 Good morning. A beautiful day in Washington, DC. I want to welcome you all to the Global Intervaders Women Leading Change Around the World event today here at the US Institute of Peace. And whether you are one of the 300 or more people registered for the event, or joining us through our global webcast, I wanted to let you know that we will be tweeting today. You can follow the conversation on Twitter using hashtag GLA14 at USIP and at Vital Voices. So with that, my name is Kathleen Kinist. I direct the Center for Gender and Peace Building here at the US Institute of Peace, which for those of you who may be new to the Institute, we are an independent, nonpartisan institution established 30 years ago this year by the US Congress to increase the nation's capacity to prevent violent conflict. Although we sit today in this lovely building dedicated to peace building, we stand ready and are in danger zones every day around the world to support nonviolent approaches to resolving conflict. And thus, the event today is especially relevant to our mission. We are very pleased to co-host this event again with Vital Voices, Global Partnership, and the Bernstein Family Foundation. The Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards recognize visionary leaders around the world who find innovative solutions to enduring problems, and they each make a significant difference in not only their communities but far beyond the boundaries and borders of their countries. As you will see for yourself in a few minutes, the awardees are creative, courageous, clear-sighted, and relentless women leaders who redefine the concept of power in their pursuit of a better world. They see possibility and promise, and they act in the service of others. These women today come from four different countries, but together they fight for those whose dignity has been stolen by circumstances. We will have the opportunity to view short videos produced by Vital Voices about each of the work, of each of the awardees. And then in a very conversational way, we will hear remarks from each of the awardees and also open the discussion to you, our audience. So be prepared with some great comments, great questions to have this conversation. So before we begin our discussion, it is my sincere pleasure to introduce Jennifer Smith to you. She is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Vital Voices Leadership Program. Jennifer has been with Vital Voices for about four years, and her work in the past has been very engaged in corporate responsibility. So it's my pleasure to thank Vital Voices on behalf of USIP and to welcome you to the podium. Well, good morning, everyone, and thank you so much for taking the time to be with us for a few hours and meet and get to know these incredible women that Vital Voices has had the privilege of working with for a number of years. I'm Jenny Smith. I'm the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Vital Voices. And my job is to help bring partners to the table so that the women that you're about to meet, so that they get to continue to do what they do so well and that we can provide at least a little bit of support in our way to help expand their vision for change. It's our pleasure to be here this year. We've hosted this event in partnership with the US Institute of Peace and Kathleen and her incredible team for the past three years, I think. So thank you so much for your partnership and your leadership and the incredible platform that this institution provides to the women, like the women that you're about to meet this morning. I also want to thank the Bernstein Family Foundation. We've had an incredible partnership with you for the last number of years around the Global Leadership Awards and the support that you provide to our honorees every year is incredible and invaluable. The Bernstein Family Foundation uses its philanthropic platform to create incredible social change focusing on American democracy, the arts, culture, and other notable causes. So we're privileged to have a partnership with you and thank you very much for that. I'll just say just a little bit about Vital Voices and then we'll get started. We're a global NGO that's been around for about close to 17 years now and our mission is quite simple. We believe very much in the power of women's leadership and we search the world for incredible women who have a vision for change in their community, in their country and around the world and we invest in them and we help bring that vision for change to scale. We provide mentoring, networking, opportunities, training, capacity building and we believe very strongly that an investment in one woman can have transformational change in one community and our honorees that you'll meet this morning are the perfect example of that. So I encourage you to ask questions, learn more about them, visit our website and see how you can get involved. And I'll just explain the hashtag GLA that's in reference to our Global Leadership Awards which was hosted earlier this week which honored these incredible women. So we look forward to the conversation continuing and thank you again for your time. Thank you. I wanted to just mention that we do have simultaneous translation for Spanish. If you would like to hear in Spanish, it is channel number three and in English channel number one. And so to begin with our first honoree today, it is really a great honor to introduce to you Claudia Pazipaz. She is the 2014 Leadership in Public Life Awardee. Claudia is the first woman Attorney General of Guatemala. And I want to repeat that. She is the first woman Attorney General of Guatemala. A country, thank you. I think that is. A country that has gone through some of the most brutal civil wars and recovery and you are going to have the opportunity to hear how this woman has navigated a very difficult transition. She has been working in the justice system for 18 years as a legal expert, lawyer and activist. She received her doctorate in human rights and criminal law and served as judge and was the national consultant to the UN mission in Guatemala. To set the context for Claudia's work and for a conversation this morning, we will begin with the three minute video that highlights many of Claudia's achievements in her capacity as Attorney General of Guatemala. May we see the video now? I'm going to have to ask you for a favor. What a shame. You're never going to appear in the video. I'll bring it to you. It's not that you'll bring me, it's that the tent is up there and I'm not going. Here? Yes. A very few years ago, here in Guatemala, there was a claim that justified the private violence, the lynchings, the extrajudicial executions. If there were 10 people with 11 weapons that they were going to attack, to the other gang. To the other gang? In a shop? They were going to make a massacre. They were going to make a massacre. If they had people with weapons of power that they were going to commit crimes. I think a lot of Guatemalans, partidaries of the non-violence. I came a year and a half ago and I came because I thought it was very important what the Attorney General is doing. I don't think that a general fiscal man would want a diminutive of his name, but to me, Claudita, Mejita. But that was more in the beginning, now not. I think it has been a very successful operation. It is one of the strongest drug traffickers in the area of ​​the Oriente, in Guatemala. And did you ever get scared? Maybe not scared, but it is a very big responsibility. Thank you. There was a moment when they killed a high-ranking fiscal officer. And they left his body in the department governor's office with a note that said, direct the taxes. That moment was very hard. But we managed to quickly clarify the case. And the murderers are already convicted. As there is an effective, quick intervention, according to the law, the levels of violence are reduced. And I think it is something that we have achieved in these years in the institution. And that has been thanks to the effort of many people. Some of them work here in the public ministry, but also to the citizen effort, who believe in the justice that denies and who demanded at the time that these changes in the system of justice would occur. Guatemala cannot be allowed a process because they deserve much more. So I'm just making sure we're all on. Yeah, let's begin our conversation. And talk about this idea of somebody imagining you as little Claudia. And clearly you have a different leadership style. Tell us more about your leadership style and how you, coming from your background and your world, were able to exert that kind of authority to make change last. The first thing I would like to say that I'm deeply grateful. Can you hear me? Can you all hear me? It is a pleasure for me to be here and to share my experiences during the last three years in Guatemala. My first point is that the public ministry and its other justice institutions used to be