2024
THE WOMEN HAVE WINGS AWARDS
Presented in partnership with the United Nations Women’s Peace & Humanitarian Fund (WPHF)
Neelima A. Chowdhury
Bangladesh
Neelima Akhter from AGRAJATTRA and Anowara Begum from EKATA will collaborate on a peer learning project aimed at enhancing the capacity of staff, volunteers, and board members of both CSOs. This project will involve skill-building workshops and on-site visits. Training topics will include gender-based violence, mental health and psychosocial support, internal auditing systems, prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment, project monitoring, documentation, and reporting.
Neelima Akther Chowdhury was born in Mofizabad Village in Cox’s Bazar District, an area frequently affected by natural disasters and humanitarian crises. Neelima started her career at the National Youth Development Academy. Her passion for empowering women drove her to establish AGRAJATTRA in 1998, a women-led organization based in Cox Bazar focused on skill development and self-employment projects for underprivileged women, particularly in the readymade garment sector. Under Neelima’s leadership, AGRAJATTRA has implemented numerous programs focused on women’s rights and economic independence such as the Dream Home for street children in Ramu. This program provides shelter, education, and vocational training to vulnerable girls, helping them break the cycle of poverty, and supporting a significant number of girls to transition into formal education systems. During the Rohingya refugee crisis, Neelima in her quality of AGRAJATTRA’s chief executive, coordinated efforts to provide emergency relief (food, shelter, and medical aid) to thousands of refugees, with a focus on protecting displaced women and girls from violence and exploitation. Her work has not only alleviated immediate suffering but also laid the groundwork for long-term peace and stability in the region.
Anowara Begum
Bangladesh
Anowara Begum started her career as a social worker engaged for achieving women and child rights in South-East Bangladesh. She is the founder and executive director of the NGO N.Z. Ekata Mohila Samiti which strives to uplift the socio-economic status of marginalized communities in Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT), a region characterized by a unique topography and high levels of poverty. Anowara has dedicated over two decades to promoting nutrition, agricultural development, water and sanitation, biodiversity management and disaster management in CHT. Anowara’s leadership has focused on emergency food assistance, landslide, flash flood recovery, and sustaining community health services in remote hilly areas. Anowara has also provided legal assistance to women victims of violence and raised awareness of their rights. Her work has contributed to promoting gender equality and peace in the CHT region through implementing initiatives such as the "For the Women by the Women" project, which established a strong women's network and increased women’s income through building an agro-based resource center. This project improved food security and motivated women to take on leadership roles in their communities, thus fostering a culture of self-reliance and resilience.
Queen Kawisa
Malawi
Queen Kawisa is a young Project Coordinator at Chipembere Community Development Organization (CCDO), a women and youth-led organization committed to empowering the youth, young women, girls and children to voice out issues that affect them on their daily lives, fighting against early marriages, preventing HIV/AIDS infections and mitigating their impact. CCDO also strives at promoting local democracy and human rights, gender equality and enhancing rural women and young people’s active participation in the socio-economic development. Queen is leading Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning at CCDO. Her contributions have been pivotal in supporting the organization’s team in developing evidence-driven interventions. Queen holds a bachelor’s degree in statistics from the University of Malawi. In her capacity at CCDO, Queen has been developing and implementing projects aimed at addressing and resolving conflicts. She works closely with local leaders, women's groups, and other stakeholders to advocate for gender equality and peace. She is deeply involved in raising awareness about the importance of women's participation in peacebuilding processes through advocacy campaigns. Queen’s leadership has resulted in an increasing number of women becoming involved in local peace committees in their respective communities. In 2023, during Cyclone Freddy flooding devastation in the southern region of Malawi, Queen spearheaded her organization's efforts in mobilizing resources to aid the victims, 60% of whom were women and children. Through her initiative, 560 women received dignity kits and were provided with essential water, sanitation, and hygiene equipment, thereby offering critical support in the wake of the disaster.
Promise Msampha from Umunthu Plus and Queen Kawisa from Chipembere Community Development Organization (CCDO) will develop a peer learning project focused on skill building and knowledge sharing between their CSO staff members and volunteers. This project will involve exchange visits and training sessions on organizational management, women's rights programs, and gender and digital communications. Additionally, the CSOs will jointly develop a peacebuilding campaign for local community members and conduct orientation sessions with women and youth to emphasize the importance of women's leadership in decision-making.
