Women for Women International
Women for Women International provides education and training services to women in war-torn and chaotic communities. Reaching out to women who have suffered intense emotional trauma, grief, poverty and violence, Women for Women International provides a year-long program focused on business skills development. With training divided into four modules throughout the year, Women for Women International seeks to help marginalized women grow to a place of personal empowerment, self-sufficiency, leadership and well-being. Here at The Orchid Recovery Center, we admire what Women for Women International has done to strengthen women’s rights throughout the world.
The Inception and Growth of Women to Women International
Founded by husband-and-wife team Zainab Salbi and Amjad Atallah, Women to Women International began by partnering female American sponsors with women who had survived the horrors of war – and the ensuing rape camps – in the Bosnia region. From its meager beginnings, Women to Women International has grown astronomically. Since 1993 alone, the organization has distributed an excess of $33 million in relief efforts and loans to those in need. More than 120,000 women have benefited from Woman to Women International’s efforts – an immense level of growth since the organization’s first year of dedicated work with eight women.
Today, Women for Women International brings aid and educational efforts to women throughout the world, including Colombia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, the Congo, Rwanda, Kosovo, Sudan and Iraq, with the help of more than 20,000 sponsors internationally.
How Women to Women International Makes a Difference
Some of the means that Women for Women International uses to achieve these goals include direct relief efforts, human rights awareness training, and business education and development courses. Women for Women International has also earned a reputation as a champion of women’s rights – particularly in third-world countries. As part of their training, disadvantaged women learn to transcend the social exclusion they may have come to suffer, understanding their rights, boundaries and personal power as women. Many of the women helped by the organization have suffered repeated incidents of injustice and violence, including threats of death, sexual assault, female trafficking, forced migration and physical abuse.