a male-dominated institution. The previous attorneys and prosecutors were all male. And so my first step was to find people or my first challenge was find people that would either ignore me or shove me to the side or try to support me. So finally I found people who supported me and they started being nicer and supporting me. But I believe that with the day-to-day work and with my everyday responsibility of recognizing and giving value to everybody and to respect for everybody is something that we can do as women when we can play a role as leaders. Because I believe that we as women can play a different type of role, a different type of leadership, different from men. And we do it across the board, not top-down as usually happens with men. So there have been a lot of changes in the policy to have a more equal treatment for everyone. The ministry, the public ministry, along with the police department were male-dominated and also the victims, most of them were women, so we had to go along with them and provide that support. From so time, how long did that? Are we talking several years? Because that's a very big change to go from hierarchy to kind of a lateral approach to leadership. I held my position for three years, but of course it's a very deep, changing, transforming position because the first question that came up when I took my office as prosecutor, as attorney general was my question was, why were most of the attorneys male? And if we compare, we could be half and half, but especially in the smaller cities, there were some majority of male-dominated positions and also there is this idea that women join those positions or do not join those positions because they have family obligations or they have children or because they fear for the safety of the children and families. So my first proposal was, I wanted to change that attitude. I wanted to create more equality, so I decided to appoint more women. But my response of my female colleagues was no, because they had kids, young children, but then I started changing that attitude slowly but surely. I achieved that, of course, it took time, but it was a very significant major change, especially when we started dealing with cases and handling cases of victims of sexual and gender-based violence because for a victim who has suffered a type of violence to be able to be cared for by a woman, by another woman, gives her more encouragement and assurance we have seen cases of women who have been cared for or have had their cases seen by men and they become, once again, victims of sexual harassment or violence. So what we are trying to do is to have a center, one-step center where we have professional and female staff. We had a very particular case where we had made all these efforts to set up a 24-hour care center and a court for victims of gender-based violence because violence does not take place from 9 to 5, but it actually happens at night and we knew that at that place, in that location, there was a lot of gender-based violence and we did not understand why. We were making great efforts for people, for the staff, working there to be able to train and to learn how to handle these cases, but then we found out the only male security guard was the first person at the door where the women were entering the building to file the reports and he was discouraging the women from going in. He was telling them, like, what are you doing here? Are you sure you want to file a report? Why don't you just go back home? Of course, the important thing is that we have to train both men and women. You've presented and created in Guatemala the 24-hour court. Is that transferable? Can we use that model in other places or is it unique to Guatemala? In Guatemala, just like in many other countries, to... well, to typify women again or to criminalize violence against women is something very recent as an offense. This is a very recent action. If the woman, if the victim married her attacker, then there will be no liability for the partner anymore. So there was very strong work done by women's organizations in order to give greater visibility to the issue of violence against women as a matter of national security. And now that offense is the one that is the most reported. And one of the debates that we used to have around 2010, 2011 was whether it was necessary to have specialized tribunals or specialized prosecutors' offices. And we were thinking, the question was, why should we have a difference if justice should be the same for everyone? Should there be a different court for women and men and women? Well, they should be able to... they should be able to be cared for, but then we realized that that was not the case, that women could not go to the standard tribunals or courts. It is very important to have specialized courts that are trained in working and dealing with women and female victims, and especially working around the clock. We worked a lot or very close with the attorneys working with these victims. And one of the complaint that we heard a lot was, there are so many cases that are... very few cases that are solved. And the women said, well, when we go to the courts, we're the last ones in the line. And then the judge says, oh, your case is violence against women? Oh, you come back in three days and they postpone our hearing. And also, so we have had this new effort that we have to have specialized courts only to deal with cases of violence against women. The response and the number of reporting cases has been increasing a lot. And so the question whether this matter can be transferable, I believe that it can be transferred to other countries and it would be advisable to do so. I agree with you, and it's really a statement of that kind of innovation and understanding what it goes on for women hour to hour, that it's not on a day clock. It is 24-7. And your responsiveness to that issue really shows, I think, the kind of innovation that is necessary to deal with these very critical problems that many women deal with. I have a question, though, now before we open it up to our audience. Claudia, before you were the Attorney General of Guatemala, was there a day, was there a minute, was there just a progression in which you realized this was your work? I'm thinking of many young women in this audience who want to know how to recognize that moment when you just need to do something to make a difference. To be completely honest, I never imagined that I would come to, that I would become an Attorney General. I saw myself more as being a lawyer, human rights lawyer, perhaps a judge, not as an Attorney General. We went through a very strong crisis in Guatemala. Guatemala had a rate of 55% impunity rate, and an Attorney General was appointed who had to be ousted afterwards because he had been involved in organized crime cases, and then there was that idea that impunity will continue. So at that time, a new nominating committee opens up in order to appoint a new prosecutor general, and then we were together sitting around with some colleagues in a room very similar to this one, and the candidates were all male for the position of Attorney General. So I made a remark. You see how it's only male or present here, not women, and then one of the men present there said because women do not want to participate, but you do, you do want to get involved. And at that point I thought, so what happens if I do get involved? And then the concern is what's going to happen with my family? Am I going to jeopardize my family's safety? What's going to happen with my reputation, with my name? How am I going to deal with this? Because this is a position in a public ministry with more than 5,000 staff members. So finally I thought, well, I thought I was never going to be elected, but I applied for the position anyway, and then finally I was picked. I want to open it up now for Q&A from the audience. And if you're interested in making a comment, if you could just raise your hand right now, I'm going to take three questions. And if you would introduce yourself and representation of your organization, that would be great. And please stand when you make the question. Thank you. Thank you very much. My name is Pat Melia Dole. I am from Liberia. I work for the Civil Society and Media Leadership Program. And I'm also a student of law in my country. I want to congratulate our panelists for her effort so far in working towards justice in her country and fighting against domestic and sexual gender-based violence. From her explanation, their context is quite similar to ours in Liberia. We've set up a lot of systems in place, like one-stop shop, center, safe homes. And there's been a lot of training for the judiciary, including the justice system. And also there's a specialized court for domestic violence. However, in my country, domestic violence and sexual and gender-based violence is grossly underreported. So I'd like the panelists to share with me what particular