
outside world, so it came as a surprise when the<br />
coordinator told us we were being evacuated due<br />
to a military coup! I made it home safely and this<br />
experience contributed to opening my world view<br />
and was a jumpstart to my desire to be more<br />
culturally aware.<br />
Leaving home<br />
I attended university at New Mexico State<br />
University where I studied hospitality<br />
management with a focus on culinary arts and<br />
restaurants. During this time, I had the<br />
opportunity to study abroad for two semesters in<br />
South Korea and a summer in Florence, Italy in an<br />
intensive pastry program. I worked at a local<br />
restaurant and cafés back home both in the<br />
kitchen and in marketing before deciding to<br />
pursue a master’s degree. Since then, I have lived<br />
in Ireland and France, constantly working with the<br />
universities to support international and minority<br />
students as an ambassador and mentor.<br />
As an international student myself, I know the<br />
struggles of culture shock and coming into a<br />
community or culture without knowing a friendly<br />
face. While in Ireland, I worked as a teacher’s<br />
assistant in the business school, as a resident<br />
assistant in the international dorms, and for<br />
Education in Ireland to promote Ireland as a study<br />
destination for foreign students. Interacting with<br />
students daily was a highlight of my day, and I<br />
loved getting to know about their cultures and<br />
experiences of being abroad.<br />
27
Starting early!<br />
Me during my Korean Culinary Scholarship<br />
Time for a change<br />
After being in restaurant management I realized<br />
that I needed to be more involved in change. I<br />
have always loved volunteering and being involved<br />
in my community because of the diverse missions<br />
I could help with and the people I would meet. I<br />
found I devoted more of my energy to promoting<br />
equal access opportunities as a volunteer than I<br />
ever did in my restaurant work.<br />
I changed paths and enrolled in the Education,<br />
Public Policy, and Equity master’s program at the<br />
University of Glasgow in 2019 where I focused on<br />
discrimination within education. I have continued<br />
this research as a PhD and am focusing on racial<br />
and cultural discrimination in higher education.<br />
My mom tells me that even as a kid I had a strong<br />
sense of what was fair. This ingrained feeling has<br />
propelled me to be involved in different roles with<br />
the strongest taking shape through international<br />
education. I was always surrounded by a culturally<br />
diverse community. My family is from Mexico, with<br />
my mom being first generation American, so I<br />
grew up appreciating the different cultures that<br />
make up the US. I had a fascination with anything<br />
international, so I jumped at the chance to go<br />
abroad with a purpose in high school. My need to<br />
be involved came as a response to witnessing the<br />
unfair treatment of those who are foreign. I never<br />
saw a just reason for why some of my classmates<br />
were treated differently or ignored for not being<br />
from the US or not being able to communicate as<br />
easily in English. This was the catalyst that started<br />
my passion for international education and<br />
inclusion work.<br />
Getting involved<br />
My first step towards being involved in justice was<br />
by chance. A presentation at my high school led to<br />
my becoming part of a larger organization focused<br />
on sustainable projects within Central and South<br />
American communities. Since that first<br />
independent trip to Honduras, I have been<br />
focused on community inclusiveness and<br />
belonging. Experiencing culture shock and<br />
overcoming it through the warmth of my host<br />
community helped me to thrive and since then I<br />
have made it a personal mission to stay involved<br />
in the international community, whether that has<br />
been refugees, asylum seekers, or international<br />
students. All have received acts of injustice and<br />
discrimination, and I am passionate about<br />
overcoming these through involvement in a<br />
positive education process.<br />
For the past 10 years I have served as an<br />
ambassador and mentor to international and<br />
minority students. Currently I am working with<br />
YWCA – Scotland to make Glasgow a safer city for<br />
women through feminist town planning. In<br />
between this project, academic research, and<br />
FAWCO, I still take every chance to explore more<br />
of Scotland (when traveling is allowed!).<br />
What is justice?<br />
I’ve always considered myself to have a strong<br />
sense of what’s fair. In my definition of justice, I<br />
must associate it with equity and fairness. Justice<br />
to me is the action of treating everyone with<br />
fairness, dignity, and respect, regardless of their<br />
race, gender, sexuality, or socioeconomic status. I<br />
believe that justice can really only be achieved<br />
when both sides come together without<br />
underlying conditions or personal reasoning to<br />
treat one another differently to gain an upper<br />
hand or advantage.<br />
As student ambassador in Ireland<br />
28
abroad has given me an appreciation for other<br />
cultures and experiences. I believe that how we<br />
perceive and teach culture is essential to promote<br />
understanding and widen individual perspective<br />
beyond our own.<br />
Daily life<br />
I’ve learned through my involvement in justice that<br />
no task is too small or insignificant. I like being<br />
involved, whether as a greeter in COVID-19<br />
vaccine clinics, or helping international students<br />
adjust to their new settings, or volunteering my<br />
time and energy to causes with organizations such<br />
as FAWCO and the YWCA. I have learned the<br />
importance of connections and being involved in<br />
my communities because it gives me an insight<br />
into the most essential needs. Activism for justice<br />
isn’t just a one-off commitment. It takes daily<br />
dedication and an openness to learning and<br />
evolving those actions that will achieve sustainable<br />
justice. With my research on discrimination and<br />
involvement in minority communities in Glasgow,<br />
I’ve taken a more critical perspective of my daily<br />
life. I try to be aware of my surroundings and not<br />
just accept things because it’s the way they’ve<br />
been done for years.<br />
What would I change about me?<br />
Dressed for Diwali<br />
What next?<br />
The future looks full of possibilities, but not<br />
without its hurdles. This past year alone has seen<br />
massive amounts of protests and action taken by<br />
minority groups to address injustices of the past<br />
that are still embedded in our societies. I’ve also<br />
seen a rise in nationalism, which is worrying to me<br />
because of the strain is has caused among local<br />
and refugee communities in the UK. Working with<br />
the YWCA and COP26, I am excited for what this<br />
year will bring and that we can work to overcome<br />
these issues. I feel hopeful that with the YWCA we<br />
will be able to bring attention to women’s issues<br />
that have been largely sidelined for not being<br />
viewed as important enough. Our focus this year<br />
is on addressing town planning to create a safer<br />
and more women-friendly environment in the city<br />
of Glasgow and partnering with the COP26<br />
conference to address climate change.<br />
I would have a louder voice! I feel that for what I’m<br />
involved in and how much I want to change, I<br />
should have had a louder, more commanding<br />
voice. I’m naturally soft spoken, so even when<br />
making presentations, it can be hard for me to<br />
raise my voice. If I could magically make it so I<br />
didn’t have to struggle to be heard that would be<br />
amazing. I see my voice as essential to the<br />
activism I am engaged in so having it be louder<br />
and stronger would further positive changes.<br />
The role of culture<br />
I think culture can be two-sided in defining justice<br />
depending on the individual’s interpretation and<br />
experiences. Culture strengthens perceptions and<br />
I’ve found that you can be proud of your own<br />
culture, and either accepting or unaccepting of<br />
others. The concept of nationalism is growing<br />
globally alongside a rapidly globalizing world<br />
which is causing friction. I have found that living<br />
<strong>Women</strong>’s Day in Edinburgh<br />
29
FEATURE<br />
Legitimation Station<br />
Lauren Mescon, member of AWC Amsterdam, explains how the<br />
Legitimation Station came about.<br />
I believe that we, as women, seeking to be better<br />
and do better than our male counterparts, must<br />
treat men as we wish they had treated us from<br />
the beginning.<br />
In Georgia, if a child is born out of wedlock, there<br />
is no legal relationship between father and child.<br />
That means neither the father nor child can<br />
inherit from the other and the father has no right<br />
to custody or parenting time. Nor does his family.<br />
An order of legitimation is the only way that the<br />
father of a child born out of wedlock can be<br />
recognized as the legal father of that child. While<br />
both parents can sign a voluntary<br />
acknowledgement of legitimation at the hospital,<br />
that does not establish custody or parenting time.<br />
In my decades of family law work, there were<br />
many times when a father, as the primary<br />
caretaker of the child(ren) was left legally<br />
powerless when the mother got angry, had drug<br />
or mental issues, or decided to move on, and took<br />
the children.<br />
A Dad in Georgia<br />
After working as a divorce and custody lawyer and<br />
serving as a Family Court judge, I relocated to<br />
Columbus GA, a city of about 200,000 and home<br />
to Ft. Benning, the US Army Maneuver Center of<br />
Excellence (including Infantry and Armor). I began<br />
volunteering at Head Start Centers, a few days a<br />
week. One of the most stellar parents was a father<br />
who always brought his son to school, and<br />
showed up for every volunteer opportunity. The<br />
child was always well-mannered and well-dressed.<br />
In a word, adorable.<br />
One day, I received a frantic phone call from the<br />
director of the center informing me that the child<br />
had not been in school for several days and the<br />
father did not know how to find him. Instinct told<br />
me this father had never legitimated his child, and<br />
upon questioning the director, that suspicion was<br />
confirmed. Whenever the mother needed more<br />
money or got angry, she pulled the child from the<br />
center and threatened to withhold him unless the<br />
father complied. This child was four years old and<br />
had lived like this since birth.<br />
The Legitimation Project<br />
I approached the Chief Judge of the<br />
Chattahoochee Circuit with an idea – let’s create a<br />
Legitimation Project, one in which fathers could<br />
file the necessary papers to legitimate their<br />
children. Many of these cases impact those<br />
without the financial means to hire lawyers to<br />
legitimate their children yet it is shocking how<br />
many men did not know they had no rights. I went<br />
on an awareness raising speaking tour to Rotary<br />
Clubs and churches and found that was the case<br />
across the board.<br />
I should have known something was up when the<br />
judge said “that’s a great idea…go for it!”<br />
Ultimately the Legitimation Station was born.<br />
Making it happen<br />
For the next year, we met with stakeholders –<br />
probate court judges, superior court judges, legal<br />
aid lawyers, child support officers and social<br />
workers.<br />
We drafted and redrafted forms, finally settling on<br />
a set of forms and step by step instructions on<br />
how to use them.<br />
30
Funds were set aside by the Superior Court for the<br />
six courthouses in our circuit to have computers<br />
so fathers could access the forms and file the<br />
cases themselves. In Columbus, the largest<br />
county, we set up an office which was staffed<br />
three Fridays per month so that the fathers could<br />
get assistance with the forms.<br />
The first case<br />
My first case was the father from Early Head Start<br />
I had met years before. Fast forward six-years<br />
later when I was involved in a Circles USA<br />
program (https://www.circlesusa.org/) which<br />
fights poverty by allying someone coming out of<br />
poverty with involved members of the<br />
community. One evening, we had a session with a<br />
local church and who walked in? The father and<br />
his son. After legitimation, the father had gained<br />
