2023
THE WOMEN HAVE WINGS AWARDS
Presented in partnership with UN WPHF (Women’s Peace & Humanitarian Fund)
Ouloum Audi
Lebanon
Ouloum Audi from Haqqi-Awrath Association together with Maryam Al-Dirani from the Naba’a Association, will exchange experiences on women’s rights and empowerment. Ouloum will provide trainings on economic violence against women and protection for Nabaa’s team, while Maryam will lead trainings on advocacy and campaigning.
Ouloum Audi is a physicist and the president of "Haqi-Awrath" (My Right to Inherit), an association dedicated to eradicating economic violence against women. Driven by the conviction that societal shame often obscures women's right to inheritance, Ouloum launched a powerful social media campaign in 2018 which shed light on the importance of women’s financial independence. Building upon this momentum, Ouloum founded Haqi-Awrath. Through training workshops, engaging plays, and targeted media campaigns, Haqi-Awrath raises awareness among both women and men about the significance of inheritance rights. The association provides free consultations to help victims of inheritance deprivation claim their rightful share.
Ouloum's commitment extends beyond inheritance as she actively strengthens women's economic standing. Ouloum and her team equip women with marketable skills and promote job opportunities, and women’s products. Furthermore, Haqi-Awrath collaborates with specialized associations to provide protection for victims of domestic violence.
Maryam Al Dirani
Lebanon
Maryam Al Dirani a dedicated social worker since graduating university, has carved a path empowering women and vulnerable communities. After managing programs in a center for people with disabilities, Maryam worked as a counselor for gender-based violence survivors at the feminist organization Lebanese Democratic Women's Gathering (RDFL) where she provided psychological, social, and legal support to gender-based violence survivors.
In 2014, responding to the Syrian crisis, Maryam spearheaded the opening of a gathering center in her town, Qasrnaba in the Baalbek governorate in Eastern Lebanon. This center offered support, empowerment, and protection to both Syrian refugee women and Lebanese citizens. In addition, Maryam mentored a group of young women and men, together, they formed the "Nabaa" Association, aiming to develop individual skills in health, education, environment, human rights, and gender equality.
Israa Tateen
Lebanon
In 2011, fleeing the war in Syria, Israa Tateen came to Lebanon and participated in a training on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) led by Developmental Action to People – Mousawat, an organization dedicated to promoting gender equality and women's rights, and providing psychosocial support to GBV survivors in the North of Lebanon. Currently, Israa Tateen works as a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) Manager and PSEA Focal Point at Mousawat where she supports the organization’s target groups, volunteers, and team members, through creating safe spaces and preventing sexual exploitation and abuse.
Israa Tateen from Developmental Action for All People - Mousawat together with Roua Dandachi from The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL) will develop a peer learning project focused on trainings and field visits. Israa and team members from Mousawat will train RDFL on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, while Roua and her team members from RDFL will train Mousawat on GBV Cases’ Management. Subsequently, both CSOs will directly engage with their target groups, raising their awareness on sexual harassment and how to benefit from the services offered by the CSOs.
Roua Dandachi
Lebanon
Roua Dandachi, is a researcher and trainer in Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and protection. She joined The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering (RDFL) in 2009 as an active member. She began her activism and volunteering pathway during the 2006 Lebanon War, providing emergency response services and organizing animation activities for children affected by the conflict. Roua specializes in conducting training on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, GBV, gender and women's empowerment.
Roua is a protection advisor at RDFL and has represented her NGO at multiple regional events, such as the Young Women’s Peace Activism Initiative conference at the Swedish Institute (Alexandria in 2012 and Amman in2014). She manages the Young Civil Society Activism Programme at RDFL. She is also an environmental chemist and a climate change activist, advocating for feminist climate justice and working towards obtaining her diploma in agriculture engineering.
Mi Mor, JCS *
Myanmar
Mi Mor from JCS together with T O from WAP, will foster partnership among their teams through trainings and exchanges on both programming issues and operational processes. JCS will train WAP’s team on women’s leadership in crisis situations while WAP will conduct a training on crisis prevention and management for JCS.