measures, if there are any, that she has had in her country to kind of increase and encourage reports to make it to the judiciary. Thank you. Thank you. That's a wonderful question. And I'm going to take another one before Laudia answers here. Hi. Good morning. Thank you. My name is Autarelle Tumans. I'm actually Guatemalan as well. And my question to you is that, and do recently, Guatemala was known for being predominantly masculine in all levels of governance. And people like you, Sandatores and Yasmine Barrios, they really did make the way for women to become more involved. And my question to you is, how do you think women can become more involved, not only more in society, but also in other levels of government, aside from law? Thank you. And one more question up here to the left. Good morning. My name is Marzia. And I'm working with women for Afghan women. And my question is, how do the non-profit organizations for women in your country work? And how the government and non-profit organizations like work together? I mean, do you work more with the government or non-profits? Thank you. Laudia. Yes. There is no doubt that when it comes to gender-based violence and violence against women, there are cases that never reach the justice system because of shame, because of fear, because women have no other place to go to. One of the measures that I took was to guarantee that the victim was cared for in her own language. Because in Guatemala, we have many dialects, many language. So we made sure that we provided help in the victim's language. And the victim was cared for by a woman, that the courts and the prosecutors' offices were located closer to the victim. So this model that was first implemented in Guatemala City then was taken to other cities where there were very high rates of violence against women, especially sexual violence. And there was a commitment made, I believe, with the media, mass media, that started to report daily about the cases, the cases that were taking place, for instance, how many rapes, and so they started reporting more. So I believe that that work with the mass media was not only very helpful, not only reporting the facts as they took place, but also to show a face to it. And also, this made it possible for more women to come forward, to report. For instance, while the homicide rate went down, the other rates that went up were violent crimes, for instance, and I believe because they were greater, it's just because they were greater reporting by women, that explains the high rate of violent crimes. Since the public minister in Guatemala has the obligation of dealing with the victim, it is very difficult to do it by itself. So what we have done is referral networks where non-governmental organizations specialized in medical, psychological care, and also shelter, provisions, employment, economic empowerment, they can provide support to those women. So once they come to the public institution, they are referred to the other non-governmental organizations for that additional care where we provide them with that help. And I believe now how to getting more women involved as far as that, I believe that one of the mechanisms is more women participating, getting involved, becoming active, that will speak for itself. I believe that it's very telling, for instance, that when I submitted my application for out of 44 candidates, there were four women. And out of the, when we were running, having, holding elections for presidents, also there were a few women. So this is changing now about a third of women or a third of the participants in all the elections are women now. So this is changing. There is more female participation in elections in the public office. So to the extent that those public offices are held by women and there is more visibility, there is more consistent and transparent management and accountability. So that's very important as our case. I do see that your plan about making sure that these courts are closer to the victim, the language and engaging them in media, that to me seems like one of the more difficult parts of the story because as with court systems, it's often very male dominated. How did you convince the media? How did you engage them? And how do you engage men in your process to understand why this is about equal rights for all? Well, it was not my work alone. It has been a team work by women's organizations in Guatemala for many years now. I don't know whether you're familiar with the high rate of violent deaths of women in Guatemala. It's one of the highest rates of homicide of women in the region. And once we put this on the agenda, that we gave greater visibility to the problem, then we had very emblematic cases. We had the case of Cristina Zicadice, who was a woman who disappeared. She went missing. She was murdered by her husband. He took off with her and their children. He's already prosecuted. But those type of cases that were highly visible and that were publicized by the media and they were showing the citizens that it was not a problem only that affected some, but that affected all. So that also made it possible for the media to start taking more of this type of initiative and also for more men to becoming involved and to feel that it's not the women who are affected, but it's all society that is affected. I am so sorry I have to keep altering this. I want to just offer one more round of questions with Claudia. This is such an important area of work that I know we're doing in the world and Claudia exemplifies this women in leadership in law. My name is Claudia Enriquez. I am from Guatemala as well. I would like to ask you, how do you see the future of women in Guatemala? Now that, well, you already answered this partially, but the processes and measures that you have studied, do you believe they will continue? And we'll end on the future of women in Guatemala. Yes, I think that's a key point, key question in this time. It is critical. The most important thing is that we don't go backwards because we have made such great strides in the area of justice in being able to solve more cases in providing greater access to women, justice to the justice system, reduction in the homicide rate, which we would not think it would be possible from 46 per 1,000. We dropped it to 34 per 1,000 inhabitants. And this is critical because we are running elections for the judicial area this time. So that's very important. And also the citizens should be involved. They should be involved and should be engaged in all the process, to exercise the right to monitor the functioning, the operation of institutions. And I'm confident that we will not be going backwards. With you in that leadership role, and really as a global leader, you've offered us so much to think about this morning and really a roadmap of how this kind of work can be implemented in other countries. I really want to congratulate you again, and on behalf of the audience and our viewing audience, to thank you for everything you do every day in service not only of your country, but really of the world. Thank you, Claudia. So if you want to stand up, talk, introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you, or behind you, and I'm going to invite our other awardees to the podium. And this in every one of our events is just a mid-break event. It's good for the energy here. We're going to begin our second panel now. I think the first panelist has inspired us certainly to think differently about solving these problems. And our three following panelists, well, I think even expand our lens about what it means to innovate in a very complex global context. You will no longer need the earphones, so you can, unless you want to listen in English, we're going to begin. Our second panel really brings us into the context of three different countries. One in war, one in peace, and one in a society where there is a high degree of everyday violence. And we're going to look at how these three honorees have worked on solving these issues. Our first panelist, and we'll talk first each one individually, then have a group conversation and then open it up to another full conversation with you all. I want to introduce to you Suad Alami. Suad Alami is the 2014 Fern Holland Awardee of the Vital Voices Leadership Program. She is a lawyer from Iraq with over 20 years of experiencing and practicing family law. She has served on the Baghdad Provincial Council and the Sardar City District Council. She opened the NGO Women for Progress in Sardar City, which is the first legal clinic, especially for women in the country of Iraq. Her work includes providing free legal representation for women in cases of divorce, custody, and gender-based violence. Please join me now while we watch the video on Suad Alami's work. This is me in this photo. I'm standing in front of my NGO Women for Progress. And this is the main door to the building. When I start my NGO is just to help women legally. We found