custody and had clearly done a fabulous job<br />
raising his son. It was so nice for me to come full<br />
circle and see the results of what he had started.<br />
And for him to know what he had inspired.<br />
Today, the Legitimation Station is still operational<br />
throughout the Judicial Circuit and the<br />
Chattahoochee Family Law Center is still open<br />
three Fridays per month, staffed by volunteers.<br />
Lauren with colleague graduating from the Circles<br />
Program<br />
Lauren Mescon graduated from Emory University<br />
School of Law in 1979, passing three bar exams –<br />
Colorado, Maryland and Georgia, and spending the<br />
majority of her career as a Family Law Attorney. She<br />
also had the privilege of serving as a Family Court<br />
Judge. She was a certified mediator and a guardian ad<br />
litem—advocating for children. She trained<br />
practitioners in Collaborative Divorce nationally and<br />
mediation locally. In 2014, she helped take the<br />
concept of Collaborative Divorce to Cuba.<br />
31
PROFILE<br />
Working to<br />
Support Refugees<br />
Ann Birot-Salsbury, member of<br />
AAWE Paris and Co-Chair of the<br />
FAWCO Refugee Network (FRN),<br />
tells us how she got involved.<br />
Ann Birot-Salsbury<br />
I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Pittsburgh,<br />
Pennsylvania where the population was virtually<br />
all WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant). At that<br />
time, the city and surrounding suburbs were<br />
clearly divided by class, religion and race. My<br />
mother was a repressed activist who I would call a<br />
key mentor for me.<br />
Perhaps from her subliminal messages, I realized<br />
that there was more to life than hanging out at<br />
the country club with people who looked like me.<br />
When my parents divorced in the early 70s, I saw<br />
first hand how overnight my mother lost all her<br />
status. Even though she had had plenty of credit<br />
cards when she was married, she could not get<br />
one once she was divorced. Together we lived the<br />
feminization of poverty, moving from the family<br />
house in an upper-middle-class suburb to a<br />
flimsily built town house in a middle-class suburb<br />
right next to a working-class neighborhood. At<br />
the same time my father moved to a city<br />
neighborhood that was undergoing gentrification<br />
and was mixed race and mixed class.<br />
I saw my mother, who had virtually no work<br />
experience (except as a volunteer President of an<br />
inner city Child Care Center that served a diverse<br />
population) because my father did not want her<br />
to work, pick herself up and get a Master’s degree<br />
that led to her becoming a counselor for both<br />
displaced homemakers (the term used in that<br />
period for post war brides who were<br />
homemakers, did not have outside paid jobs and<br />
were later divorced) like herself and for dislocated<br />
steel workers. She made her mark in what was<br />
truly a man’s city. I am very proud of her as well<br />
as inspired by her, determination despite<br />
frequent bouts of doubt.<br />
Leaving home<br />
Like my mother and my grandmother before her,<br />
I attended and graduated from Vassar College.<br />
There I majored in economics. This was my first<br />
real step away from home. And to make this<br />
experience a bit different, I spent my junior year<br />
abroad at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. I<br />
call it that because it felt like going abroad;<br />
everything was so different for me.<br />
My sister was in a serious relationship with an<br />
Australian man who she later married after<br />
moving with him to Australia, so I became curious<br />
about Australia. As a first step towards Australia, I<br />
moved to San Francisco after graduating from<br />
Vassar.<br />
With my Mom and Eliza Doolittle, our dog, in 1965<br />
32
I lived in San Francisco for two-and-a-half years,<br />
working as an internal auditor before making the<br />
leap at age 25 to living in Australia to be closer to<br />
my sister. With virtually no non-profit work<br />
experience, I was hired to run fundraising for<br />
Amnesty International Australia. Through this<br />
experience, I learned a lot about human rights<br />
violations in different parts of the world, including,<br />
my home country, the US. I also learned what it<br />
was like to live abroad and, although grateful to<br />
have more time with my sister, in fact I was lonely<br />
and did not like being so far away from so many<br />
people I loved.<br />
With Patrice in Greece, 2010<br />
drawing inspiration from what Angela Merkel was<br />
doing in Germany. I realized that it must be a<br />
billion times more difficult for someone who is a<br />
refugee, with none of my resources, to live in<br />
France.<br />
So I got in touch with the AAWE office and, from<br />
that simple phone call, the AAWE community-wide<br />
Refugee Task Force began. It evolved into 11 nonprofits<br />
collaborating on projects with refugees. We<br />
became like a family, creating cultural and sports<br />
events, giving language tutoring and resources<br />
(appliances, furniture, clothes, money) new lives<br />
with people who really needed them.<br />
My life today<br />
MAESTRAPEACE, murals on The San Francisco <strong>Women</strong>'s<br />
Building, Juana Alicia, Edythe Boone, Miranda Bergman,<br />
Susan Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton and Irene<br />
Perez, © 1994, 2000, 2010.<br />
Back to the US and cupid strikes!<br />
After returning to San Francisco, I became the<br />
Development Director at The <strong>Women</strong>’s Building.<br />
This community center, to this day, models<br />
inclusivity and empowerment for all with their<br />
programming.<br />
In 2005, I was working for Wells Fargo Bank and<br />
went on an international leadership program.<br />
While in this program, I met my husband, Patrice,<br />
who is French and was living in Paris at the<br />
time. Our romantic relationship started in April<br />
2008 during a reunion of our leadership group in<br />
Paris. We can really say that it was a coup de<br />
foudre and that continues to this day!<br />
Finding a new project<br />
Patrice and I decided to make France our home.<br />
But I hit a real low after living in Paris for over five<br />
years and, not being fluent in French, feeling quite<br />
invisible. I started to think about refugees,<br />
In 2017 we moved out of Paris to Tours, and I<br />
stepped away from the Refugee Task Force. Today<br />
I focus on projects that interest me and where I<br />
think I can contribute to positive social change. I<br />
try to draw on my many years of program<br />
management with an international team, my<br />
experience as a trainer in non violent<br />
communication and mindfulness as well as my<br />
work as both an individual and a systemic coach. I<br />
tend to focus on projects that involve youth and/<br />
or refugees, as I believe they hold the answers to a<br />
positive future for all.<br />
I am a proud stepmother of two adult children, a<br />
stepson who is 40 years old, native to France and<br />
lives in Paris, and a stepdaughter who is 29 years<br />
old and lives in Hanover in her native country of<br />
Germany.<br />
During the pandemic, at 58 years old I took the<br />
opportunity to go back to school at the University<br />
of Tours, just down the street from my home. It<br />
was a bold move to improve my French. Needless<br />
to say, I was the oldest person in the class by<br />
almost 20 years, yet I loved it. It was like candy for<br />
me and opened up so many doors to challenging<br />
conversations in both French and English.<br />
33
My earliest mentor<br />
My mother was a tremendous role model, as well<br />
as a friend. She was always very supportive of<br />
everything I did, and willing to be vulnerable and<br />
confide in me when she had doubts about trying<br />
something new. My parents’ divorce began an<br />
awkward, painful and confusing time. I remember<br />
that my mother gave me Jonathan Livingston<br />
Seagull to read. At that time I was dealing with<br />
strong emotions around being different, imperfect<br />
by having divorced parents, and reading this book<br />
helped me to go easy on myself and to support<br />
others in doing so.<br />
What does the future hold?<br />
I focus strongly on humanizing people who we<br />
consider different from us. For example, I want to<br />
contribute to raising awareness about how we<br />
each carry racism and other-isms inside us<br />
because we live in a society that gives us regular<br />
messages to enforce them. Since George Floyd<br />
was murdered, this has become an international<br />
conversation.<br />
A WhatsApp call with the FRN team<br />
The importance of inclusion<br />
I relate more to the word inclusion than to justice<br />
yet I believe they have the same aim. I am<br />
fascinated by people and I believe that, if we really<br />
listen to each other, we can co-create the world.<br />
By deeply listening to each other, I believe we start<br />
to create a world that is more just for all.<br />
I continue to give time and energy in this domain<br />
because it is fruitful and very creative: for<br />
example, in 2017 when Clara Siverson (AAWE) and<br />
I met Grace Christovasilis (AWG Greece) and Kenia<br />
Guimaraes (AWC Brussels) in Paris over coffee, we<br />
started to dream of a FAWCO Refugee Network.<br />
Shortly thereafter it was born.<br />
These conversations are starting to happen even<br />
in France. It has been difficult to talk about race<br />
and racism in France because many misinterpret<br />
equality, as one of the values of the French<br />
republic, as meaning that we don’t talk about race<br />
and therefore we don’t talk about racism. In fact,<br />
many people think racisim doesn’t exist in France,<br />
but is solely a US issue.<br />
In France, many people put so much weight on the<br />
notion of treating people the same way that it<br />
denies any sense of difference and needs to relate<br />
to those differences. The result is that the<br />
structures are set up to support the dominant<br />
culture, which focuses on white, heterosexual<br />
men, raised in the Catholic tradition.<br />
I hope to help people start to see that difference is<br />
beautiful. If we can embrace differences and are<br />
open to conversation about equity we can help<br />
people who have fewer resources in a certain<br />
domain truly have equal opportunities, especially<br />
Today the FRN leadership includes Asma Darwish<br />
(AAWE) and Azadeh Khakhodazadeh (Heidelberg<br />
IWC), who each came to Europe as part of the<br />
recent refugee movement and are active FAWCO<br />
Members. Collaborating with these two women,<br />
along with Ulrike Näumann (Heidelberg IWC), is a<br />
truly enriching experience. In our small way, we<br />
are living the change that is happening in the<br />
world.<br />
An early AAWE Refugee Meeting with Anas<br />
34
in education and jobs. I am excited to have these<br />
conversations in hopes of helping both myself and<br />
others to see our blind spots and where we may<br />
be enabling inequities including unconsciously<br />
committing micro-aggressions.<br />
Applying justice to daily life<br />
I like to take time to know new people by sharing<br />
a meal together. For example, my husband and I<br />
gave a computer to Ghiass, a new friend and a<br />
refugee. We took time to prepare a special meal<br />
and to share it with him, and afterwards give him<br />
the computer. By giving this computer we felt like<br />
we were receiving a gift. We have a new friend and<br />
we transformed an idle computer to something<br />
dynamic and of use.<br />
A person I would like to meet<br />
Shirley Chisholm was the first African American<br />
woman to sit in the US Congress (1968) and to<br />
seek the nomination for president of the United<br />
States (1972). Her motto and title of her<br />
autobiography Unbossed and Unbought illustrates<br />
her outspoken advocacy for women and<br />
minorities during her seven terms in the US House<br />
Strings showing the connections our group made to<br />
support two Syrian families in Paris in the summer of 2016<br />
of Representatives. If I could meet her I would ask:<br />
“With all your life learnings how would you advise<br />
young women today to be an effective catalyst for<br />
positive societal change?”<br />
Why not advertise in <strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong>?<br />
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worldwide?<br />
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offer great rates and comprehensive packages for almost any<br />
budget.<br />
35
FEATURE<br />
What is Justice?<br />