*The women leaders and their CSO’s names have been anonymized to ensure protection.
Mi Mor started as a teacher in refugee camps witnessing the suffering of displaced people. This instilled in her a deep commitment to education, peace, and women's rights. From 1992 to 2005, she nurtured young minds, particularly women, at Mon State schools while actively participating in the Mon Women Organization.
In 2007, Mi Mor co-founded the Human Rights Foundation of Monland. In 2009, she established an education centre, to train women and youth in leadership, civic engagement, and peacebuilding. Three years later, she founded JCS, an organization advocating for democratic values and women's participation in their communities. Mi Mor’s voice for the Mon minority and for building peace in Myanmar’s Mon State reached across borders, with her participation in the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference.
T O, WAP *
Myanmar
Founder and Director of WAP since 2014, T O stands to empower women in Myanmar. WAP is known to address gender-based violence, promote gender equality and increase women's political participation and engagement in peace processes. T O has actively participated in the peace process of the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference in 2015.
Beyond policy, TO supports action on the ground through conducting workshops on women's rights, peace education, advocacy, security awareness, and negotiation skills. WAP's Woman and Girl Center and Paralegal Center is providing comprehensive support to GBV survivors and marginalized communities including LGBTQI+ and persons with disabilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, T O mobilized resources to provide essential health supplies to internally displaced persons, particularly pregnant women and war refugees.
Rana Gouda
Palestine
Rana Gouda from Beesan Association together with Bothyna Sobeh from Wefaq Association, will conduct training and field visits to learn from each other. Wefaq team will train Beesan on GBV, crisis, and conflict management. On the other hand, Beesan’s team will train Wefaq on advocacy campaigns and project design. Subsequently, both teams will implement a joint action to advocate for women’s participation in peacebuilding and humanitarian response through using digital and creative approaches.
Driving community initiatives and amplifying women's voices, Rana Gouda serves as Director of Programmes at Beesan Benevolent Association where she manages projects promoting dialogue and peaceful coexistence. Her passion for women's empowerment fuels her engagement with grassroots organizations in Palestine, in support of women's rights, education, and sustainable development.
As a recipient of the Supporting Arab Women at the Table (SAWT) Fellowship Program, supported by the European Union and institutions like the Arab Reform Initiative and the American University of Beirut, she honed her skills in supporting women's political participation. Rana manages Beesan’s theater training programme focusing on women’s political participation. She also advocates for safe spaces by partnering with UNODC to promote crime prevention. In 2023, she represented Beesan Association who won the UNODC competition Youth for Impact.
Bothyna Sobeh
Palestine
Bothyna Sobeh has over 25 years of experience working in the field of women's rights and empowerment in Palestine. Since 2020 she is the Executive Director of the Wefaq Association for Women and Childcare, an organization that promotes the rights and well-being of women and children. From 2010 to 2020, Bothyna served as the Director of fundraising and programmes at the same organization. She participated in the process of drafting the Palestinian Women's Charter and has served as a member of the Palestinian Women's Committee to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). She has also trained several women on the CEDAW reporting process.
Sanaa Shbaita
Palestine
Sanaa Shbaita from Mother's School Society (MSS) together with Ghada Shadid from Canaaniat Association for Development will conduct capacity strengthening trainings on conflict resolution, crisis management, and response, in addition to an advocacy campaign on the concept of loss and how it affects Palestinian women in crisis settings. The trainings will target both CSOs’ team members, and their networks of grassroot CSO partners in their respective villages.
With 30 years of experience in advocating for women’s rights and gender equality, Sanaa Shbaita, is strongly committed to defending Palestinian women's dignity and elevating their status in society. She is well known for her work with the Palestinian Federation of the Women’s Action Committee. She is also a member of the administrative body of the Union of Palestinian Women, a member of the National Committee for Women’s Employment, and the coordinator of the Protection sector in the Network of Civil Society Organizations in Palestine.
Sanaa is the chair of the Mothers' School Society Board. She has produced critical policy papers on protection mechanisms for women working in the informal sector and led impactful campaigns advocating for a minimum wage for Palestinian women working in the informal sector in crisis and emergency contexts.