Promise Msampha
Malawi
Promise Msampha holds a Bachelor of Science in natural resources management and is an advocate for gender equality. Promise serves as a program manager at Umunthu Plus, a local NGO dedicated to promoting women and girls’ rights in Malawi. In this role, Promise has been instrumental in developing staff capacity in project management, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. Promise has also contributed to spearheading the “HeForShe” Initiative that endorses positive masculinity, and the 'Skills for Her' initiative which focuses on strengthening women’s capacities in economic empowerment, advocacy, and negotiation skills. Promise has also championed women's land dispute resolution, business management training, and environmental management through the SMART CLIMATE initiative. In this domain, Promise has been proactive in addressing energy poverty's impact on women and girls and advocating for clean energy to mitigate health risks associated. Her efforts led to the development of a briquette prototype from agricultural waste that scaled up to 2000 households in the Mkwinda Extension planning area. Furthermore, Promise has established the 'Vocal Ladies', a women's movement advocating for women's rights and conflict prevention in the Nkhotakota district and surrounding communities. During the 2024 Nkhotakota flood disaster, Promise played a crucial role in providing life-saving support, coordinating protection clusters, and delivering training to prevent gender-based violence among women in the affected areas. Her contributions have increased women's participation in land allocation, and improved awareness of women's rights among over 2000 women.
Diana Kirungi
Uganda
Diana Kirungi from the Great Lakes Union for Inclusive Development (GUIDE) together with Caroline Banura from Centre for Development Outreaches Africa (CEDOA) will develop a peer learning project for the staff and members of both CSOs. GUIDE will train CEDOA in advocacy strategies for prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and develop a resource guide on PSEA for marginalized women. Both CSOs' staff members will participate in training on mental and emotional well-being to increase their resilience, and CEDOA will train GUIDE's staff in media and digital literacy. Additionally, the CSOs will conduct joint visits to women refugees and develop media awareness campaigns to prevent SEA.
Diana Kirungi is a social worker and researcher and the founding Director of the Great Lakes Union for Inclusive Development (GUIDE), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting peace, governance and development processes that are responsive to the needs of women and girls, persons with disabilities and refugees. With a bachelor’s degree in Social and Community Development, Diana has empowered community paralegals in the Rwenzori region in legal education to defend women’s land rights. Through her career, Diana has led advocacy and community outreach programs in areas such as young migrant rights, child welfare, and women’s leadership. At the helm of GUIDE since 2017, Diana has used documentaries, workshops, and counselling to increase awareness of sexual and reproductive health rights of refugees and improve access to support services for refugee survivors of sexual violence in Bidibidi, Kiryandongo, Nakivale and Rwamwanja refugee settlements. In the wake of the 2014 ethnic conflicts in the Rwenzori region, Diana, working with Community Aid International, created “The Children’s Safe Space” to which 52 children were temporarily evacuated, sheltered, and received peace education for five months. Since 2022 Diana has been leading a project focused on training women counselors in security risks associated with climate change and training refugee women community groups in climate-informed conflict analysis and peace negotiation skills.
Caroline Banura
Uganda
Caroline Banura is a trainer with a master’s degree in local governance and human rights. Caroline has over 20 years of experience working in the field of women’s empowerment in Uganda. From 2007 to 2014, Caroline served as a Research and Advocacy Officer at the Rural Women Empowerment Network. Since 2014, Caroline has been advancing women’s leadership and electoral participation in Uganda through training women CSO leaders in advocacy strategies (including on social media), training journalists in gender-sensitive coverage of electoral processes and strengthening the skills of women candidates in governance issues. Since 2015, Caroline is the Executive Director of the Centre for Development Outreaches Africa (CEDOA), which aims to provide data-driven information, education, communication and empowerment programs, and technology-aided humanitarian assistance to marginalized communities. In the 2021 elections, Caroline created the “Women’s Situation Rooms” which promoted women’s peaceful participation in elections in Uganda. Physical rooms were hosted by CEDOA regionally in Kabale, Arua, Soroti, Gulu, Mbarara and Kampala to monitor and receive cases of election related violence against women. This information was shared with the security operatives for response.
Naumy Mbareeba
Uganda
Naumy Mbareeba from Women’s Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA) together with Florence Masuliya from Tusitukirewamu will develop a peer learning project in benefit of their CSOs' staff, volunteers, and board members. The CSOs will participate in training sessions in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, mental health, and digital security, and conduct on-site visits to learn from each other’s accountability and governance processes. Both CSOs will also connect with relevant organizations, such as the International Community of Women living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) to improve learning on handling sexual reproductive health violations.