Members of the FAWCO Human Rights Team explain what justice<br />
means to them.<br />
Karen Castellon,<br />
FAWCO Human<br />
Rights Team Chair<br />
AWC Berlin,<br />
Germany<br />
Justice is education,<br />
health care and an<br />
environment for<br />
all. But especially<br />
education, because it<br />
enables people to think<br />
on their own, make<br />
optimal choices for<br />
their lives, and create a<br />
better future for their<br />
families and communities. This is a fundamental<br />
human right for every human being. The Universal<br />
Declaration of Human Rights ratified on<br />
December 10, 1948, spelled out these<br />
fundamental freedoms and rights, .<br />
As a member of the FAWCO Human Rights Team, I<br />
have joined with others to read this Declaration<br />
aloud on its anniversary for the past few years.<br />
What an incredible experience.<br />
The Human Rights Team has helped me to focus<br />
on gender-equality questions of our day, which<br />
pervade everything in the world, to act to create a<br />
more just society where I currently live, and to<br />
influence lives in other countries. Contributing to<br />
another’s education by sharing fiscal resources is<br />
one way. Using our collective voices to<br />
communicate about ending violence against<br />
women, an issue in every stratum of society, is<br />
another way. This investment of time and energy<br />
has been uncomfortable in so many ways, yet life<br />
giving and hopeful even in the face of<br />
hopelessness, and I am grateful.<br />
Laurie<br />
Richardson,<br />
FAWCO UN<br />
Liaison, AWA<br />
Vienna, Austria<br />
Justice to me is the<br />
basis of all human<br />
social relations: social<br />
justice, gender<br />
justice, racial justice,<br />
climate justice.<br />
During the pandemic, we're reminded of the<br />
importance of health justice. Justice means<br />
fairness and equality. From each according to<br />
their ability, to each according to their needs. The<br />
first line of the Universal Declaration of Human<br />
Rights says: “the inherent dignity and the equal<br />
and inalienable rights of all members of the<br />
human family is the foundation of freedom,<br />
justice and peace in the world”.<br />
Mary Manning,<br />
Heidelberg IWC,<br />
Bensheim,<br />
Germany<br />
When I think about<br />
what a just world<br />
would look like, it<br />
starts with a legal<br />
system that is more<br />
than punishment of<br />
an individual, that respects the victim while<br />
recognizing that crime is often a societal disease<br />
bred from poverty, racism and misogyny, passed<br />
down through generations in our DNA. A just<br />
society would work to eradicate the disease, not<br />
merely treat the symptoms.<br />
But justice extends far beyond laws and norms. A<br />
just society would help all of its members realize<br />
their fullest potential, recognizing that the<br />
resources necessary to achieve that potential may<br />
differ for each individual.<br />
Therese Hartwell,<br />
FAUSA, Austin, TX,<br />
USA<br />
True justice would<br />
mean that all people<br />
have equal rights that<br />
are enforced and<br />
embraced, regardless<br />
of any way in which<br />
they are "other." While<br />
laws are important,<br />
ultimately justice is an inside job. By nature, all<br />
humans have unconscious biases and tend to be<br />
suspicious of and blame the “other.” Rather than<br />
expecting to have no bias, each of us must try to<br />
identify and move beyond our biases. External<br />
laws are very important, but, if we don’t do the<br />
36
internal work and attitudes of injustice remain in<br />
our hearts, they will rear their ugly heads again.<br />
Mary Dobrian, AIWC<br />
Cologne, Germany,<br />
FAWCO 3rd Vice<br />
President Global<br />
Issues<br />
By pure chance, I was<br />
given so much more<br />
than so many other<br />
people. I have thought<br />
about this since I was a<br />
small child. I am of white<br />
European descent; I was<br />
born in a developed country, with a loving family,<br />
enough money and access to a great education.<br />
But why should these factors, over which I have<br />
no control, give me more rights or freedoms than<br />
anyone else?<br />
For as long as I can remember, I have hated<br />
injustice, unkindness and cruelty. Every human<br />
being should have the right to live, learn, create,<br />
express themselves and experience joy. That is<br />
why I am a member of the Human Rights Team.<br />
No one of us can fix the whole world, but each of<br />
us can strive to do small things to make it better.<br />
Azadeh<br />
Kadkhodazadeh,<br />
Heidelberg IWC,<br />
Freinsheim,<br />
Germany<br />
Justice alone seems like<br />
a sweet and simple<br />
concept. At first,<br />
converting the word<br />
into action, may not be<br />
so simple for many!<br />
In any case, it is a beautiful that, in spite of all the<br />
unrest in the world today, there are still people<br />
who care about the well-being of others and do<br />
their best, not only in word but also in social<br />
behavior, to spread this to the whole world.<br />
May each of us be daily defenders of human<br />
rights, without borders, without despair, without<br />
expectations.<br />
Tharien van Eck,<br />
AWC Antwerp,<br />
Belgium, Target<br />
Program Chair 2019<br />
– 2022<br />
Female genital<br />
mutilation has become<br />
an issue in my life!<br />
Chairing the Target<br />
Project is an opportunity to create awareness<br />
about a significant human-rights abuse, to<br />
educate FAWCO Members on FGM, to give FGM<br />
survivors a chance to share their stories and to<br />
give voice to the girls of Hope for <strong>Women</strong> and<br />
Girls Tanzania, the Target Project.<br />
As a physician can become knowledgeable about<br />
FGM. But together, we as FAWCO Members can<br />
make a difference. We must become informed in<br />
order to become empowered. Let us it our<br />
business to help in the fight to eradicate FGM. We<br />
can't unknow what we know!<br />
37
38
PROFILE<br />
“Justice is Truth<br />
in Action”<br />
Kelsey McKay, member of FAUSA<br />
and founder of the non-profit<br />
organization RESPOND Against<br />
Violence, tells us about her work<br />
in the field.<br />
Kelsey McKay<br />
I was born in Florida, where both of my parents<br />
grew up. We quickly moved to Texas, then<br />
Australia (where we lived in Sydney and Perth),<br />
then England and Boston. In 1990 our family<br />
moved to Jakarta, Indonesia where we lived for<br />
eight years until I graduated from high school. I<br />
attended the Jakarta International School starting<br />
in the 5 th grade and was lucky to have a hold on<br />
moving through the end of high school. We would<br />
generally come home for three months during the<br />
summer, where I would get a taste of American<br />
life—going to the beach and making up dance<br />
routines with my cousins, shopping at a mall, and<br />
going to the same summer camp year after year.<br />
It was at that camp many years later that I met my<br />
husband. I always loved feeling like a typical<br />
American kid for a few months every year, but I<br />
always knew that I was different than everyone<br />
else because of the other nine months.<br />
Leaving home<br />
I left Indonesia after graduating from high school<br />
and moved to Austin, Texas, where I attended the<br />
University of Texas. It was an odd transition<br />
because while I looked like many of the girls<br />
around me, I couldn’t have been more different. I<br />
had never worn makeup, I didn’t know what a<br />
sorority or khaki shorts were, and I wore flip-flops<br />
year-round.<br />
During college, I really became engaged in<br />
learning and consuming information and<br />
processing my perspective and thoughts. I never<br />
took extracurriculars like sports or art—I always<br />
used extra hours to take classes or seminars that<br />
would make me think: epidemiology, presidential<br />
elections, the rhetoric of utopia, political<br />
philosophy, and so on.<br />
Finding my passion<br />
Me aged about four<br />
I struggled early on, not quite knowing what to<br />
study, trying economics, special education,<br />
journalism, government, statistics, and<br />
psychology. There was no major for changing the<br />
world, but I did manage to graduate with honors<br />
with a psychology degree where I focused on<br />
research, statistics, and how they were used to<br />
impact social issues. At the time, I didn’t realize<br />
that I had fallen into what would be my career.<br />
39
Today<br />
I live in Austin, Texas, with my husband, Jared and<br />
an (almost) 11-year daughter and (almost) nineyear-old<br />
son. After college, I was grateful to stay in<br />
Austin for law school, and then I just never left. In<br />
2005 I started working as a prosecutor and spent<br />
the next 12 years navigating the world of criminal<br />
justice and learning everything I could about<br />
violent crime, trauma and became a subjectmatter<br />
expert in asphyxiation-related crimes.<br />
Somewhere during that time (2010 and 2012), we<br />
had two children and started a real estate and<br />
renovation business! In the seven years before<br />
COVID-19 I was traveling a few times a month<br />
across the country, training and consulting with<br />
different agencies.<br />
What is justice?<br />
This is a question I ask a lot when I’m training<br />
police officers, attorneys or advocates—all who<br />
work to achieve justice. For me, personally, it<br />
means the validation of truth. The tagline for the<br />
non-profit RESPOND Against Violence I recently<br />
started is: “Justice is truth in action.” It’s difficult<br />
because it seems like such a simple concept, and<br />
an achievable goal—but with an uneven playing<br />
field that punishes survivors, it’s hard to do.<br />
Getting involved<br />
At first, I thought becoming a prosecutor was<br />
essentially a way to do volunteer work that I was<br />
passionate about but have benefits, a paycheck,<br />
and be an adult. I was doing “justice” every day, on<br />
every case to the best of my ability. Some days<br />
seemed more significant than others, like trials or<br />
verdicts that sent murderers, rapists, or child<br />
abusers to prison. But I started to see that my<br />
involvement or a verdict was not nearly as<br />
impactful on a victim or the broken system that I<br />
was working in. Over the years, I started to see<br />
routine injustice and failures that were ignored<br />
over and over again at the cost of people and<br />
With my family<br />
Me with RESPOND colleagues<br />
lives. At first, I always believed that victims were<br />
only hurt by criminals who abused them. In time, I<br />
learned that punishment often came from the<br />
trauma of the system that failed to protect them<br />
in a meaningful way.<br />
I spent years working on the local level, trying to<br />
fix the failures one by one, only to discover that<br />
most parts of the criminal legal system are very<br />
resistant to change on the systemic level. When I<br />
left prosecution, I was worried about the survivors<br />
that might not get justice but knew that<br />
meaningful change just could not occur one case<br />
at a time.<br />
Different perspectives<br />
I love learning about a different perspective. I’ve<br />
been lucky to be able to focus a lot of my energy<br />
on the very specific topic of strangulation and<br />
asphyxiation-related crimes, which has also forced<br />
me to understand the issues and challenges that<br />
surround this often-misunderstood type of<br />
violence. It has forced me to learn about aspects<br />
of crime that I would never have navigated. My<br />
expertise in the area has also given me the<br />
opportunity to think about the topic from every<br />
perspective. When you walk into an auditorium<br />
full of doctors, or police officers, or army generals,<br />
or defense attorneys, you have to understand<br />
their perspective to be able to teach them.<br />
Fifteen years ago, I discovered an issue: our<br />
community was not responding to strangulation<br />
crimes in a uniform or informed way. Since then,<br />
I’ve talked to anyone who would listen. First our<br />
cadet academy, then our paramedics and<br />
eventually the ERs, probation and parole boards,<br />
people on the plane next to me, and anyone who<br />
dares to sit next to me at a dinner party. As I<br />
40
on topics like crime, gender, and race, we have<br />
first to be informed by truth and accept that the<br />
reality for one person is not necessarily the<br />
experience of another. If we listen more,<br />
understand others, we can work together on<br />
issues. There is so much division in the world, and<br />