Ghada Shadid
Palestine
Ghada Shadid, manager of Canaaniat Association for Development, is one of the first female lawyers in Jenin. She is also a feminist and a human rights’ activist. Recognizing the need for women's empowerment, she co-established the Women Activity Center to inform women about their rights under both civil and Sharia law and support them to navigate the legal system. Ghada is also a founding member of the Family Defense Association in Nablus. In Jenin she established the Women's Rehabilitation and Care Association.
2023
THE WOMEN HAVE WINGS AWARDS
Hilda Flavia Nakabuye
Uganda
Hilda Flavia Nakabuye is one of Uganda’s most powerful youth climate activists. She founded Uganda's Fridays for Future movement and has spoken at major global convenings around the world to advocate for climate justice. One of her environmental concerns is the revitalization of Lake Victoria, which is contaminated by industry and plastic dumping. She leads community education and clean ups on the lake and visits schools and communities to empower girls and women to join the fight against environmental degradation and climate change. She has represented her continent and frontline communities at international conferences and events, including: COP25 Climate Change Conference, C40 World Mayors Summit and the Women’s March4Climate in London, among others.
Hilda’s Future Rising project will be a short film illuminating her work in local communities to deploy sustainable solutions to preserve the ecosystems in and around Lake Victoria.
Lesli Canela Pérez
Guatemala
Lupe Canela Pérez
Guatemala
Sisters Lesli and Lupe Canela Perez are youth organizers and artists from the barrio of Ciudad Peronia on the outskirts of
Guatemala City. For the last ten years, they have been working tirelessly in the grassroots organization Peronia Adolescente to fight discrimination and violence against young people and create new generations of youth artists and agents for change. Their work utilizes street performance–stilt walking, fire-breathing, theater, and dance–to send a message of protest and joy to their community.
Lesli and Lupe spent their earliest years inside the Guatemala City garbage dump, accompanying their mother as she scavenged for recyclable materials. They started their inspiring leadership work as pre-teens; when their mother could no longer afford to pay for their studies, the girls sought refuge in a girl’s group led by other teens at Peronia Adolescente. Within several months, the sisters were recruiting more girls to join and learning to facilitate games, popular education, and dialogue. Now Lesli and Lupe have both graduated high school and train hundreds of young people in their methodology of community arts for social transformation every year. They run a small community cultural center packed to the brim with children and teens receiving scholarships, tutoring, and learning to walk on stilts, paint murals, write plays, and spread dignity and hope to their community.
The sisters live in a dangerous and marginalized context; gangs, machismo, and gender-based violence are commonplace and community members lack basic services like water, food, and healthcare. Recent years have seen a rise in political violence and the sisters have received threats for their work defending girls and youth rights in their community–several years ago Lesli was kidnapped, and both girls have lost close friends and family to violence. Despite their circumstances, they continue to fight with great urgency to transform their community into a place where young people can learn, express themselves and spread their wings.
Bogdana Babych
Ukraine
Bogdana Babych is a civic activist, a political psychologist by profession, and director of the Institute of Practical Politics. She has many years of experience in journalism. Her knowledge, experience, and desire to serve her country helped her create one of the most important initiatives of the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine (2013-2014) - the media activism platform SPILNO.tv.
During President Yanukovych's regime, Bogdana saw her country heading toward authoritarianism. Ukraine was reaching the point of no return, losing its future to Russia. The opposition parties could not entirely resist the dictatorship because some served the interests of the oligarchs and therefore did not have the citizens' trust. Thus, Bogdana spent all her energy and knowledge building a civil society. In 2013, before the protests known as the Maidan, Bogdana Babych and like-minded people created the SPILNO club and the SPILNO.tv media platform. It was a unique media outlet at the time, free from party and oligarchic influences, with content created by activists.