ourselves that that is not enough. They need more than the legal assistance. They need social assistance. This woman, her name, Jamila. And Jamila, it's mean, beautiful, pretty. But she doesn't have the beautiful or pretty life. She feeding here her two sons. One of them is handicapped and he cannot talk. She's living with her mother. She's very old. She has to work to raise her children. So we try to empower her economically. This girl, her name, Noor, she came to us to ask for the divorce six months after the marriage. And this is her mother and this is her father. The family, there are 11 people living in this one room. Most of the women who they get divorced when they return back to their own family, they cannot afford another member to come to live in the house. Her name's Sabrin. She's now, I think, 24 or 25 years old. She's divorced twice. Many of our cases here, they're getting married at 12, 13 years old and then they get divorced one year or even less than this. You can't see him in the early marriage. It is a domestic violence. The father is handicapped and he cannot work. So they are baking the bread and selling the bread in the neighborhood. They make this a small business to feed the family, to help their family. I mean, for the poor people, they cannot afford to hire lawyers how they can get their legal rights. Should be there are some places that they can seek the help to see that there's someone standing for them to help them. They start to believe that their life will be better, that they are a human being, that no one can violate their rights. We are working to make the people have a hope. Your last line, Suad, we are working to help the people have hope. I think that's particularly poignant today. Tell us about the ways that you hope to continue providing services and operating under the current conditions. It seems like it's more needed than ever. Good morning and thank you so much to have this opportunity to thank you and thank you for letting us talk today and express our experience and our work in our home countries. It is always for, in terms of my country, it was difficult and hard to work in such environment, conflict, sectarian violence and the neglecting by the government, despite that Iraq is considered the middle-income country. But people, they haven't seen any kind of, that they change, that they just sacrificed their lives daily, starting 2003 until now. It has been 11 years and just only the things and the life is just getting hard and worse and worse. I believe that I find myself just from the very beginning that I have to do something and I believe it is just to be responsible and this is responsibility should be anyone can take it and handle this responsible. Being or living in such environment and with these people in particular, I just came among them, these people, this is just give the trust, the people that they need, the someone who worked, come from them and being with them and understanding well what they are going through and what life they experience. It is not just in theory, it is just practical. So from all the experience that I have it, I just wanted to put it how I can tackle the needs of these people that we are working. So just providing that, I believe it is still not enough and with the limited resources that we have to continue the work and to continue at least we are now breaking the wall of the silence of this woman just to talk. And in this specific current situation in Iraq I think that there is our responsibility, it should be doubled and doubled and just keep working with them with this high risk that is in Iraq. When I left Iraq just last Wednesday, June 11th, the situation just one day before that is just getting deteriorated and everyone now is just holding the arms, and no one can know who they are, the good people, who they are not, who is going, might be where is the government, who can provide the needs. So the lack of the food, of the waters, it is just kind of mess and when I just eager, to go back now to Iraq to just help these people because I think this is the moment it should be with them and to just continue and to see how we can help them more than we did before because this is just really very critical time and which is embarked on these people. This is just current situation more than these people who they were already their lives just and they are living in terrible life. So now it is just getting worse so I believe that we all should standing to work helping these people now and tomorrow and always. The challenges have, as you pointed out only increased in the last week and in another week you will return. What will be the first thing you do? The first thing is just we try to come together as all the activist NGOs. I know it is not there might be the government have the United States in particular other international communities. I think with the just that last few years what has happened in the region which is just I am just talking about the Arab uprising, the revolutions in the region. Just impact that the support that we were taking getting to Iraq and to Iraqis people. I think my message now which is just to tell that please don't forget Iraq because Iraq should be the example for the change in the region which we started this even in 2003 and the other countries in the region they just started to have this change in just 2011. So we want to be an example and a good example for the transition from dictatorship to the democracy. So I think we just hope that I say please don't forget Iraq and keep support as in fighting all these things that we have just to achieve the democracy that to have a better life at least with the very simple standards not the high standards that we are looking for and to have a peace and security for because this is what we miss. We cannot even if you ask anyone in Iraq if they are going to do tomorrow then I do not know I do not know if I am going to live tomorrow or not so we do not have this hope or to planning to our even next day of the future. So that is what I want to say. Don't forget Iraq. I think that it would be good to turn now to the audience because I think there are questions and concerns and I am going to just ask the microphone thanks and please right here and do I have another question and here in the front row right here thanks. My name is Augusto Bejar and I work for BISLAC which is the Land American Center for Entrepreneurial Development my question will be of course to Sad Alami I am completely honored to be here definitely in front of you who demonstrate that our world is getting much better my question is in the case of Iraq much of the violence happens of course due to culture does your organization touches the issues for example within the culture like for example within like Islam trying to like try to see if the cultural side could also be a good idea. It's very difficult to hear on this mics can we transfer mics perhaps because it's maybe or hold it a little further like this. No I don't know what it is let's try a different mic so sorry but like this maybe further down a little further okay directly with the question the question will be are these issues that have gone in Iraq especially when it comes to violence against women there are many I'm not saying that not all but many for example within these areas put like Islam as a kind of like part of the part of the fault like something that actually is like not very friendly to women while your organization tries to when it comes for example when it comes to these issues when it comes to Islam for example like reinterpretation of the text that's something I will I'm very intrigued to know. So the social cultural issues surrounding women's roles and society, thank you so much and I'm going to take the second question right here and if there is a third and then I will open it up too sir. Danielle right here, thank you. Hi my name is Kathy Burke and I am a mother I brought my daughter today so that you can see what is going on outside of Fairfax County thank you my question and I think this is for all the women here and I congratulate you and I appreciate what you're doing I can hear in your voice how do you avoid the burnout how do you go day in and day out with the troubles and the heartbreak and not say forget it I'm going to Disneyland I'm out of here and I imagine it applies to all these ladies how do you avoid that? Great question I think I'll turn right now Suat one is about social cultural predicament of women and one is about how do you make it every day? Yes in terms of the social issues or cultural issues there is a major challenge in this area which is embarked on the on the women in different levels the whole women's issues I mean her participation her rights her her rule in the society the education the gender-based violence all this our rule as a women's group as an Jew or as in Iraq it is just how we can involve more women and raise their awareness