conversations are the bridge to working together.<br />
I worry that we don’t have enough voices on our<br />
side, and I’m discouraged that gender-based<br />
violence is seen as just a women’s issue—because<br />
women can’t make men stop abusing them. Only<br />
men can do that. But I find good men are often<br />
defensive on the topic. What I have discovered,<br />
through years of training in a male-dominated<br />
culture (policing) is simply that men don’t live in<br />
the same world as I do. Men don’t fear women the<br />
way women fear men. So when the first responder<br />
to a gender-based crime is a male with a gun—<br />
there is an automatic barrier, and it is the role of<br />
an officer (not a traumatized victim) to try to<br />
bridge that gap.<br />
found solutions, I have traveled the country to<br />
help the criminal system better respond to these<br />
crimes. Seeing that the same problem exists<br />
everywhere allows the solutions I’ve developed to<br />
be utilized universally.<br />
Rewarding aspects<br />
One of the most rewarding aspects has been<br />
conversations with survivors, especially those who<br />
exist in a world of sexual exploitation. Those<br />
conversations and relationships provide me an<br />
understanding of a world that originally motivated<br />
me to do this work. Growing up in Southeast Asia,<br />
I often saw children and women in vulnerable<br />
positions but lacked insight into how complex the<br />
situation was for them. It is the predators behind<br />
the shadows that force them to the front. Until we<br />
see in those shadows, we will continue to punish<br />
survivors. Talking to survivors and learning from<br />
them has taught me how to create policies that<br />
support safety rather than punish survival.<br />
Injustices that I see<br />
After seeing thousands of people victimized by<br />
violence and working with both survivors and<br />
those charged with crimes, I learned that the<br />
criminal legal system does not fulfill this definition.<br />
People are often defined by a defendant or a<br />
victim—without any context of their experience.<br />
As a result, victims who struggle to live through<br />
their situation are often criminalized for surviving.<br />
I see predators manipulate law enforcement,<br />
communities and judges and worry that our<br />
current system often empowers them by<br />
punishing victims. We need to humanize<br />
populations who face adversity and struggle, due<br />
to trauma, and penalize actual offenders who are<br />
What’s next?<br />
I hope the future holds a generation that<br />
prioritizes humanity and equality despite<br />
appearance and circumstances. I hope we see<br />
change that provides the vulnerable with a more<br />
consistent and reliable system to live in a safe<br />
world for themselves and their children. I’m<br />
encouraged by my colleagues around me, who I<br />
have found over the years who speak the same<br />
language as me and fight for justice in new ways.<br />
I often encounter defensiveness on issues where<br />
conversations and perspectives are the solutions.<br />
The way we speak to each other in this world<br />
becomes too adversarial (similar to the court<br />
system) and builds walls rather than bridges.<br />
Headlines are rarely informative or an effort to<br />
change the hearts and minds of society and<br />
encourage division and judgment. To shift culture<br />
Giving a presentation<br />
41
With my daughter<br />
Before COVID-19, I was traveling about 50% of the<br />
time. Since then, my days are a variation of<br />
helping a prosecutor, colleague, or police officer<br />
with a case; supporting a survivor or a family<br />
member understand the reality of the system they<br />
entered; meeting with colleagues from around the<br />
country to develop forward-thinking approaches,<br />
training, or policies; building power points;<br />
presenting virtually to conferences or<br />
communities; working on a variety of publications<br />
to make sure that practitioners have evidencebased<br />
research to support their work; making a<br />
smoothie; making sure the kids are alive; zoom<br />
meetings; taskforce meetings; reading journal<br />
articles; working on curriculums; scheduling<br />
conferences; creating resources without funding;<br />
trying to keep up with emails, requests; getting a<br />
phone call to deal with an emergency; making<br />
sure the kids did school; figuring out what to do<br />
for dinner. And then watching America’s Got<br />
Talent with the kids, and we all crash. Once in a<br />
while, I have time to wash my hair. Other days I<br />
use dry shampoo.<br />
dangerous and pose a risk to our safety. Right<br />
now, we see anyone who commits any type of<br />
crime as a criminal rather than making a<br />
distinction between people and dangerous<br />
criminals. As a result, survivors get caught up in<br />
the penal system as they navigate survival.<br />
The issues are layered and we have a system that<br />
silos every topic rather than dealing with the<br />
complexity. The root cause of addiction,<br />
homelessness and so many other issues is<br />
domestic violence and yet the conversation about<br />
prevention and accountability for that crime still<br />
remains silent.<br />
Policy needs to be evidence-based so that we can<br />
solve real problems with authentic solutions.<br />
Otherwise, we are just making the same mistakes<br />
over and over again and calling it a solution. When<br />
justice is attached to politics, power, or money – I<br />
see this all the time – avoiding transparency and<br />
accountability cover-up truth and progress. At<br />
RESPOND Against Violence, we hope to create<br />
sustainable change through proven practice.<br />
A typical day for me<br />
My days are absolute chaos. My eyes open and my<br />
immediate hope is that my body rested and slept<br />
well enough to take on the day. Regardless of the<br />
reality, the morning starts with coffee and a few<br />
deep breaths. I’ve almost stopped watching the<br />
news but usually wake up around 2:00 a.m. for an<br />
hour and read Heather Cox Richardson’s historical<br />
review of the day. I get a sweet kiss and smile<br />
from my son, an early bird, and I get to work. I<br />
always dream of taking things off my to-do list but<br />
rarely end the day with anything checked off.<br />
There hasn’t been a day in the last five years that<br />
I’ve been able to read every email, text, or<br />
voicemail.<br />
42
FEATURE<br />
“Justice is About Transformation”<br />
In <strong>2021</strong> Ascend: Leadership through Athletics was given a FAWCO<br />
Foundation Development Grant. Here those involved in the NGO tell<br />
us more about the organization and how it helps Afghan women.<br />
The idea to use sports to transform Afghan girls<br />
into independent, driven leaders who would<br />
improve their country came to Marina Kielpinski<br />
LeGree while she was shooting hoops with a<br />
group of them in Kabul in 2008. The founder of<br />
Ascend: Leadership through Athletics recalls the<br />
young Afghan women being average players, but<br />
quite courageous given that their ultraconservative<br />
society frowns on women engaging<br />
in sports.<br />
Marina ultimately chose mountain climbing as the<br />
Marina Kielpinski LeGree and Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, with<br />
Malang Darya, the first Afghan to summit Mount Noshaq in<br />
Kabul.<br />
sport on which she would focus and it made<br />
perfect sense in Afghanistan, which is full of<br />
dramatic peaks. She was also inspired by two<br />
Afghan men making it to the top of their country’s<br />
highest peak, Mount Noshaq in 2009. The<br />
mountain is 24,580 feet (7,492 meters), the<br />
highest peak on any continent outside of Asia. For<br />
comparison, Mount Everest, the world’s tallest<br />
mountain, is 29,032 feet (8,849 meters) high.<br />
Marina once told NPR about why mountain<br />
climbing was a good fit for her NGO: "It's a<br />
profound thing that's been missing for a while in<br />
Afghanistan throughout the war and chaos and<br />
everything else…. It doesn't mean the housewife<br />
who is in her compound in Kandahar is going to<br />
go start climbing mountains, but she will know<br />
another Afghan woman did it and that message is<br />
really important.”<br />
Club Berlin member,<br />
Soraya Sarhaddi<br />
Nelson about her<br />
plans. Soraya, who<br />
hosts the Berlin-based<br />
podcast talk show<br />
Common Ground, has<br />
won top journalism<br />
awards for her<br />
coverage of women around Afghanistan and their<br />
resilience and struggles. But a Gallup survey in<br />
2018 found nearly half of Afghan women want to<br />
leave their country. It is not just the war or<br />
economic hardship to blame; they want to be free<br />
from forced marriages, free to study and work,<br />
free to live the life they choose.<br />
At the time Marina contacted Soraya in late 2006,<br />
Soraya was an NPR foreign correspondent who<br />
had just opened the network’s first Kabul bureau.<br />
She and Marina had first met the month before at<br />
a dinner in Washington, D.C.<br />
Soraya was intrigued by what Marina was<br />
proposing: “How she planned to pull off<br />
something as expensive and exotic as mountain<br />
climbing or find Afghan families willing to let their<br />
daughters become mountaineers who would go<br />
on overnight expeditions in Afghanistan’s volatile<br />
countryside was beyond me, but having known<br />
Marina for nearly a decade at the time, I didn’t<br />
doubt she would,” she explains. Soraya pitched a<br />
series of radio and web stories about the unusual<br />
endeavor Marina was undertaking to her editors<br />
at NPR and they agreed.<br />
Early days<br />
And so in 2014, her NGO was born. The seed<br />
money was her savings from being an aid worker<br />
for IOM, the German development agency, GiZ,<br />
and a media trainer for ISAF, the international<br />
alliance that is leaving Afghanistan this summer.<br />
She contacted journalist and American <strong>Women</strong>’s<br />
Mount Noshaq straddles the Afghan/Pakistan border.<br />
Tajikistan is across the river in this “finger” of Afghanistan<br />
called the Wakhan Corridor that extends to the Chinese<br />
border. (July 2018)<br />
43
Early obstacles<br />
Building a team, developing Afghan trainers and<br />
organizing the program proved to be a struggle in<br />
Afghanistan, a country rife with corruption, where<br />
rampant poverty means the girls’ parents are<br />
primarily interested in what financial<br />
compensation allowing their daughters to be<br />
mountain climbers will bring. This was captured in<br />
the film, Ascending Afghanistan: <strong>Women</strong> Rising.<br />
But Marina and the young women overcame<br />
those obstacles and in 2018, Ascend team<br />
member, Hanifa Yousoufi, became the first<br />
woman to summit Mount Noshaq.<br />
Soraya, who was at base camp during the historic<br />
expedition, is currently writing a book about the<br />
work of Ascend.<br />
Also Soraya and Marina brought the Ascend film<br />
to AWC Berlin in <strong>September</strong> 2019. At the historic<br />
Astor Film Lounge located on Berlin’s famous<br />
Kurfuerstendamm boulevard, they and the<br />
American <strong>Women</strong>’s Club of Berlin hosted two<br />
events, including a matinee for teachers and<br />
students, which was also attended by a top<br />
German foreign ministry official. The audiences<br />
also spoke with several Ascend girls in a Skype call<br />
projected on the big screen.<br />
Many of the attendees say they came away deeply<br />
impressed and feeling connected to the young<br />
women they encountered.<br />
In <strong>2021</strong>, Ascend was awarded the FAWCO<br />
Foundation Development Grant. The NGO plan<br />
for “A Stitch in Time, Hope for Education Grant” is<br />
a “sports-for-health teaching curriculum for<br />
Afghan girls.” The grant helps to expand the<br />
Ascend physical fitness program and reach into<br />
the community by delivering a condensed<br />
curriculum in an illustrated booklet and poster in<br />
Dari, a key local language, that offers health facts<br />
and demonstrates the benefits of athletic activity<br />
for girls.<br />
(From left to right) AWC Berlin members Janel<br />
Schermerhorn, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Stephanie Biery,<br />
Ascend Founder Marina Kielpinski LeGree, and AWC<br />
member, Sandy Chen Kluth, outside the Ascot Theater in<br />
Berlin following a fundraiser for Ascend.<br />
Ascend team member Hanifa Yousoufi holds up an Afghan<br />
flag after reaching the top of Mount Noshaq. She is the first<br />
(and so far only) Afghan woman to summit the highest<br />
Afghan peak. (August 2018)<br />