SPILNO.tv activists drove many events on the Maidan, creating an atmosphere of friendliness and trust in each other and involvement in building their country's history here and now. Through her streams, Bogdana Babych attracted new participants to the Maidan and educated them. While opposition politicians sought to take power after the regime's fall, SPILNO.tv focused on changing the system, expanding direct citizen participation in governance, self-organization and interaction.
Bogdana Babych and SPILNO.tv were the first to broadcast online events on Maidan and were the last to leave the square after the protest ended. 65 million unique views. Hundreds of volunteers. The first massive and successful crowdfunding experience in the history of Ukraine. Bogdana emotionally engaged Ukrainians in the diaspora, who were watching what was happening in Ukraine through online streams with bated breath and hope. Many were inspired by the hope for change and returned to build the country. The stream was broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, non-stop for over six months. Under the threat of being arrested and killed by bandits, despite her injuries and fatigue, Bogdana streamed from the hottest spots of the Maidan. She was the first to tell the world that dictator Yanukovych had fled his administration!
SPILNO.tv was the first to use streams to cover public events on platforms like Ustream and others long before Facebook and Twitter had the ability to live stream. This experience has influenced the way the world uses online broadcasting today.
During Moscow's military aggression in Donbas in 2015, Bogdana Babych was a civic war correspondent, traveling to the front, collecting stories from soldiers and volunteers. She investigated high-profile crimes, including the murders of Maidan activists after the Revolution.
During the war and presently (2023), Bogdana Babych and her friends chose to volunteer and create rehabilitation spaces. Many wounded soldiers, their families, and victims of the Moscow Empire's aggression needed attention and care.
These spaces exist at the Teterivskyi Kish (Zhytomyr Oblast) and Lelechyi Klyn (Khmelnytskyi Oblast) locations. They combine the experience of eco-settlements, rehabilitation and recreation centers, occupational therapy, and healing with natural gifts.
Effie Brown
United States
Effie T. Brown is the CEO and majority owner of Gamechanger Films, where she leads the charge in producing, developing, and financing content by and about women, POC, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities.
Prior to joining Gamechanger Films, Brown produced such Sundance Film Festival winners, Real Women Have Curves, Dear White People and Rocket Science. Turning to television, Brown appeared and produced HBO’s Project Greenlight as well as executive produced Lee Daniels' Star on FOX and Disney Channel's Zombies.
In 2021, Gamechanger Films co-financed Netflix's Passing, starring Tessa Thompson. Last year’s projects include Amazon's Run Sweetheart Run, and The Inspection, which was a co-financing and producing venture with A24. The Inspection received three Independent Spirit Awards nominations, was honored at the GLAAD Awards, and won 'Outstanding Independent Motion Picture' at the NAACP Image Awards.
Gamechanger's 2023 slate includes climate justice documentary Save Yourself! in partnership with TAZO Tea, Sorcerority, starring and co-produced by Taraji P. Henson & Gabrielle Union, and Haant, a horror feature rooted in Gullah-Geeche mysticism.
As a distinguished member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Brown also serves on the Academy Museum Inclusion Advisory Committee and the Producers Branch Executive Committee.
Kirthi Jayakumar
India
Kirthi Jayakumar is a peace educator, lawyer, and feminist researcher working in the areas of Women, Peace, and Security, Transitional Justice, and Feminist Foreign Policy. She founded and runs The Gender Security Project, one of the few WPS centres in the global south, which works at the cusp of gender, security, peace, and conflict through research, reportage, and documentation. Kirthi also set up the CRSV Observatory, which works to document conflict-related, systemic, and mass sexual violence across time and space. She currently serves as an advisor to the Women7 (W7) under the German Presidency of the G7. She also directs digital empowerment training and community leadership programs for World Pulse, a supportive social network connecting women worldwide for change. Kirthi coded an app for survivors of gender-based violence called Saahas, which works as a web and mobile app. She formerly founded and ran the Red Elephant Foundation, a civilian peacebuilding initiative that works for gender equality through storytelling, advocacy and digital interventions. She has trained over 7,000 individuals in bystander intervention, over 20,000 children in safe and unsafe touch awareness, and over 1,000 teachers on child sexual abuse prevention and timely response.