For the longesttime, I resented thefact that I wasseparated from mymother at age 19 whenI found myself inAmerica, and she wasin Iraq going throughthe first Gulf War. Iwanted to be with herand to help her dealwith the war and itstrauma. I couldn’t joinher, and she couldn’t join me. Andwe stayed apart for nine years,seeing each other only once inbetween.

Mother’s Day CelebratesWomen Everywhere ..................... 2

High Schooler in NCOrganizes Women forWomen InternationalWalk-A-Thon ................................. 5

Ethnic ViolenceErupts in Kosovo, HamideLatifi Comments ............................ 6

Marking the 10thanniversary of theGenocide in Rwanda .................... 8

A PeriodicNewsletter of

Women forWomen

International

VOLUME ELEVEN

NUMBER TWO

MAY 2004

A D e c a d e o f B e t t e r i n g W o m e n ’ s L i v e s

A Letter from Zainab Salbi

Mothers in My Life

(continued on page 6)(continued on page 4)

During that time, Ifounded Women forWomen Internationalwith my husband andtraveled to war-tornareas like Bosnia andHerzegovina, Croatiaand Rwanda.Throughout mytravels, I founddifferent mothers that Icould be with, andperhaps help them

deal with the war and its trauma.And like my mother, they continuedto teach me lessons in strength,resilience, patience, love and giving.

There is Farida in Sarajevo, amother of two daughters whom shemanaged to get outside of thecountry to save them from thefighting and the siege of the city.But she wanted to stay with herhusband who is a doctor. “I haveresponsibilities,” she told me when Iasked her why she decided to stay.“I am running the music school.Children must continue theirlessons. Giving up the lessonswould be giving into our enemy’swishes. We can’t surrender.” SoFarida ran through “sniper alley”dodging bullets to reach her school.

Farida

EthnicEthnicViolenceViolenceErupts inErupts inKosovoKosovo

The ethnic clashes inKosovo that took place inMarch 2004 were the worstviolence the region has experi-enced since NATO forcesentered Kosovo in 1999 to endthe mass expulsion of ethnicAlbanians organized by theformer Yugoslav presidentSlobodan Milosevic.

Three days of violencebetween ethnic Albanians andSerbs left 31 people dead andhundreds injured. It is reportedthat more than 3,500 Serbs andother non-Albanians fled fromtheir homes.

The recent violence hasrevived the debate about howto resolve the issue of Kosovo’sstatehood and has set backlaborious efforts to reconcileethnic Albanians and Serbs.Unemployment in Kosovo is60%, the flood of internationaldonations has dried up, andthere is no foreign investment

2

The Long Traditionof Mother’s Day

The Hallmark card companymay have popularized the secondSunday in May as the annual tributeto and celebration of our mothers,but the roots of this special daydate back to ancient Greece whereRhea, the Mother of the Gods, washonored each spring. In the UnitedStates, Mother’s Day originated in1870 with a call to all women to riseup and opposewar in all forms,by Julia WardHowe, poet,suffragist andauthor of BattleHymn of theRepublic.Distressed by herexperience in theCivil War, Howewanted a nationalday of peace. Sherallied motherswith organizedmeetings inBoston each year.

A quartercentury later in1907, WestVirginian AnnaJarviscampaigned forthe establishmentof a nationalMother’s Day. Sheconvinced herchurch tocelebrate theanniversary of hermother’s death in May tomemorialize her mother’s work asan advocate for the poor and sick.Jarvis took her campaign to thenation, and by 1911, Mother’s Daywas celebrated in nearly everystate. In 1914, President WoodrowWilson proclaimed Mother’s Day anational holiday.

In most of the countries in

Amidst the faces of sufferingand tragedy Women forWomen International hascome to know so well inplaces like Iraq, Rwandaand Afghanistan, we alsosee love, hope and courage.As we celebrate Mother’sDay this May, we want tohonor those women, whostruggle so hard every dayto maintain their spirit anddetermination. They havetouched our lives and ourhearts and we hope theytouch yours, too.

ar leaves far toomany mothers,

In honor of Mother’s Day

which we work, women andmothers are celebrated duringMarch’s International Women’sDay. As Mother’s Day here in theUnited States approaches, wehope you will find the time to sendyour mother and other mothersaround the globe a special thankyou for all they do every day fortheir families.

Wgrandmothers, aunts,daughters and sisters with theburden of supportingthemselves and their familiesagainst great odds. Women forWomen International givesthese women a chance atrebuilding their lives and helpsthem gain the tools they needto provide for their families. In

honor of your mother, consider making a donation to Women forWomen International and help other mothers, like participantsGloria, Fadila and Victoria, love and care for their families. Whenyou make a Mother’s Day gift in honor of your mother, aunt,grandmother or other special woman in your life, Women forWomen International will send a special Mother’s Day card to yourhonoree in recognition of your gift. To find out more, please visit ourwebsite at www.womenforwomen.org/mothersday.