What does a program for Afghan women<br />
look like?<br />
According to Ascend, to develop the young<br />
women in mind, body and spirit, participants are<br />
challenged to grow through a comprehensive<br />
program across five key pillars:<br />
•Physical fitness<br />
•Leadership<br />
•Mountaineering<br />
•Service<br />
•Mental health<br />
Each area is considered vital to a young woman’s<br />
growth. While mountaineering is one of the main<br />
activities, it is a commitment to overall physical<br />
fitness through regular workouts, yoga and hiking<br />
that keeps the girls together and moving. By fall<br />
<strong>2021</strong>, Ascend will have installed a rock-climbing<br />
wall in its new facility in Kabul, which is a first for<br />
the region.<br />
Leadership training includes preparing the girls to<br />
lead expeditions and become instructors via a<br />
certification track. Furthermore, the girls evaluate<br />
and make decisions regarding community needs<br />
and how to respond to them via acts of service. A<br />
core group of leaders initiated the Bamiyan winter<br />
festival, which had close to 1000 participants. The<br />
leadership and service components go hand in<br />
hand. For the mountaineering, the young women<br />
have participated in nearly 30 backcountry<br />
expeditions, including the one to Mount Noshaq.<br />
Where is justice in Afghanistan?<br />
Afghanistan is an incredibly challenging country to<br />
grow up in as a girl or woman. The cultural<br />
practices often impose strict gender segregation<br />
and restrict all facets of their lives, including<br />
education, healthcare, nutrition and security.<br />
Approximately 2.2 million school-are girls are<br />
unable to get an education, with only one fifth of<br />
girls under the age of fifteen being<br />
literate. Moreover, insecurity and violence have a<br />
disproportionate effect on young women.<br />
In May <strong>2021</strong>, a girls’ school in Kabul was fatally<br />
44
attacked at dismissal time. No organization<br />
claimed responsibility for a series of explosions<br />
that killed 85 people – mostly women -- and<br />
wounded more than 150 others. Such terror<br />
incidents are devastating for the community, and<br />
yet are a part of everyday life in Kabul.<br />
Currently one-third of Afghan girls marry before<br />
the age of 18 and never go to school; 17% marry<br />
before reaching the age of 15. As a result of child<br />
marriage, girls are less likely to participate in<br />
educational opportunities and face a higher<br />
likelihood of domestic violence.<br />
Mental health in the Ascend context means 100%<br />
of participants attend school and 80% continue at<br />
the university level. Many of the Ascend<br />
participants formerly attended the school that<br />
was targeted in May <strong>2021</strong> but had switched to a<br />
school that offered morning classes to girls so<br />
that they could free up their afternoons to<br />
participate in the Ascend program.<br />
that question does not even compute because<br />
nobody’s ever expected them to have hopes or<br />
plans for their future; their future is that they will<br />
get married when they’re told to get married and<br />
they’ll take care of a family. And we turn that<br />
upside-down and encourage them to really think<br />
for themselves and set goals and go for their<br />
dreams. When that switch happens, where<br />
partway into the program, the girls, after spending<br />
time with their teammates, realize, “I’m in a place<br />
where I’m valued and I’m somebody and I’m<br />
expected to be somebody even more”—when<br />
they take that onboard and really own it, that’s the<br />
transformation we’re after. It’s not specific to any<br />
particular student. It’s more just realizing the<br />
sense of self.”<br />
Girls’ rights are human rights. <strong>Women</strong>’s<br />
rights are human rights.<br />
Rather than treating them as victims, Ascend<br />
encourages Afghan girls and women to take<br />
charge of their narrative in this complex context<br />
and empower themselves through athletic<br />
endeavors. Ascend aims to develop young<br />
women to become leaders through service to<br />
their communities and learning the sport of<br />
mountain climbing. They also learn, through the<br />
expanded curriculum, about their own bodies and<br />
health so that they can make decisions for<br />
themselves and, in turn, educate their family<br />
members -- both men and women, many of<br />
whom are illiterate.<br />
So what does justice look like for an<br />
Ascend participant?<br />
Justice is about transformation. This from Marina<br />
in an interview with Preston Golson, a director at<br />
Brunswick: “When girls start with Ascend, we<br />
interview them. We always ask about their hopes<br />
and dreams and goals. And for a lot of the girls,<br />
Marina talking to the village elders in Qazideh, near the<br />
Noshaq trailhead. They were determined to keep her from<br />
taking the Ascend team up that mountain because they<br />
didn’t believe climbing was an appropriate activity for<br />
Afghan girls, but she persevered.<br />
What can you do?<br />
1. Support Ascend or an organization that offers<br />
life-transforming experiences to women in less<br />
developed countries.<br />
2. Remain aware and put pressure on your<br />
government representatives by contacting them<br />
(call, write, email) to advocate for programs that<br />
support women and education.<br />
3. Show the movie, Ascending Afghanistan:<br />
<strong>Women</strong> Rising and have a discussion with your<br />
club or your friends.<br />
4. Follow the United Nations Human Rights<br />
Council proceedings or attend the United Nations<br />
Commission on the Status of <strong>Women</strong> to learn<br />
more about the role advocacy plays in a civil<br />
society organization.<br />
Situation update: <strong>September</strong> 17, <strong>2021</strong><br />
The Ascend expedition at Noshaq base camp, located at<br />
15,500 feet. The Afghan girls collected and assembled the<br />
rocks that spell out “Ascend” in the background. (July 2018).<br />
The Ascend management team has been deeply<br />
engaged evacuating staff members and their<br />
families. 56 persons were successfully evacuated<br />
out of Afghanistan to Abu Dhabi, Denmark, the<br />
USA, Chile, Germany and soon, Ireland. Ascend<br />
continues to field offers of help from individuals<br />
in several countries, including France, who are<br />
willing to sponsor Afghans through the visa and<br />
resettlement process. To help in this process,<br />
contact SafeHomes@AscendAthletics.org or visit<br />
www.AscendAthletics.org<br />
45
PROFILE<br />
The Righting of<br />
Wrongs<br />
Wherever<br />
Possible<br />
Rena Levin, member of AWC Oslo,<br />
tells us about her journey into<br />
activism.<br />
Arlington is just outside of DC and it was a great<br />
place to grow up. I went to good public schools,<br />
had a big park and library a few blocks away,<br />
made many friends, and participated in lots of<br />
activities, but I realize now I did not fully<br />
appreciate it until I lived elsewhere.<br />
Friends in college detested high school. I had<br />
gone to an alternative program that emphasized<br />
student autonomy and loved it. I was also spoiled<br />
by the free museums. How fortunate I was to<br />
have had the Smithsonian in my backyard.<br />
When it comes to what impacted my childhood,<br />
that has to be the loss of my father when I was<br />
eight years old. His death was sudden and<br />
unexpected. I was sad when it happened and<br />
missed him, but the longer-term impact was that<br />
of being different. When asked about my parents,<br />
I would use the grown-up, matter-of-fact word<br />
“deceased” about my dad, but that never seemed<br />
to prevent the inevitable expression of sorrow<br />
and/or pity that would follow. This lasted for years<br />
and I hated it. I have been sensitive to the ways<br />
people can deviate from expected norms ever<br />
since then.<br />
Leaving home<br />
Rena Levin<br />
Wanting to study some distance away and if<br />
possible in Minnesota, the state I loved dearly<br />
from family visits, I was thrilled to be accepted<br />
early to Macalester College. It had the kind of<br />
profile a budding activist looking for a good<br />
education would be attracted to and did not<br />
disappoint. I got so much out of my time there<br />
and would have been happy if BA studies were<br />
five years instead of four.<br />
Among many things I carry with me from that<br />
time is a firm belief in the value of liberal arts<br />
education. I spent a semester in Norway in<br />
college. I wanted to see a social democracy in<br />
practice. While there I learned how it works and<br />
that reality does not always match the ideal.<br />
I also met a boy! Wanting to see how things would<br />
go, but in a way that would be good for me no<br />
matter what happened with him, I applied for a<br />
Fulbright grant and was accepted. The year in<br />
Oslo confirmed we were a good fit, gave me<br />
greater insight into Norway, and shifted my grad<br />
school interest from public policy to the<br />
interdisciplinary field of American Studies.<br />
After college<br />
With my husband Christian<br />
Ten years in the US was good for Christian and<br />
me. I got my master's degree and found<br />
employment in advocacy. Having confirmed that<br />
studying computer science was better than<br />
working as a programmer, Christian was able to<br />
start on a new career path. It was his getting a<br />
non-profit job that brought us back to Arlington,<br />
46
ut I was happy. Some high school friends were<br />
also back, a few from college moved to the area,<br />
and there were plenty of engagement<br />
opportunities. When home during college, I had<br />
helped fight a proposed Disney historical theme<br />
park by the Manassas Battlefield. Returning after<br />
grad school, I volunteered with a smart growth<br />
organization rooted in that campaign.<br />
Moving to Norway<br />
A family tragedy brought us back to Norway in<br />
2008. The transition was not easy. Thank<br />
goodness for AWC Oslo! Though advocacy is no<br />
longer my day job, I use some of the same skills<br />
and exercise my liberal arts brain working at the<br />
Fulbright office. Also, Christian and I are now<br />
active members of the Norwegian Green Party.<br />
Who could have predicted that?<br />
What is justice?<br />
My short simple definition is that it is the righting<br />
of wrongs. Though this redress is something I<br />
work for, justice is not a word I use much. I am<br />
more likely to talk about fairness and respect. This<br />
can be in law and policy, but also in social<br />
interactions and how we live our lives. Sometimes<br />
change is bottom-up, other times top-down.<br />
However change comes about, we are not where<br />
we want to be until it is reality throughout society.<br />
There is one area where I find the word justice<br />
useful. When preceded by a specifier, it is<br />
shorthand for issues being connected and a call to<br />
think broadly about causes and remedies. Gender<br />
justice, racial justice and climate justice are all<br />
things I work for, and they do overlap.<br />
First steps in activism<br />
My wonderful high school history teacher's<br />
mantra was "geography is destiny." I think that's<br />
true in more ways than one, including how my<br />
interest developed. Growing up in the DC area<br />
meant being surrounded by people who cared<br />
about political and social issues. My earliest<br />
With my husband Christian<br />
Dressed up for Halloween as Linda Greenlaw. Greenlaw was<br />
a swordfishing captain first made famous by the book The<br />
Perfect Storm.<br />
memories of this include debates with fourth<br />
grade classmates about presidential candidates in<br />
1984, attending a rally outside the Soviet embassy<br />
for refuseniks with my Sunday school, and my first<br />
reproductive rights march which I went on with a<br />
friend and her mom.<br />
Come high school, my friends and I would go on<br />
our own, often with me as the organizer. After the<br />
2017 <strong>Women</strong>'s March in our respective cities, a<br />
good friend recalled me getting a group together<br />
for the 20th anniversary of Earth Day rally.<br />
Wanting to do something tangible as well, we<br />
started the day by picking up trash in a local park.<br />
My mentor<br />
The best mentor I ever had was my co-worker and<br />
later supervisor at Americans United for<br />
Separation of Church and State, Beth Corbin. I was<br />
fortunate to find work for a cause I cared about<br />
and that she was in my department.<br />
