Monday, March 10, 2014

International Women's Day

I was reading this article and was LOVING all of the information I found it in regarding what these women are doing!  I will be checking out each of these organizations at some point but wanted to give a little shout out on my blog regarding International Women's Day this past weekend as well as what these amazing women are doing - especially when it comes to world hunger (and other issues).

Here are 23 women righting the wrongs of hunger that will be celebrated on International Women’s Day, according to Food Tank:
  • Rebecca Adamson—Adamson is founder and president of First Peoples Worldwide, an organization facilitating the use of traditional Indigenous knowledge in solving issues such as climate change and food security.
  • Rucha Chitnis—Chitnis is the South Asia program director of Women’s Earth Alliance, mobilizing resources to grassroots, women-led groups who are working to secure women’s rights and food sovereignty.
  • Ertharin Cousin—Cousin is the executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme. She leads the organization with more than 25 years of experience combating hunger and food issues worldwide.
  • Grace Foster-Reid—Foster-Reid is the managing director of Ecofarms, a community-based business in Jamaica that produces honey products from her family’s farm.
  • Stephanie Hanson—Hanson has been the director of policy and Outreach at One Acre Fund since 2009, which provides smallholder farmers in Africa with support, inputs and training, with the goal of doubling agricultural production on each acre of smallholder farmland.
  • Wenonah Hauter—Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, Hauter has worked extensively on food, water, energy and environmental issues, and her book, Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America, examines corporate control over our food system.
  • Heather Hilleren—Hilleren is the founder and CEO of Local Dirt, an online platform for finding and buying fresh, local food directly from family farms.
  • Nancy Karanja—Karanja is a professor of soil ecology and director of the Microbial Resource Centre at the University of Nairobi. From 2005 to 2009, Karanja was the sub-Saharan Africa regional coordinator for Urban Harvest, a CGIAR program with the goal of stimulating agriculture in and around cities to alleviate poverty and increase food security.
  • Joan Karling—Karling is the secretary general of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP). She helps safeguard the environment, preserve traditional knowledge and protect biodiversity through securing land rights for indigenous people.
  • Myrna Cunningham Kain—Kain is the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) special ambassador from Latin America, she is a social activist for the rights of Indigenous peoples with extensive experience and in 2001 she was named, “Hero of Health in the Americas.”
  • Kathleen Merrigan—Merrigan is an expert on the relationship between farmers and politicians, she served as deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), playing a vital role in Know Your Farmer and Know Your Food initiatives. She currently serves as executive director of the Sustainability Institute at George Washington University.
  • Mariam Ouattara—From Cote d’Ivoire, Ouattara founded Slow Food Chigata, which encourages local women’s cooperatives to grow fruit and vegetable gardens. The chapter has also held workshops on how to produce ecologically sustainable food without chemicals.
  • Esther Penunia-Banzuela—Penunia-Banzuela is the secretary general of the Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA), a regional alliance of national farmer’s organizations.
  • Claire Quenum—Quenum is the general secretary of the African Network on the Right to Food as well as director of the Togolose women’s right group Floraison. Through her work she promotes the right to adequate food in Africa.
  • Sara Scherr—Scherr is the founder and president of Ecoagriculture Partners, a non-profit that works with agricultural communities around the world to develop ecoagriculture landscapes that enhance rural livelihoods, have sustainable and productive agricultural systems and conserve or enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services.
  • Michele Simon—A public health lawyer specializing in strategies to counter tactics that harm the public’s health, Simon has been researching and writing about the food industry since 1996.
  • Kanthi Wijekoon—A hero to other women, Wijekoon was arrested while she was trying to escape Sri Lanka to find a better life for her family. The Rural Women’s Front helped her get out of jail and she went on to lead programs reaching more than 600 women a year, increasing daily wages for women rice farmers.



8 comments:

  1. Sounds like some amazing women and great organizations!

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    1. I love learning about different organizations and the people behind them! I think they are doing fantastic things!

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  2. Belated greetings. Happy Women's Day.

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  3. Great post Jennifer! Love to see people trying to change things for the better =)

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    1. I agree :)
      I hope to post more 'positive acts' on the blog here soon from others around the world!

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