3

Gloria — ColombiaWhen Gloria was 12 her rural

community was ravaged byguerrilla soldiers. She fled withher family to an urban area, wherethey lived in extreme poverty. Shelater married, but lost her husbandto the violence and war that hasclaimed 35,000 lives in the lastdecade. Now a widow, Gloriamust care for her four youngchildren alone. Through Womenfor Women International, Gloria received a grant with a group of sixwomen to establish an “Art and Manual Labor Center” in their town ofFlandes. With their grant, they’ve rented commercial space for aworkshop and a store, and purchased start-up materials for the centerincluding a sewing machine, display cases, and supplies such asthread, cloth and beads. They’ve hired local trainers to improve theirsewing and other skills, and are now making clothes, bags, andjewelry. In just two months, the store has become self-sustainable. Asthey expand, Gloria and her group hope to increase their profits andto train other women to support themselves as well. “Women forWomen International is helping me learn what I need to know to workand make money,” Gloria said. “Thank you. Thank you.”

Victoria Okara —Nigeria

Victoria is a 28 year-old widow with 2young children — Emenike, her nineyear-old son, and Oruebube, her sixyear-old daughter. Before joiningWomen for Women International, Victoriawas a peasant farmer, struggling tosupport her young children by growingand selling cassava. She was alsostruggling to get her teaching certificate.She had to give up school so she couldwork to feed her children.

With the help of her sponsor, Victoriabegan making snacks to sell at the localmarket and was able to re-enroll inteacher education courses. Victoria nowteaches nursery school to local children.She also is teaching women in hervillage to read and write, and is workingto educate her community about theconsequences of female genital cutting.Victoria has become an active andinvolved member of her community.“Women and girls should be educated sothey can better take care of theirfamilies,” says Victoria.

Ziagul Abdul Rauf —Afghanistan

Ziagul, a 45year-old wife andmother, would knitsocks during herrights awarenessclasses at Womenfor Women Interna-tional. She, like mostwomen in Afghani-stan, suffered underthe Taliban regime,where women werenot allowed to attendschool or work;appear in publicwithout a burqa; use cosmetics; play sports; wear bright colors; oreven laugh out loud. She struggled to support her seven childrenand husband, who was debilitated from a heart attack.

Women attending classes at our offices watched Ziagul asshe knitted socks and asked questions. It soon became apparentthat many women wanted to learn how to knit like Ziagul. Ziagulwas hired by Women for Women International as one of our firstvocational skills trainers in Afghanistan. Ziagul is pleased to shareher knowledge, “I earn money for my family and share my skillswith other women. I am proud to teach others.”

Fadila — IraqThe streets are unsafe in Iraq. Yet

Fadila, a widowed mother of four,does not want her children to miss outon school, so she walks her childrenan hour to school and an hour backeach day. She can’t afford bus fare,but having her children lose a year ofschool is just not acceptable, so shedoes what she has to do. “All I wantto do is to give my children a betterfuture,” says Fadila.

4

A group of women artisans in Afghanistan — forthe first time in their lives — are about to step intothe world of international trade this month with thesale of their hand-made beaded bracelets andnecklaces at Chicago’s MarshallField’s stores. This is madepossible through a uniquepartnership between Women forWomen International and Eziba,an innovative retailer that sellsauthentic handcrafted goodscreated by hundreds of artisansfrom more than 60 countriesaround the world, through itswebsite, boutique stores andcatalogue.

Like Women for WomenInternational, Eziba wants to

make a difference. The company provides a means forartisans in poor countries to sell their handmade goodsin the marketplace. It pays the artisans from whom itbuys a fair price; provides access to affordable credit

to those who are in need of it; andprovides artisans access toinformation about markets andcurrent design trends. It rejects anyproduct produced with child labor.

Through Eziba’s Gifts that GiveBack program, you can purchase anAfghan-made bracelet and apercentage of the proceeds willbenefit Women for WomenInternational. For more informationabout our partnership, see ourwebsite at www.womenforwomen.org/aoeziba.html.

The school’s walls werefilled with shrapnel, but themusic played on. Childrenbundled up in their coatsbecause there was no heat,learning from teachers likeFarida who taught themabout music, love, andsurviving war. Faridabecame my mother inSarajevo. She taught meresilience.