Beth will declare that something you're doing is<br />
fabulous or so good she's telling everyone she<br />
knows. While she giggles with you at the<br />
exaggeration, you walk away encouraged.<br />
Somehow, when you mess up, she'll discuss it with<br />
you in a way that makes it a positive learning<br />
experience that ensures you do better next time.<br />
Among other things she taught me: the<br />
importance of responsiveness, how to politely<br />
dismiss someone looking to argue so you can<br />
better spend your energy, to try to listen closely so<br />
you can speak to what's behind an articulated<br />
grievance, and the value of reframing problems as<br />
challenges. I’ve learned a lot from her.<br />
Always generous with her time, Beth is a true<br />
advocate and ally. I will always remember when<br />
she was promoted and said that for her, an<br />
important part of the job was to advocate up the<br />
chain on behalf of her staff.<br />
47
and still don't have a good handle on how people<br />
bring about change.<br />
What we know from where we lived before affects<br />
what injustices we notice and how we think about<br />
them. Instead of projecting our understandings<br />
from elsewhere unfiltered, we should be sensitive<br />
to context and aware of our limited knowledge.<br />
Proceed with humility, but don't remain silent.<br />
Wherever you are, be wary when social justice<br />
work is dismissed out of hand for being "foreign."<br />
If people are organizing, there is a reason.<br />
Thousands of people did not join Oslo's Black<br />
Lives Matter protest last year to focus on racism in<br />
the US. They came to shine a light on<br />
manifestations of racism in Norway.<br />
A person I would like to meet<br />
At a BLM March<br />
My biggest concerns today<br />
1. We need more empathy! This applies to all of<br />
us. Not being able or even willing to try to<br />
understand and feel with others is a major<br />
impediment to progress. I wish I knew how to<br />
bring about more empathy. Some reluctant<br />
people can be moved to act by examples of harm<br />
to relatable others, but it is disappointing that<br />
even this somewhat self-interested approach<br />
doesn't work more. If anyone has tips, I'm all ears.<br />
2. Norway fancies itself a nature-loving country<br />
and enjoys a reputation for being environmentally<br />
responsible. So people may be surprised to learn<br />
of its heavy involvement in fossil fuel extraction. It<br />
is the third largest exporter of natural gas in the<br />
world. It is thirteenth for oil production, but in<br />
2017 it was fifth per capita. Despite years of lip<br />
service to the importance of reducing emissions<br />
and a recent admonition from the International<br />
Energy Agency to stop investing in new oil fields,<br />
the government continues to promote exploration<br />
for more.<br />
A recent study found that the Arctic is heating up<br />
three times as fast as the rest of the planet. (As if<br />
the previously thought twice as fast weren't bad<br />
enough.) Norwegian alarm bells should be ringing<br />
loudly, but I fear that as long as the harm of<br />
climate change is most felt by wildlife and people<br />
living elsewhere, little will change.<br />
The role of culture<br />
Working for justice in a new country can be a<br />
challenge because of both systemic and cultural<br />
differences. I have lived in Norway for 11 years<br />
Rachel Carson. I would like to ask her how she<br />
made Silent Spring happen, both in terms of the<br />
vast data she pulled together from many locations<br />
(pre-internet!) and in terms of the courage it took<br />
to publish something she knew would meet great<br />
resistance from powerful interests. I would<br />
preface the question by telling her what a<br />
tremendous difference she made. It’s tragic that<br />
she died before seeing the creation of the<br />
Environmental Protection Agency, the new laws,<br />
and the rise of the environmental movement<br />
spurred by her work.<br />
Campaigning with Renuka Matthews<br />
Something I would like to change<br />
In a magic world, I would have the ability to turn<br />
my conscious brain off at bedtime and to have it<br />
start up again automatically at a preset time the<br />
next day. Falling asleep is a regular struggle<br />
because my thoughts tend to race. Sometimes<br />
they are the result of stress and worry. Other<br />
times they are about mundane things. It would be<br />
so nice to get more sleep. Even in the real world,<br />
I'm sure the effects would be magical.<br />
48
FEATURE<br />
A Club Inspires:<br />
AWA Vienna,<br />
Austria<br />
Beverly Bachmayer, current Club<br />
FAWCO Rep, from California and<br />
Oregon, introduces her club to<br />
us. AWA Vienna is one of nine<br />
clubs in FAWCO’s Region 5.<br />
When and why was your club started, and by<br />
whom? Since its founding in 1924, AWA Vienna<br />
has focused on raising money for women’s and<br />
children's charities. The first club members were<br />
mainly diplomatic and military wives. This quote<br />
from Hannah Adler, the Chairperson of AWA<br />
Vienna in 1964, gives us a look into the club’s<br />
origins: “AWA came into being, most informally, as<br />
a response to a need felt in the community. It has<br />
become apparent that, no matter how<br />
distinguished and fascinating our speakers, there<br />
was a strong impulse in the community for a more<br />
active and varied program.”<br />
The AWA disbanded in 1939 and remained<br />
inactive during the war. After the war, during the<br />
Allied Occupation, American Embassy and military<br />
wives organized the Children's Friendship Fund<br />
and used the proceeds from a thrift shop to help<br />
deprived and starving Austrian children. AWA<br />
Vienna became active again in 1964, with about 60<br />
members. Today, the more than 280 members of<br />
AWA Vienna continue the tradition of women<br />
helping women.<br />
Over the past decades the City of Vienna has shed<br />
its wartime past and re-emerged as a vibrant,<br />
multi-ethnic city. The building of the Vienna<br />
International Centre (VIC) and the Austria Centre<br />
in the late 1970s and early 1980s led to a dramatic<br />
expansion in the UN presence. 1995 brought<br />
another boost to Vienna’s reputation as a leading<br />
international centre with European Union<br />
membership and the decision to host the<br />
headquarters of the world’s largest regional<br />
security organization, the Organization for<br />
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). AWA<br />
has developed and grown along with its host city<br />
into a diverse, dynamic and cosmopolitan<br />
community. But the values and interests of the<br />
founders’ original purpose endure: making lasting<br />
AWAV members celebrating women’s right to vote<br />
49
The Board signing the lease for our first clubhouse<br />
friendships, adapting to new places, learning<br />
about our adopted home and its culture, sharing<br />
experiences, working together, having fun, and<br />
supporting worthy causes.<br />
Austria, the sewers featured in the Third Man<br />
movie, the Opera House, the City Hall, the Loos<br />
Haus and a multitude of other places. We have<br />
held group picnics, bike tours, cooking classes,<br />
wine tasting, yoga, Trivial Pursuit, Quiz night, and<br />
talks on many interesting topics. During COVID-19<br />
all these activities were moved to Zoom. Our<br />
flexibility in moving to online meetings really<br />
helped members to stay in touch during the<br />
lockdowns. We even set up a call list to check on<br />
members that we did not see or hear from often<br />
in order to keep them connected.<br />
AWA publishes a monthly magazine called<br />
Highlights (in print and on-line versions) to<br />
spotlight our members’ interests, backgrounds,<br />
and talents.<br />
How many members do you have and what are<br />
their nationalities? AWA Vienna’s approximately<br />
280 members hail from over 41 countries, giving<br />
the club a truly international character. The<br />
women of AWA are enthusiastic, sharing and<br />
generous with their time and resources to make<br />
sure that the over 100 monthly activities all come<br />
off without a hitch.<br />
How does the club run? AWA Vienna is run by an<br />
elected 15-member board. (The exact number of<br />
board members changes from time to time<br />
depending on priorities). In addition, over 50<br />
people regularly volunteer on various committees,<br />
organize ad hoc activities and contribute to<br />
fundraising events.<br />
What kind of events do you have in your club?<br />
Our over 100 events monthly are as diverse as our<br />
membership, from conversational language<br />
(Spanish, French, German, Italian) discussions, to<br />
walking groups, to board and card games,<br />
monthly luncheons and weekly coffee groups. Our<br />
numerous very professional and comprehensive<br />
tours are among the most popular events. Over<br />
the past few years, we toured the only synagogue<br />
to have survived Kristallnacht, the Borealis factory,<br />
which is the largest plastic manufacturer of<br />
An AWAV FAWCO Group Meeting<br />
Do you raise money for any particular<br />
cause? We raise money to benefit our primary<br />
charity, Die Möwe, which supports abused<br />
children and their families. Additionally we cook<br />
food for the poor, knit hats and scarves for the<br />
homeless, collect Christmas presents for children,<br />
and bake and decorate cookies for the homeless<br />
Christmas party. The charity team works hard to<br />
raise these funds and in the process has lots of<br />
fun and comradery.<br />
What was your favorite event last year? We<br />
recently celebrated our 97-year anniversary as a<br />
club with a birthday party on Zoom. Over 60 club<br />
members zoomed in with family and friends to<br />
share an evening of singing, storytelling and<br />
conversation, cooking demonstrations, poems,<br />
yoga and dancing. It was wonderful!<br />
Taking advantage of Vienna’s pleasant climate, we<br />
have held outdoor activities including picnics,<br />
drawing groups, dance and yoga in the city’s<br />
beautiful Stadtpark. These also were well attended<br />
and allowed us to mingle while social distancing.<br />
Zoom wine night.<br />
We hope we can have an in-person one soon.<br />
50<br />
Prior to COVID-19 our diverse tours often booked<br />
out immediately. For many years the US<br />
Ambassador has held a luncheon at the residence
With almost two million people, Vienna blends the<br />
old with the new in architecture, coffee culture,<br />
and traditions. Vienna’s abundant parks create an<br />
enviable “green lung” and provide endless<br />
opportunities for hiking, biking and running<br />
without leaving the city’s borders. Thanks to<br />
sound environmental policies, responsible city<br />
administration and a robust public transportation<br />
system, Vienna enjoys a very high quality of life<br />
and consistently ranks among the top three most<br />
liveable cities in the world.<br />
The city is a top tourist destination attracting 6.8<br />
million tourists a year. It is a gift to live in such a<br />
beautiful city and country that put a high value on<br />
family, children and quality of life.<br />
Bring n Bite at the clubhouse in our Dirndls<br />
for the club’s general meeting. These always drew<br />
more than half the club members and we are<br />
looking forward to the next one.<br />
What else should we know about the club? We<br />
have a wonderful, newly renovated clubhouse<br />
used for small groups studying languages, playing<br />
games, yoga classes, meetings of the board, and<br />
many other meetings and coffees. We hold our<br />
annual Christmas party in the clubhouse as well<br />
as many other festive activities.<br />
Hopefully, in the fall many of you can visit us<br />
during the FAWCO Region 5 meeting. All things<br />
COVID-19 considered, of course.<br />
Tell us a little about your city and country in<br />
general Vienna, the capital of Austria, is rich in<br />
musical, artistic and gastronomic delights. Located<br />
in the eastern part of Austria, close to the borders<br />
with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary,<br />
Vienna benefits from the best of its neighbors<br />
cultures and its imperial past.<br />
AWAV Drawing Group meeting in the Stadtpark<br />
What are a few undiscovered gems in your city<br />
and/or country? Coffee houses and Heuriger<br />
(taverns serving new, local wine): Austrians like to<br />
gather together with friends and (pre-COVID-19) it<br />
was not uncommon to find entire families<br />
meeting at restaurants or coffee houses to pass<br />
the afternoons and evenings, enjoying good food,<br />