and how we can mitigate this social issues and the cultural issues because it is quite challenge for her and for even her family Iraq is considered a tribal domination society which is this is also part of this cultural issues if you are talking I want to talk about the gender-based violence 2009 it was kind of taboo to talk about gender-based violence even that the women or the families the decision makers the decision makers always they say we do not have they deny we do not have a gender-based violence why you are saying that just hit our the Iraq reputation that is just before 2009 and then the whole work that we are doing it is just we raised we put this issues on the table with this huge work now we the government just take some steps towards tackle this kind of issues and they start to admit that we have this this cultural issues and they established the family protection units is a governmental body with the minister of interior which did a law which we hope that they will legislate it in the next parliament and this and then also it is most important to women themselves how they can start to believe to cross this cultural issues and to break the wall of silence and you that you just watched now women just want to talk women just want someone to listen to them to might be they just want have someone can help them find a place like that our NGO that we are doing it is just helping them try to listen to them what kind of needs they need because they are providing just actual real services to touch their needs this is big different for them and you will just build the trust and that will just overcome all the cultural issues I will not say we are we are trying to just to enhance to improve the situation for women and also this is not only with women but women and men together and with some of our work that we started to work with the local leaders in the community they are now very well understanding the situation and how like the issues of the gender based families just impact on the security of the country in general and how do you avoid burnout avoid the cultural issues how to avoid what we call here burnout meaning every day we wake up and these very impossible tragic issues face you how do you get up every day and maintain that sense of hope and commitment because always I am saying I have a passion to do that I believe that I just went get the course and I couldn't go back and also that because also for me I thought there is no another option this is the only option it is just to help this woman and I believe this is my responsibility as a woman to bring the woman's issues because the woman will not bring these issues we are going to bring that to the public life so I am just I feel that I feel this with the commitment with the passion that I have towards my community and I feel that I have to make this change for the people's life and I feel that always when I am saying I have to do this and I have to do this and will not keep aside and just watching because we are just watching and we will not do anything I think no one nothing will change and our life will not be going forward I think that answer no more watching we have to be doing that is really the sign and really the eloquence that you put into your leadership we so appreciate your efforts every day and thank you for sharing you know that in societies that are not at war they still every day have to address the inequalities of women's access to economic gain and our next honoree Victoria Kisambi is one of those examples of remarkable leadership 12 years ago Victoria opened her own business called Selfina it was about loaning and leasing productive assets to other women what an innovative idea we need things so that we can produce other things and Victoria really set out to do that she has generated sustainable income for each woman borrower and the other night when she received the award she said I have 25,000 women standing behind me we are going to hear more about not only Victoria but those 25,000 women but first we are going to show the video about the work that she does in Tanzania in Tanzania most women don't own land but the main collateral in this country is land so a micro lease allows a woman to finance business growth in this way women without credit history can access financing the life of a micro lease starts with a partner a founder someone who wants to help make a difference in the lives of others it's because of them that we can work with so many women we want to make sure these investments are fruitful so on Mondays prospective clients come for training land business skills and the process of taking a lease they write a proposal and they provide at least two guarantors we meet with them in our office and in their homes when the lease is approved the asset is delivered and the potential of the business really explodes with increased capacity she makes more payments over a number of months and at the end of the lease we pass the ownership to her for many women this is the first time they get to own an asset in their own name once she owns it she can leverage the asset as collateral for a traditional loan or she can sell it back to us for liquid capital and continue to lease in one very modest lease she can create dozens of jobs to begin Justina leased 100 baby chicks today she has more than 1500 chickens producing eggs she sells those eggs in the community and beyond Justina is a savvy businesswoman and her whole family loves her women are so resourceful from a handful of the most basic resource they grow something really extraordinary it has been a journey when faced with challenges that's when I've come to learn that's when you get strengthened and you feel yes there's something I need to do and mine of course started with difficulties but then I also realized that cultural barriers we are really putting many women in difficult situations not that our government is saying women should not benefit but then it's just the historical, the cultural the traditional system you know the inheritance or the ownership system that actually marginalizes the women and because of that then we find ourselves in a position whereby we cannot tap into the foundation institutions because we lack those the necessary equipment to use and for me the journey started with when I looked around at least despite the challenges that I was facing at that particular moment at least I had this one cow which was called Cero and I looked at it now in a more positive way that it was possible for me to sell milk to my children with the milk from the cow so it opened my eyes to feel that well at least there is an asset and that was after I tried to go to several foundation institutions and asked for a title deed which I did not have so I started counting on the strength of what I have in my hands and that was the cow so I felt there are other women who do not even have the cow so what can we do to assist them if they could have an asset we could go around this problem of not owning something they could immediately go into business and that's when the idea of leasing came into into effect and we got started here started with a cow what was the first thing beyond the cow what was the first thing you leased in your new business okay like I said it's a journey it was a dream I have to do something now to get started then I realized I had also to know what were the actual needs of the women because in my idea this is what they would need I had to understand what were the actual needs so the first thing I had a few women who believed in my thoughts so the first thing we did was to conduct a baseline survey to see what would actually benefit the women most and out of the baseline survey then we realized that okay there is a need for the productive assets but coupled with that there is also a need for training so we embarked first on training programs in raising the capacity to manage whatever the women have so we were first of all encouraging the women that if you have even five chicks that's your starting point at least you have something so if you manage it well if you sell eggs go feed the children and save a bit of that then you'd have maybe 50,000 shillings that's in our currents then you don't need to borrow but you can actually revolve that man and grow your business from that small capital that you have but then that led to our business training skills business management skills and also it came to our attention of course we are in Sub-Saharan Africa HIV AIDS is also rampant it's also a big problem so we also started to conduct trainings in HIV AIDS to raise the awareness and also to avoid the stigma and how to live health life if you have HIV AIDS and we later created a window for women who were raising orphaned children in that situation but also we saw there was also a need to invite women lawyers to come to our institution to talk to the women especially on two issues land issues and inheritance