2017 International Women of Courage Awardees outside Meridian House, Washington D.C.
"By Thomas A. Shannon on March 29, 2017
First Lady Melania Trump, today, honored 13 extraordinary women with the Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award. This award recognizes women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights, empowerment, and justice, often at great personal risk..."
Read entire article @: DIP Note
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"Biographies of the Finalists for the 2017 International Women of Courage Awards"
"African Affairs (AF)
Ms. Malebogo Molefhe (Botswana)
Malebogo Molefhe is a former National Basketball player who narrowly escaped death after being brutally attacked and shot eight times in 2009 by her deranged ex-boyfriend. She survived the attack but uses a wheelchair due to extensive spinal cord injuries. Since her attack Malebogo has felt led to advocate for herself and other women and girls that are survivors of gender-based violence (GBV)...
Ms. Rebecca Kabugho (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Rebecca Kabugho is an activist in the LUCHA (Struggle for Change) citizen movement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Despite great depression, everyday threats and the risk of arrest, Rebbeca bravely played a key role in a series of peaceful and non-violent demonstrations demanding that the Congolese government hold credible elections in 2016 as required by the Congolese Constitution....
Major Aichatou Ousmane Issaka (Niger)
Major Aichatou Ousmane Issaka is currently Deputy Director of Social Work at the Military Hospital of Niamey. In 1996, she became one of the first women in Niger to join the army. She is also one of the first women in Niger to attend a military academy. While being a wife and mother of three,...
East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP)
Ms. Veronica Simogun (Papua New Guinea)
Veronice Tamar Simogun is currently the Director of the Family for Change Association based in Wewak, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. She studied at the Civil Aviation Training College and graduated with a Certificate in civil aviation in 1981. Risking her own safety, she has directly intervened to protect women experiencing gender-based violence...
Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (Vietnam)
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh is a blogger and activist who, since 2006, has blogged extensively on environmental and human rights issues in Vietnam, publishing principled arguments to inspire change and greater transparency. Ms. Quynh co-founded the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers, an independent writers association that encourages members to "protect people's rights and freedoms from restrictions and censorship."...
European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR)
Ms. Saadet Ozkan (Turkey)
Saadet Ozkan, born in 1978 in Izmir, is a former primary school teacher and a gender activist who has become a champion for victims of child abuse. She deliberately chose to work in a village school, believing she could make a difference that way. After uncovering a decades-long pattern of sexual abuse in the school. she forced a criminal investigation of her principal, persevering in the face of pressure to drop the case...
Near Eastern Affairs (NEA)
Ms. Jannat Al Ghezi (Iraq)
Jannat Al Ghezi and the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) take daily risks to help women throughout Iraq escape violence and even death by offering them shelter, training, protection and legal services. OWFI has helped over 500 victims of rape or domestic abuse. Jannat's role within the organization has been to coordinate the network of shelters for battered women. These shelters have been particularly helpful to countless Yazidi and other women from the Mosul area who suffered horribly under the brutal ISIS...
Sister Carolin Tahhan Fachakh (Syria)
Sister Carol, as she is known, is a member of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. Throughout the war, Sister Carol has remained in Damascus, although she was born is Aleppo. She has put her life at rish to serve the people in this war-torn country and remains a beacon of hope...
Ms. Fadia Najib Thabet (Yemen)
As a Child Protection Officer who reported on violations against children in conflict during the recent conflicts in Southern Yemen, Fadia Najib Thabet faced death threats on a regular basis as she tried to protect the region's children from Al-Qaeda and Houthi militias. Through her courageous work, she dissuaded young boys from joining Al-Qaeda, exposed its Yemeni branch "Ansar al Sharia" as a recruiter of child soldiers and documented for the United Nations Security Council cases of mining, abduction, rape and other human rights violations by various armed groups...
South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA)
Ms. Sharmin Akter (Bangladesh)
At only 15 years of age, Sharmin Akter courageously resisted her mother's attempts to marry her off and secured the precious right to continue her education, setting an example for teenage girls across South Asia facing similar pressures. Bangladesh has one of the world's highest rates of child marriage, a trend that threatens the health, safety and education of millions of girls and undermines the country's progress. She dared to break the silence expected of women and girls and advocated for her rights, eventually bringing her mother and prospective husband to justice...
Ms. Sandya Eknelygoda (Sri Lanka)
Sandya Eknelygoda is a symbol of the search for justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. following the disappearance of her husband, journalists Prageeth Eknelygoda in 2010, Sandya made it her mission to fight for the families of the missing. As a result, her husband's case has become a barometer of the Sri Lankan government's ability to restore the rule of law and accountability to the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution it co-sponsored in October 2015...
Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA)
Ms. Natalia Ponce de Leon (Columbia)
Natalia Ponce de Leon started the Natalia Ponce de Leon Foundation in April 2015 to defend, promote, and protect the human rights of acid attack victims. Her life changed in March of 2014 when a stalker threw a liter of sulfuric acid on her face and body. In her role as an activist, she fought for and achieved the passage of a law that increased penalties for attackers using chemical agents and required the Ministry of Health to improve training in hospital burn units for acid attacks and other burn victims....
Ms. Arlette Contreras Bautista (Peru)
Arlette contreras Bautista is a Peruvian activist, lawyer and domestic violence survivor. Her case, captured on video, sparked nationwide outrage and unprecedented demonstrations in Peru against gender-based violence. Arlette refused to accept the one-year suspended sentence her attacker received for the lesser charge of assault, after the court dismissed the more serious charges of attempted murder and rape. She joined forced with other survivors of domestic violence, civil society organizations, and regular citizens to launch Peru's grass roots "Not One Woman Less" movement...."
Read entire Biographies of Courage Awardees @: U.S. Department of State