wine and each other’s company. People-watching<br />
is a favorite pastime that many indulge in during<br />
warm afternoons in the parks or around the<br />
Glühwein (hot mulled wine) huts in winter.<br />
While many of Vienna’s art museums are worldfamous,<br />
its plethora of unique and eccentric<br />
museums are largely unknown to the average<br />
tourist. No matter how strange your interest in a<br />
particular subject matter, period of history or<br />
famed person, Vienna probably has a museum<br />
dedicated to it. The yearly Long Night of the<br />
Museums allows you to explore as many of these<br />
establishments as you have time and energy for in<br />
a single night.<br />
Any unusual/interesting traits of the locals?<br />
Drawing on their rich ethnic mix and historical<br />
background, the Viennese speak a dialect that is<br />
highly expressive, but nearly incomprehensible to<br />
the non-native speaker. Viennese humor (Schmäh)<br />
is likewise characterized by subtle, indirect and<br />
suggestive wit.<br />
Biking in Neusiedler See, summer 2020<br />
51
PROFILE<br />
I Decided to<br />
Become a Lawyer<br />
When I Was Only<br />
Nine!<br />
Lauren Mescon, member of AWC<br />
Amsterdam, went on to become a<br />
lawyer specializing in<br />
collaborative divorce as well as a<br />
family law judge in Georgia.<br />
I grew up in Savannah, GA, and never moved,<br />
spending my whole childhood in the same house<br />
with myparents and siblings. My four<br />
grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins lived<br />
nearby. I had “Yankee” cousins in New York that<br />
came down every summer. My K-12 education<br />
was spent in the local public schools and I made<br />
life-long friends. Then years ago, nine of us held a<br />
“2 nd Grade Reunion”, and even our teacher<br />
attended - in her 80s!<br />
What I remember is the stability of my family and<br />
town. We had dinner at my paternal<br />
grandparents’ house every Friday night and every<br />
Sunday morning I would wake up to my maternal<br />
grandfather whistling as he came to visit.<br />
My grandmother’s and father’s volunteerism<br />
impacted me. My grandmother volunteered with<br />
the Jewish National Fund, which I still volunteer<br />
with today. We have planted over 240 million<br />
trees in Israel.<br />
My father had a different meeting each night for<br />
all the boards he volunteered for. He was a war<br />
veteran from WWII but was the gentlest man on<br />
the planet. The one exception was the basketball<br />
court. He coached for the Jewish Center and<br />
taught every boy their first four letter word! He<br />
was my hero.<br />
Growing up in the South when I did, I vividly<br />
remember seeing “White” and “Colored”<br />
bathrooms, as well as the discriminations faced<br />
by Blacks and Jews.<br />
Early years<br />
Lauren Mescon<br />
I announced at the dinner table that I was going<br />
to become a lawyer. I was nine years old. Growing<br />
up Jewish in the South I was constantly exposed<br />
to things I felt but did not understand. As a child,<br />
you can know instinctively something is not right,<br />
even if you cannot articulate it. I also grew up on a<br />
steady TV diet of shows about lawyers, like the<br />
public defender Perry Mason and storefront<br />
lawyers like Matlock.<br />
Leaving home<br />
Me as a toddler with my Dad<br />
When I went to college at age 17, I wanted to get<br />
as far away from home as possible. I went to the<br />
University of Colorado in Boulder. Because I loved<br />
it so much, I stayed for summer school and<br />
graduated in three years. I learned to ride horses<br />
and fell in love with the mountains and hiking. I<br />
never did well with skiing, though.<br />
52
Life today<br />
I met my husband through our kids…they were in<br />
school together. He called to ask me on a date, but<br />
when we began to pick a time for our first date, I<br />
started yelling at him about his personal custody<br />
arrangement! He suggested I shut up since he was<br />
asking me for a date, which I did, and the rest is<br />
history 21 years later.<br />
Early years with my boys<br />
Next steps<br />
After college, I headed back to Georgia for law<br />
school - back then the dream was to be the first<br />
female governor of Georgia. After law school at<br />
Emory, I was a prosecutor in Savannah then<br />
Maryland. Finally, I came back to Atlanta and<br />
began working for the City Attorney of Roswell, an<br />
Atlanta suburb. I also did a two-year expat stint in<br />
Hong Kong when my two boys were very young.<br />
After living in Hong Kong, I returned to Roswell<br />
and was diagnosed with breast cancer. A year<br />
later I was divorced and a single mom with two<br />
boys, ages four and five. The City Attorney of<br />
Roswell was still my mentor and probably the<br />
most influential person in my personal and<br />
professional life. He mentored me by giving me<br />
office space and cases to develop a private<br />
practice, which ultimately led to a specialization in<br />
family law.<br />
Starting my law practice<br />
I had my own practice and was able to pay it<br />
forward as my mentor had for me, offering the<br />
same opportunity to a friend who became a<br />
lawyer after her own divorce. She still practices<br />
family law in Atlanta today.<br />
He was a business dean then became a university<br />
president and retired to join his current<br />
organization, accrediting business schools<br />
worldwide. He was hired to create the Europe,<br />
Middle East and Africa office and here we are. It<br />
has been an incredible journey these last six and a<br />
half years!<br />
Getting involved in justice<br />
I guess my first involvement would have been<br />
leading a protest against the dress code at the<br />
Savannah/Chatham County Board of Education.<br />
We even had a lawyer file suit for us. From there,<br />
we protested when Nixon came to town, walked<br />
out of high school during Vietnam and when white<br />
supremacists marched, chanting, “we want our<br />
schools back!”, we ran alongside them chanting,<br />
“We want our schools Black!” I was part of the<br />
Savannah Mayor’s Council on Race while in high<br />
school as well.<br />
Looking to the future<br />
What we are seeing now is a total assault on our<br />
democratic process. It has become party over<br />
country, with politicians literally scheming to stay<br />
in power and take away the thing that has made<br />
the US so phenomenal - a democracy where the<br />
people have a vote. The nuances of elections laws<br />
and involvement of various governmental bodies,<br />
from cities to counties to states to federal, offers<br />
many hidden places for our right to vote to be<br />
tampered with.<br />
I became the first and only practitioner in Atlanta<br />
to practice Collaborative Divorce, which is a more<br />
civilized way to divorce. Lawyers, mental health<br />
professionals and a financial specialist/neutral<br />
party work together with the couple to transition<br />
them to separate households. I taught<br />
Collaborative Law nationally and was named<br />
as a Super Lawyer by my peers in Atlanta from<br />
2004-2009.<br />
I also became a Family Law Judge in Fulton<br />
County, GA, working for the elected judges,<br />
handling case conferences and some hearings for<br />
the family court.<br />
With colleague Denise and Mayors Franklin and Tomlinson<br />
53
Current concerns<br />
My biggest concern is that there is no longer bipartisan<br />
politics. If our politicians will not<br />
communicate and are only interested in their own<br />
power, how can our country move forward<br />
without deteriorating into partisanship with no<br />
focus on policy?<br />
I also am very worried about the inordinate power<br />
of negative social media campaigns that grow<br />
exponentially, often with false information.<br />
That is a huge problem for international relations,<br />
as well. There are many hostile players out there<br />
with no interest in their people or morality. We<br />
need courageous conversations and open debate<br />
between drastically different points of view with<br />
leaders that encourage it. That is how we begin to<br />
move forward and make change.<br />
The role of culture<br />
Living in Europe has made me shake my head in<br />
wonder at the American belief in, and continued<br />
proliferation of, gun ownership and open carry<br />
permits. It really makes no sense to me. I also am<br />
very conscious of where and when I “show” my<br />
Jewish identity depending on where I am in<br />
Europe, which comes from living in a place that<br />
experienced WWII on its shores. Witnessing the<br />
George Floyd murder, subsequent protests and<br />
then the insurrection as a US expat also changes<br />
your perspective, as the commentary is from<br />
My family together for Thanksgiving<br />
outside, not with the narrow lenses of someone<br />
with only an American perspective.<br />
What would I change if I could?<br />
I really do not want to go back in time and start<br />
over, but it would have been nice to work hard<br />
enough to become the first female governor of<br />
Georgia. But I would not change anything, as I<br />
might not be sitting here today, involved with The<br />
FAWCO Foundation, married to my incredible<br />
husband, with amazing kids and grandkids.<br />
Also in one of my moves, a box of my journals<br />
and letters, including a series between me as an<br />
idealistic, very naïve high schooler and a Vietnam<br />
vet in jail, was thrown away. I would love to<br />
re-read what I wrote from a teen to an adult.<br />
54
FEATURE<br />
“Why Did I Join The<br />
Human Rights Team?”<br />
Members of the FAWCO Human Rights Team explain why<br />
they got involved.<br />
Twana Rhodes, AWC<br />
Berlin, Berlin,<br />
Germany<br />
I hold the strong belief<br />
that Human Rights is<br />
not just something “to<br />
do” about something<br />
“over there.” As I<br />
believe Eleanor<br />
Roosevelt stated, “It’s in<br />
your hands,” and I take<br />
this quite literally.<br />
Upholding human<br />
rights, the fabric of human rights, if you will, is<br />
your personal responsibility to do the right thing<br />
in your own backyard. I suspect many “dogooders”<br />
and human rights defenders, activists,<br />
and those of us who sit in front of our televisions<br />
exuding outrage over the latest injustice, are<br />
failing to look at our own indiscretions. What if, in<br />
some collective reality, the tiny injustice that I<br />
impose on my son, or my neighbor, or my coworker<br />
. . . adds another drop of water to the sea<br />
of injustice that forms and swells and lands in<br />
devastating human rights violations, on some<br />
community, some-where “over there.”<br />
Tiina Kujala, AWC<br />
Finland, Espoo,<br />
Finland<br />
When I was offered the<br />
opportunity to join the<br />
FAWCO Human Rights<br />
Team I felt very<br />
intimidated by all the<br />
members, who know<br />
and do so much. I<br />
quickly realized that<br />
every action, every word, every chance to learn<br />
about human rights is valuable.<br />
In my work as a teacher and in a political<br />
organization I have discovered that working for<br />
human rights is in the daily lives and details, just<br />
as much as in the large projects.<br />
Being a member of the Human Rights Team has<br />
changed my life and offered me tools to help<br />
change the world.<br />
Sue ENGLAND,<br />
Munich IWC,<br />
FAWCO UN<br />
Contact and<br />
Human Rights<br />
Team, Munich,<br />
Germany<br />
I joined because it’s<br />
a great<br />
international<br />
group, something I<br />
like a lot, as I have<br />
lived and worked in<br />
seven different countries. I have studied and<br />
taught human rights law, and I can add that<br />
international expertise to our talented group.<br />
All over the world the human rights issues women<br />
face are the same: access to justice and getting<br />
the full range of political, economic, medical,<br />
social and cultural rights that all people have been<br />
given under international law, for real!<br />
Ulrike<br />
Naeumann,<br />
Heidelberg<br />
International<br />
<strong>Women</strong>’s Club,<br />
Weisenheim am<br />
Berg, Germany<br />
I love the fresh<br />
spirit and the<br />
energy of our<br />
monthly Human<br />
Rights calls and FRN<br />
meetings. I love to<br />
discuss with these smart ladies how to make the<br />
world a place of justice for everybody, especially<br />
for women and girls. Every meeting I hear<br />
something new, something that makes me think<br />
and gives me ideas to make little changes in my<br />
life. Sometimes the stories I hear make me sad,<br />
but I am filled with hope that together we can<br />