issues these were very pertinent problems to the women so as we went on the training it was clear that no matter how much we trained them still it was not enough because then access to finance was still a big issue these women could still not go to the traditional financial institutions to access finance and that's how then we started now to go into the leasing and to start with we did a pilot on three areas which most women are engaged with in my country many women are in food I can say food industry or anything to do with food they'll do food vending or they'll cook for weddings or whatever so we decided to lease equipment that would go into that sector and then the second sector was tailoring our women like to tailor our African designs like this one has been done by one of our clients and they would lease machines to make chain stitch machines chain stitches like this and then the third one was the secretary business because it was very clear that most of the women those who are lucky to be employed then they would be employed in stereotype jobs they would just be secretaries and you know just the wage not that enough but then when we give them equipment then they would open up their own secretary bureau they would manage their own businesses they wouldn't have to go around looking for jobs and some of them were creating jobs for their own daughters as well so when this worked well then we opened up now women who are leasing even their old cheeks lady cows etc making machines water pumps. Talk about the ability to replicate this model it sounds like something that could happen anywhere and everywhere it's a fabulous design and it sounds like it's really working I want to open it up to the audience here because I'm sure there are questions about this approach I have many more questions right here could you introduce yourself we'd love to know who you are I'm Beth Bronson I was with state department as a political officer in Mumbai and worked with Preeti there I was a gender justice advisor in Afghanistan so I followed women's empowerment issues in many different contexts and the issue of micro financing is a program in a number of different countries but how when women traditionally did not have assets did you convince your financial backers to give you the money to start the program thank you Beth great question another one right here hi thank you my name is Emma I'm from the women's democracy network we work towards women's inclusion globally but we've noticed as many of us I'm sure have that women's agency particularly economic agency and ability to support themselves is really closely linked with political activism and I'm wondering whether you've seen in your experience women becoming more politically active after becoming after going through training or after receiving leases from you thank you there's one more question up at the very top and then we're going to turn it back to Victoria for her comments hi my name is Tiffany Boykin I'm with him in revolutions and my question is that for the women who become entrepreneurs and earners of income I saw in a video that there were men employed how do you help with that change in dynamics if they are in a household and they are the breadwinners or they're in a community and they are employing men is there an issue of training or developing to prepare for any type of acts of resistance or balance because of their accomplishments great questions thanks so much from the audience Victoria I'm going to let you address them as you want thank you very much good questions it was possible for us to interest the bankers because we started small we put whatever the small money which we had but for each lease that we were doing it would go through the bank the money would be in the bank so each human each lease would finance it through the bank so the bankers could see the turnover you see when the women payback we deposit the money in the account and each lease would draw the money out of the account so the money goes in goes out and the banker can see that transaction and immediately sees that here I have a good client for instance I can give you an example we started very small and then very early in the early years we were lucky to receive a donation from the women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and I take this opportunity to thank them they gave us $5,000 and that money we put into our bank account and so whenever we would approve a lease it would draw down from that account and the women also put a deposit it's like cash 20% so that money goes into that account and each month when they pay it goes into there from the $5,000 it went to $20,000 and any good banker can see so when they saw that and the women the needs were increasing so we approached the banker and said look this is what we are doing and we have a line of clients we've approved a lot more so immediately the banker gave us a 20 million overdraft which should be like $10,000 more or less and within a month or two they could see how the turnover was they increased the overdraft from 20 million to 40 and immediate to 100 because we were working with them so when they see how it operates even the bank understands and maybe I can mention here that we started the lease program even before our country had a leasing law so there was a time IFC was interested in promoting leasing in Africa they started with Tanzania so they came to us and we were working with them on a day to day basis and to reach a point then they used our model to convince the decision makers so there was a time I was invited to our parliament and I was talking to the members of parliament like I'm talking to you today about what you were doing and we contributed to convincing the decision makers and now Tanzania has a leasing law so even the banks now are going into the leasing and the second one if the women are going more into the they become more politically active I would say yes if we empower them economically then actually what happens you give them a voice and that's what I said even during our when I was receiving the award it was really true it was coming from my heart what Vetovoices is doing today gives us a voice and the voice actually transcends to all the women that we represent economic empowerment is very powerful because then the women become decision makers at their own homes in the society and with that they become socially empowered and the next thing some of them start vying for political positions and we've had women who've vied for local leadership within their villages and some of them have gone beyond even to apply for member of parliament positions which in the past wouldn't have been possible so I mean I'm not saying we are the only actors but we take part in empowering women and now today in Tanzania even the government is really supporting men and women in the political arena almost 80% of our district commissioners now are women and in the parliament we have more than 33% representation which are women so we have our own small role which we are playing but it stands towards what the overall situation in the country is doing and there was a question on men being employed yes we do we take on board to sit down and talk with the men first of all the husbands if you are going to give a lease for instance you are giving a freezer which is going into a home and if the husband doesn't know and if something goes wrong he might even not allow you to go into the house so we sit down with them explain what this is all about but more important we want them to work together with the women and we have seen when we have men supporting their wives you find that the business goes well and the family unity becomes even better and we feel happy because we want them united rather than speaking so women empowerment should not actually lead to separation of families rather should bring them together and also we finance women but then if they can create jobs for men that's even better so that's what we are doing thank you thanks so much Victoria this is a really example of extreme innovation you keep innovating on your innovation if you will and it is a really powerful example of change in our society all the way into the parliament I hope you'll join me now in thanking and recognizing and finally in this really amazing morning of both inspiration and challenging all of us to do less watching and more doing I turn to Priti Patkar who is the 2014 Human Rights award of the vital voices program Priti has worked in one of Mumbai's most marginal groups prostituted women and in order to break this cycle of exploitation Priti opened four childcare centers that offer comprehensive 24 hour a day childcare the shelters provide meals healthcare education and most importantly a safe place for these children to live overnight we're going to watch a brief video and then we look forward to talking to you Priti about your work I did not know what my mother did for a living