Naumy Mbareeba is the 4th Executive Director of Women’s Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA), which was led and founded by sex workers in 2008 to address discrimination in health care systems and social stigma as well as advocate against punitive and restrictive legislation and policies that encourage violations of sex workers’ rights in Uganda. Naumy is a female sex worker, and a women’s human rights defender (WHRD). Naumy started her activism work in 2014 with an agenda of promoting, protecting, and defending the rights of fellow sex workers in Uganda. Naumy puts tireless efforts in combating gender-based violence (GBV), promoting access to friendly health care, building peace in the community, promoting sexual reproductive health rights, and fighting for women’s economic empowerment in Uganda. Naumy has supported over 500 female sex workers by following up cases of arrest and GBV death cases due to violence to foster victims’ access to justice. Naumy has engaged with police officers, district officials, members of Parliament and line ministries, over violations and discrimination against sex workers amidst an unfriendly environment where sex work and sex workers are criminalized.
Florence Masuliya
Uganda
Florence Masuliya is a woman human rights defender specialized in mobilizing and educating communities in the slums of Kampala about HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual reproductive health rights (SRHR) prevention and coping mechanisms. Since 2010, Florence has implemented community led interventions on HIV/AIDS, SRHR and GBV in partnership with ActionAid International Uganda, the Women Human Rights Defenders Network Uganda, the Coalition for Health Promotions Uganda and the International community of women living with HIV. In this context, Florence has closely worked with the LGBTQI community and adolescent girls providing them with counselling and education about their rights. Florence as one of the founders and current Executive Director of Tusitukirewamu Group Bwaise has committed to advocate for the rights of women of all diversities, LGBTQI communities and women with disabilities. Tusitukirewamu is a women led organization that was initiated in 1998 to respond to the increased rate of family and marriage breakage as a result of GBV and HIV/Aids. However, after realizing that GBV is one of the accelerators of the spread of HIV/Aids, the group compelled in increasing community awareness on the dangers of the two epidemics and how those more at risk can safeguard themselves.
Tetiana Bayeva
Ukraine
Tetiana Bayeva from NGO Podilskyi Centre “Genderna rada” together with Natalia Savitska from NGO Equality in Action will develop a peer learning project focusing on supporting women's economic self-sufficiency and political participation in Khmelnytskyi region, which hosts numerous internally displaced people due to the war. Both CSOs' staff will exchange approaches and tools for strategic planning and participate in a retreat focused on self-help and self-support. The CSO teams will also meet 10 women representatives of the Equal opportunities' deputy groups and 10 successful women in the economic sphere. Additionally, a seminar on the implementation of gender policies will be conducted, and a TV programme on partnerships between women's NGOs will be developed.
Tetiana Bayeva is a trainer in gender issues and the head of the NGO Podilskyi Centre “Genderna rada.” She has expertise in providing business development assistance to women’s startups. In the early 90s, Tetiana worked to combat human trafficking and domestic violence as part of a Businesswomen’s Association in Khmelnytskyi region. In 2007, the Podilskyi Centre “Genderna rada” was established to strengthen women's rights in the political and economic spheres. At the beginning of the war in 2014, Tetiana took part in a project of an international migration organization that provided equipment for self-employment and business development to internally displaced persons (IDPs). In 2019, with Tetiana's assistance, an Information and Consultation Centre for families of Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) and Joint Forces Operations (JFO) participants was opened in Khmelnytskyi. In 2018, Tetiana also worked actively on the National Action Plan (NAP) for the Implementation of UN Resolution 1325 and initiated the creation of the Coalition “Khmelnytskyi region 1325” which includes over 30 NGOs and state institutions in order to localize the NAP in the region. Tetiana is also the head of the Women’s Movement of Khmelnytskyi region which includes over 20 women’s and feminist NGOs and she supports the creation of Equal Opportunities deputy groups in public councils in several regions of Ukraine such as Chernivtsi and Chernihiv.
Natalia Savitska
Ukraine
Natalia Savitska has been working in the public sector since 2019 to help women affected by Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine. Natalia is the head of the NGO ‘Equality in Action’, which aims to empower women and protect their rights, through engaging women in active citizenship and supporting youth leadership through awareness raising and advocacy campaigns in territorial communities. Under Natalia’s leadership, Equality in Action has provided humanitarian, psychological and legal assistance to vulnerable groups of women including internally displaced persons (IDPs). In 2019, Natalia helped to create the first Information and Consultation Centre for Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) and Joint Forces Operations (JFO) participants, their families, and IDPs in the Khmelnytskyi region. She is a member of the Coalition “Khmelnytskyi region 1325” to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and the country’s National Action Plan on WPS. Natalia was the driving force behind the formation of the IDP initiative group and the initiator of the IDP Council in the Khmelnytski community located in Western Ukraine which is currently home to more than 30,000 IDPs. Natalia is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Khmelnytskyi City Council.