make the world a better place.<br />
55
Ann BIROT-<br />
SALSBURY, AAWE<br />
Paris, FAWCO<br />
Refugee Network<br />
and Human Rights<br />
Team, Tours, France<br />
I feel at home with the<br />
FAWCO Human Rights<br />
Team. It is a safe place<br />
to not only talk about<br />
sensitive topics but<br />
more importantly to<br />
brainstorm strategies to<br />
raise awareness in FAWCO and beyond about<br />
human rights issues. I am constantly learning<br />
from my FAWCO HR Team sisters. The FAWCO HR<br />
Team is like a marinade, it tenderizes me and<br />
helps me stay grounded in my own and others’<br />
humanity! AND it gives me hope that together we<br />
can create a more peaceful World for all!<br />
56
PROFILE<br />
The Gentle Touch<br />
of Hands-on Help<br />
Ulrike Näumann, member of<br />
Heidelberg IWC and co-chair of<br />
the FAWCO Refugee Network, tells<br />
us how she got involved in<br />
working with refugees.<br />
I was born and raised in Bensheim an der<br />
Bergstrasse, Germany. We lived in a very small<br />
village in nature and at the edge of the forest. My<br />
mother worked in the Department of Health, as<br />
my father had lost his eyesight and could not<br />
work anymore. My father stayed at home and<br />
took care of my brother and me.<br />
Leaving home<br />
Ulrike Näumann<br />
I decided to study Protestant theology to become<br />
a pastor. The church suggested studying at<br />
different places to get to know different doctrinal<br />
opinions so I studied at the Universities in<br />
Bielefeld, Bern, Münster and Heidelberg.<br />
At university I heard about liberation theology, the<br />
social concern for the poor and political liberation<br />
for oppressed people. I learned about the forms<br />
of inequality such as race or caste. This touched<br />
me a lot. I worked in a shop with Fair Trade Goods<br />
as a volunteer.<br />
I discovered that I love to move and that I love<br />
changes. After marrying, my husband and I<br />
moved to Brussels, Belgium and I worked for the<br />
German Protestant Church. I had three children<br />
while we lived in Brussels.<br />
With my family on vacation in 1974<br />
During this time I joined the AWC Brussels, as my<br />
husband is American. Here I made friends and got<br />
In the elementary school of my little village I<br />
found what we learned very boring. But I did love<br />
to listen to the stories from the Bible because<br />
they made me think and boosted my imagination.<br />
I especially loved the stories about justice, for<br />
example “The Judgement of Solomon.”<br />
As a teenager, I went to a Roman Catholic girls<br />
school and became interested in the Protestant<br />
church. This was where I found my “tribe.”<br />
In my school and in the church we always<br />
supported local and international projects for<br />
people in need.<br />
With my daughter Paula in May <strong>2021</strong><br />
57
change the world. Maybe after raising my children,<br />
I learned that you can make a difference for an<br />
individual person. You can change their world.<br />
My role models<br />
My role model was my mother, who taught me to<br />
be tolerant and to respect other people. My<br />
mother taught me that education is the most<br />
important thing in life. After surviving WW2 in<br />
Dresden she knew that degrees are the only<br />
values you can’t lose. This is why I am helping<br />
refugee children to get settled in the German<br />
school system.<br />
With some of the refugee women in 2018<br />
to know the American culture. I was impressed by<br />
the tradition of volunteering and fundraising for a<br />
good cause.<br />
Moving countries<br />
My role model for my profession was a female<br />
pastor I met.<br />
My involvement today<br />
Before the COVID-19 restrictions, I organized a<br />
meeting of refugee women every Wednesday<br />
afternoon. Sometimes we made trips to a park<br />
during the holidays. This was lots of fun.<br />
Next we moved from Brussels to Germany and to<br />
Princeton, NJ in the US, where my children became<br />
US Citizens. Then we moved back again to<br />
Germany and subsequently Brussels; we just love<br />
this city.<br />
Today we live in the Palatinate in Germany and all<br />
three children are at university. I sing in a choir<br />
and give language training to expats. I am also<br />
involved in the local refugee work, especially with<br />
women and children, helping them to settle in. I<br />
use the skills I learned and the experiences I had<br />
made as an expat myself.<br />
What is justice?<br />
Justice is if everybody has access to equal<br />
prerequisites regardless of origin, nationality, sex<br />
and social status. Justice is laying an equal<br />
foundation for everybody. Justice is if there is no<br />
child left behind.<br />
Why do I do it?<br />
When I was in my twenties I thought I could<br />
A field trip from Freinsheilm to Mannheim in 2018<br />
I also offer language training for refugee women<br />
and am helping a family from Syria with different<br />
issues, for example helping to get the children<br />
tutored. I was very glad that I found two tutors in<br />
our FAWCO community: Tara Scott and Pascal<br />
Shrady. I also helped the father of the family to get<br />
a place in a rehabilitation program for the blind.<br />
The future<br />
I dream of getting more ladies involved in the<br />
FAWCO Refugee Network: helping with “hands-on<br />
activities” or tutoring or giving language training to<br />
refugees, focusing on students and the refugee<br />
mothers.<br />
2.8 million children in Germany are growing up in<br />
poverty. That is one in five children. This is one of<br />
the biggest social challenges in Germany. Around<br />
two thirds of children living in poverty experience<br />
it long term. Concrete effects of poverty in<br />
Germany include not owning a car or electronic<br />
devices and no vacations. https://www.dw.com/<br />
en/1-in-5-children-in-germany-grow-up-in-poverty/<br />
a-54260165.<br />
58
INSPIRING YOU<br />
Founded in 1931, FAWCO is a global women’s NGO (non-governmental organization), an<br />
international network of independent volunteer clubs and associations comprising 58<br />
member clubs in 31 countries on six continents. FAWCO serves as a resource and a voice for<br />
its members; seeks to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide, especially in the areas<br />
of human rights, health, education and the environment; advocates for the rights of US<br />
citizens overseas; and contributes to the global community through its Global Issues Teams<br />
and The FAWCO Foundation, which provides development grants and education awards.<br />
Since 1997, FAWCO has held special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social<br />
Council.<br />
OUR MISSION STATEMENT<br />
FAWCO is an international federation of independent organizations whose mission is:<br />
• to build strong support networks for its American and international membership;<br />
• to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide;<br />
• to advocate for the rights of US citizens overseas; and<br />
• to mobilize the skills of its membership in support of global initiatives for<br />
education, the environment, health and human rights.<br />
MAGAZINE FEEDBACK<br />
We want this magazine to be interesting for all FAWCO Members. In an effort to provide<br />
articles of interest to all of our readers, we have created an online feedback questionnaire. It<br />
should only take a few minutes of your time to complete and will be a great help to us!<br />
Please click on the link or paste it into your browser<br />
to complete our short five question survey.<br />
SURVEY<br />
THANK YOU!<br />
ADVERTISING DISCLAIMER<br />
FAWCO receives financial remuneration for page space from advertisers. Views expressed or benefits<br />
described in any display advertisement, advertorial or any webpage visited online directly from these<br />
adverts are not endorsed by FAWCO.<br />
Copyright <strong>2021</strong> FAWCO<br />
<strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong>© <strong>Magazine</strong> is owned and published electronically by FAWCO.<br />
All rights reserved. All bylined articles are copyright of their respective authors as indicated herein and are<br />
reproduced with their permission. The magazine or portions of it may not be reproduced in any form, stored in<br />
any retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy or otherwise –<br />
without the written consent of the publisher.<br />
59
MORE ABOUT THIS ISSUE<br />
The <strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> Team<br />
Liz Elsie Karen Berit Michele<br />
For more information about this magazine, please contact a member of the <strong>Inspiring</strong><br />
<strong>Women</strong> team:<br />
Editor in Chief, Liz MacNiven, inspiringwomen.editor@fawco.org<br />
Advertising and Sponsorship Manager, Elsie Bose, advertising@fawco.org<br />
Distribution Manager, Karen Boeker, iwdistribution@fawco.org<br />
Social Media Manager, Berit Torkildsen, iwsocialmedia@fawco.org<br />
Features Coordinator, Michele Hendrikse Du Bois, inspiringwomenfeatures@fawco.org<br />
Acknowledgements:<br />
Thanks to our profilees: Ann, Karen, Kelsey, Kristen, Lauren, Lindsey, Rena, Sue, and Ulrike<br />
with thanks also for the use of their photos and those of their friends and families. Additional<br />
thanks to Beverly, Karen (and the whole FAWCO Human Rights team), Katja, Lauren, Marina,<br />
and Mary for their work on the articles.<br />
The cover photo is of one the survivors of human trafficking featured in the book Hope is the<br />
Thing with Feathers (for more information on the book see the feature on page 22) taken in<br />
The Netherlands in 2016 by My-Linh Kunst, former two-term FAWCO President and member<br />
of AWC Berlin. My-Linh explains "this was one of the Nigerian survivors from the Bijlmer -<br />
Bridge2Hope project who initially did not want to talk to us. I felt bad holding my camera<br />
because it seemed like exploitation. I didn’t expect to get any pictures that day. But when it<br />
finally happened, it was magical." Images of survivors holding feathers symbolize how<br />
fleeting and illusive hope can sometimes be, like birds and feathers that drift away and come<br />
back to you.<br />
Special thanks to the proofreading team of Karen Boeker (AWC Denmark), Laurie Brooks<br />
(AWC Amsterdam/AWC The Hague), Celeste Brown (AWC The Hague), Sallie Chaballier (AAWE<br />
Paris), Janet Davis (AIWC Cologne), Tamar Hudson (AIWC Cologne), Carol-Lyn McKelvey (AIWC<br />
Cologne/FAUSA), Lauren Mescon (AWC Amsterdam), Mary Stewart Burgher (AWC Denmark),<br />
and Jenny Taylor (AIWC Cologne and Düsseldorf).<br />
Please note: images used in this publication are either sourced from the authors themselves or<br />
through canva.com.<br />
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Coming<br />
November 18<br />
<strong>Women</strong> and<br />
Hospitality<br />
“Hospitality is Simply Love on the Loose.”<br />
Joan D. Chittister<br />
Hospitality is big business, but to be done<br />
well it requires a passion to serve others.<br />
We encounter hospitality daily and all<br />
recognize when we receive exceptional<br />
hospitality and when it is lacking.<br />
Providing these services is hard work but<br />
can be oh so rewarding.<br />
The next issue of <strong>Inspiring</strong> <strong>Women</strong> has<br />
profiles of features on women who have<br />
made hospitality their business in some<br />
way. It also has features to whet your<br />
appetite in time for the holidays!<br />
Make sure you subscribe (CLICK HERE)<br />
to get a copy directly in your inbox. It’s totally free to<br />
subscribe and your friends and family can have a copy too.<br />
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That’s I<br />
Using Loud Voices to Achieve Equality<br />
This photo shows Rena Levin and Karin Blake taking part in a march in Norway.<br />
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Rena and Karin met through AWC Oslo. Discovering they shared a<br />
common passion about women’s rights, they organized the <strong>Women</strong>’s<br />
March Norway. Using activism to spread the message that gender<br />
inequality is human injustice.
nspired!<br />
Using Small Voices to Achieve Equality<br />
Belgian TV and Radio Presenter, Annabelle van Nieuwenhuyse. Photo taken by<br />
Brigitte Meuwissen of AWC Antwerp.<br />
Annabelle is a prominent figure in Belgium. She started a language<br />
school in her home during the pandemic, teaching children both French<br />
and Dutch. Using education to overcome cultural misunderstanding<br />
aids the fight against inequality.<br />
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