she was trafficked into the sex trade by a woman from a village she knew the woman we were paying rent but we did not stay inside the house rent was for allowing us to stay outside the house we had to sleep on the road it was an environment where anything bad could have happened at any time the world of such children remains limited to the red light area they internalize what they see around them and they begin to believe that what is happening is normal and right they will eventually end up getting inducted into the sex trade sometimes bad men from the community call children to their houses show dirty films to them and ask them to do bad things I never felt safe there I always dreamt of a quiet place without fear and noise and chaos I would wonder how I could find such a place and then prayer now happened in the beginning I would miss my mother a lot but in a couple of days I understood that my mother would come every morning to pick me up I always felt safe at Prerna and I liked that feeling to me Prerna means safety we are not alone at night the staff is always there and no one can enter the building today I am not afraid to face the outside world I learnt the importance of having an education I learnt the importance of grabbing every opportunity to learn new things I learnt that there is a world out there which is promising and full of opportunities my mother always wanted me to be safe and do well in life she tried to give me the best of everything so I want to do well in life that is my dream I will always give credit to Prerna for who I become you have been doing this work for 28 years can you tell us about the progress you have seen over almost three decades in changing these worlds maybe I should start with the recent developments June is a very very important month for students in India especially in India the 10th and 12th standard board exams mean a lot to students there was a time when I started work 28 years ago we didn't have a single child going to school in spite of having a large a real large school in the midst of the red light area and this year we had over 47 children who appeared for their 10 standard board exams with out of those 47 almost I think over 30 have got more than 70% and the highest score is a girl child with 77% and this is the progress that we have seen with students growing up doing their masters in social work becoming engineers doing their science, graduation with information technology if you invest in children no matter where they are born I think you definitely see good progress and see change and see the difference that they definitely become productive individuals and yeah and you can involve them to participate in peace processes they are no more angry and they are no more violent it seems that with every one of these women today you saw a gap, you saw a need that needed to be filled in your everyday world what was that moment for you what year was it was there a young girl, was there a young boy when you said I need to make a difference here this was in 1986 of course I had a small exposure to the red light area when I was doing my bachelors in social work but started looking at the red light area in 1986 in my early 20s of course it wasn't me alone, we were a small group of three of us which includes my husband wasn't my husband then and we started moving around these lanes in the then known largest red light area in Mumbai and maybe Asia called Kamati Pura and everyday we went to these brothels we did see a lot of violence we did experience a lot of exploitation but what really shook us was one evening when we were going to the red light areas we noticed of course that was perhaps the first time it hit us and then we started noticing this pattern almost everywhere was three generations soliciting at the same time and the youngest was as young as 14 years and it was so sad and I mean we really felt so helpless this young girl who was 14 her mother and her grandmother and the customers coming and looking at all three of them and this little 14 year old girl you know while her mother would say stand straight and then she would stand straight for a while and then again go down and wanting to go and play with the other children wanting to spend time with that little dog her mother would again pull her and say no stand straight and she would come again and stand like this and you know that I am living in this world in this city where a child can be put up for sale and these men probably were three times her age and actually scrutinizing her and seeing you know trying to visualize what is the kind of pleasure they would get from her I think that really got us and we were like no we have to stay here and make that change and that's how this 28 years of journey that's quite a story and you know I have to say I can't tell you how many times I have felt that same kind of helplessness and what is it because talking about when you were in your 20's and there are many people in this room in their 20's this is an important story how do you say this is the moment where I am going to make a difference all these years when I have thought about my entire journey I think I started on and I continue also because I mean I have not come from a very rich background not at all a very simple middle class Indian family but a very protected family very safe very secure and suddenly you are exposed to this world where anybody can do anything with you and there is absolutely nobody who really cares you know there exists absolutely invisible excluded children and when you talk to people about the plight of these children the reaction of the civil society is you know they are very apathetic and their reaction as well we need prostitution in our society so that girls like you you know I am in 20's so that girls like you are protected and I am like you know on one and if you go back 1986 was the time when you know we were all talking about human rights and we were all talking about child rights we said human rights wasn't enough we needed to have a special convention on children's rights because somewhere children are getting lost in this whole discourse of human rights human rights people are only concentrating on adults and in the sense of all that there is this big community and of course you probably all of you know India is a very populated nation for us 10,000 when I say is a very small number and then you have this big red light area and there are children all around and on the other hand we are sitting in these fancy offices government departments talking about children's rights and this for me was the first form of violation of children's right I mean if I walk the street if somebody touches me believe me I just turn around and I am ready to slap that person just I mean I forget I have no power maybe I am violating maybe I will you know I will be on the other side of the law but I am just ready to just hit and physically hit and here there are these children who are being touched fondled you talk to their mothers and you talk to their children and they think well this is normal this is how we all are suddenly it hits you that there is this whole community which you know one community where I come from where I will not tolerate even the smallest bit of exploitation and there is this other community which is just internalized exploitation where they found support systems within an exploitative system and where they believe that well we are going to be in this vicious circle I mean there is no exit this is it this is how we are destined to be and I think that's something you know you are you lead a life where you want to talk about rights and you want to talk about your personal rights and you want to have a voice less invisible excluded children and nobody cares for them and society thinks well they should be here where else would they be you know you want prostitutes so it's better that children born in the red light area are inducted rather than you know traffickers and pimps going out and getting organized our normalcy of sorts and we also allow such exploitation as a part of our normal sphere I know there are lots of people in the audience who have comments and questions here and right have you asked a question yet I'm going to go if you don't mind and then we'll come back around to you there's someone right here and if you could just raise your hand so we can get the next question my name is Adela coming from the Inter-American Development Bank thank you and I feel really honored to be with you having access to justice access to finance and access to the basic human right I think for us we take it for granted but in other places it's not so I was thinking what would happen in the future for us for the persons who are like other generations I'm sure that these kids look at you as a mother grandmother what would happen when you're not there it makes me fearful so I just wanted to ask you about that next question right here in the middle in the orange hi my name is Hyel from Pepperdine University and I wanted to ask you is there any kind of counseling going on while you're carrying out these social like a childcare program for the kids you know thinking about their home life and about how they are going to use that or yeah just about that counseling thank you and third question hi my name is Lottie and I'm a student at the George Washington University and my question is since it's so normal and you see grandmothers and mothers and daughters how are you able to get started and convince the mothers that it's not normal for their 14 year old daughters to be earning money this way and to get started and have them go to school and participate in like classes and dancing and just be a child if the mothers and the grandmothers both grew up in this kind of culture and this is our one last question up there in the black name Anderson and I work at a public charter high school and I'm just wondering if there are economic if there's ability for these women to have jobs other than prostitution if that's being worked on as well great thank you pretty a lot of questions and I'm sure many more yeah they call me a grandmother and I feel so sad I just feel it's because of my gray hair yeah for old generation coming in they're still connected with the program but we do not insist we do not insist because there are children who've come and told us they do not want to come back to the program because it's a constant reality of what happened to their mothers where they were born so we do not insist but we still have children who come back to our program in terms of what will happen to them supposing we are not there then first and foremost yes we don't want to be there we want to shut down as soon as possible and what we've done and what we believe in is that we need to socialize intervention and not monopolize so if you see our organization yes it's 28 years old but it's a very small organization it's not about having many chapters in different states it was our effort to demonstrate and show to the world that here exists this group if you do this kind of intervention this is what can happen and it's all about mentoring others who want to do similar work so we've had many partners we have many organizations in India doing similar work today and if you look at entire process the way we built the care plans around these children is that it's around getting them to sustain themselves so that they are not dependent on an organization it's also linking them up with other organizations in and around Mumbai and wherever we work and it's also helping them understand to network with other organizations and not to depend just on us so except for a few programs that we've innovated what we've always tried to do is mainstream our intervention as well we do not want to set up and we've never aimed at setting up exclusive programs for children of prostitutes because that's also a lot of stigma attached to it so what we've done is there are childcare institutions around and we feel that this child should get space in those childcare institutions and not childcare institutions built separately and exclusively for these children so that's how we also try to socialize this issue so that people are not dependent on one organization counseling yes that's a major part of our program because these children do require psychosocial counseling they go through a lot of trauma it's a lot especially when they come in contact with the outside world see when they are in that world like I said they think this is normal but when they come in contact with the outside world see we the people in the outside world have divided the world into the good and the bad categories and we very clearly keep giving messages to people that prostitution and anything related to prostitution is part of the bad world and these children do experience that and that's when you know they go through a lot in their mind a lot that happens to them and counselors are important and are important members of our team and we encourage counseling though it's a taboo in India to visit a counselor and our children experience that as well because we have some when they are little they are so happy to go to a counselor they are like I have been denied that right what are these children doing in that room you know with all toys and everything so they are all like even we want to go there but once they grow up and they get to know counseling is a mental health issue and in India yes we are still at that stage where we feel mental health is equal to being mad so that's the time children are a little but yes you need to work around that as well and you know encourage them and ask them and innovate on how this whole counseling can be introduced to them so we do have a counseling program convincing them to go to school oh my god I must tell you how shocked I was but before that how we convinced them we didn't do everything perfect there was this school and we said if you send your child to school that was the time we actually had conversations with the brothel keepers otherwise the perpetrators of the sex trade are not part of our program we told them that if this child is away from the brothel he is going to let that woman be free terrible with this real I mean for me it's still a kind of a sin that probably I committed we told them let the mother be there let her be free to entertain customers give this child who will be away in the school for 8 hours not bothering you at all it worked perfect but the worst was when one day me and my team we were going and we were like we haven't come and we have a very strong outreach program so we are most of the time in these communities and in the brothels getting these children interacting with the mothers and one brothel keepers sitting you know this huge looking lady sitting on her couch she tells the women send the children with this lady you know let her go let your kids get educated so that they will not rot the kind of brothels that you are in it's good good good you know they will be better educated and we can push them in high high class high end brothels and I was like ah my goodness is this what we are you know is this the kind of message we are giving and we actually came back and you know as a team we discussed oh my god you know if this is how they perceive then we need to think back and you know revisit our strategy and then we said no no no you know let them stay in that what is it illusion and we will make the most of it we will still get the children out we will look around the law and we will see the next stage how can we use law to protect this children when they decide it's the right time to take this educated girl again to resell her so economic yes I mean ah we feel rehabilitation is what we cannot put the onus of rehabilitation on this woman the onus of rehabilitation has to be on the society because women want to move out of the sex trade their problem is who's willing to take them who's willing to employ them so what really worked for us is Victoria's model you know we are not into implementing anything like this but whenever women came and said we want to move out can you give us that little fund we didn't do anything like Victoria we that's not our skill sets but what we did was we got donors to give them the money saying that you give them the money they may not return it but at least they'll manage they'll be able to ultimately sustain themselves and that model with adult prostitutes has really worked very well with younger ones who were rescued from the sex trade when they were 17-18 we have we have a very good model where we tied up with the corporate sector who trained these girls and wherever possible also employed them and where shelter is a major problem in our country so it's not just giving them employment but where will they stay so we then have this very innovative model called the aftercare group model where we would put three or four girls together they would stay we would hand hold them for a couple of years and then they are independent so yes we have worked on economic rehabilitation but our challenge is not the woman her skills her education to move out our challenge is the society again which is not willing to accept them thank you and thank you for also adding to our list of all the ways these women demonstrate innovation including innovating even amid illusions we've come to the end of our program today and I want to thank all of you who've joined us today both online in this auditorium for a discussion about poor women's lives for women who in their own world innovate constantly and who have clearly made the invisible visible through their dedicated service who have broken the silence in their neighborhoods in their communities in their countries through their compassion and their courage to make a difference I hope you will join me now in really recognizing these women today