In Rwanda, there is Beatrice, the head of Speak, Iam Listening, a local organization that Women forWomen International has been cooperating with since1997. Beatrice is a mother of three boys who left thecomfort of her life in Kenya and moved to Rwanda rightafter the end of the genocide in 1994. Looking for herfamily, she ended up digging bodies out of mass graves,burying stranger’s bodies, and hugging and crying withhundreds of women who survived one of the worstatrocities in the past decade. Beatrice eventually foundthat her parents, and all of her brothers and sisters, werekilled with machetes and thrown in a hole that smelled ofrotten meat. It is so easy to surrender to such pain andto have one’s life paralyzed by it. But Beatrice refused.Instead she founded Speak, I am Listening to helpwomen survivors of the genocide. It has been ten yearsnow, and Beatrice continues her work non-stop, refusing

Mothers in My Life(continued from page 1)

to leave Rwanda despitethe countless opportunitiesshe has had to live inEurope and Canada.Beatrice became my motherin Rwanda. She taught mehow to refuse to surrenderto the pain of loss.

Through the years, Ihave met many mothers inmany countries, each oneteaching me a lesson in life.And then there is my ownmother who was dying of

Lou Gehrigs’ disease when the Kosovo war was takingplace in 1999. She was living at home with my husbandand me, so I couldn’t just pick up and travel to a war zone,as was my usual habit. I had to make a choice and Ichose to stay with my mother. “You need to go and helpthem Zainab,” she wrote to me as she had lost her abilityto speak. But I didn’t want to leave her fearing that shemight die during my trip. “I will wait for you to come back.You must go and help them,” she assured me. I ended upgoing to Albania to set up our Sponsorship Program. Mymother died a week after I returned. She waited for me,and we had time to say our goodbyes. During that time,she told me that the best gift I had ever given her was mywork helping other women.

Today, I ask you to join Women for Women International’sMother’s Day campaign by giving what could be the nicestgift to your mother: helping another woman.

Beatrice Mukansinga (center) with the staff of Women forWomen International – Rwanda and Speak, I am Listening

5

Sixteen year-old Eleanor “Nori”Oxholm, a junior atBroughton HighSchool in Raleigh,North Carolina, didsomethingdifferent this pastMarch. Sheorganized a 6.2mile Walk-A-Thon— 25 laps aroundher high schooltrack — to benefitthe work ofWomen forWomenInternational.Some 200 walkers, mostlystudents, participated in the eventwhich raised nearly $5,000 forWomen for Women International.Among the best fundraisers werea group of students from theDemocratic Republic of theCongo, who signed up sponsorsdespite their fractured English.Food and drinkcontributions weregiven by three localsponsors: Pepsi,Krispy Kreme andPanera Bread.

Inspired by theWomen for WomenInternational website,Nori started her ownYoung Women forWomen Internationalafter-school club.The club claims 40members (boys andgirls) and meets onceor twice a month totalk about issuesfacing women inconflict-prone and

North Carolina High School StudentOrganizes Women for WomenInternational Walk-A-Thon

Published by Women for Women International, a 501(c)3not-for-profit organization, founded in 1993 to help womenovercome the horrors of war and civil strife.

1850 M Street, N.W., Suite 1090, Washington, D.C. 20036202 / 737-7705 phone 202 / 737-7709 fax

Email general@womenforwomen.orgWebsite www.womenforwomen.org

Copyright © 2004 Women for Women International. It isprohibited under federal law to make copies of thisnewsletter without the express permission of Women forWomen International.

OFFICERSChairman Chris Abele

Vice Chair Marcia Radosevich

Treasurer Emma Rahman

President and Founder Zainab Salbi

DIRECTORSAmjad Atallah

Elizabeth Powell BiancoSharon Cohen

Linda DavisEva Haller

Soheir KhashoggiCynthia RyanLekha SinghSusan VitkaMary ZientsAnne B. Zill

Chief Operating OfficerKaren Sherman

Director of Development and MarketingRebecca Milner

“I wanted to do

something to educate

people my age about

the status of women

around the world.”

— Nori Oxholm

poor countries. Thank you, Nori,for all your hard work anddedication to buildingawareness and understandingof the unique problems womenface in places like Bosnia andHerzegovina and Iraq, and foryour efforts in making our worldmore just for everyone. We’reproud of you.

Walk-A-Thon participants Nori Oxholm

6

to help generate jobs.While the economiccrisis did not spark therecent troubles, manyare arguing that it helpedinflame existing tensions.

Our Kosovo CountryDirector Hamide Latifioffered her commentsabout the fighting.

(For the full text ofHamide’s letter, pleasevisit our website atwww.womenforwomen.org/owkoso.html )

Ethnic ViolenceErupts in Kosovo(continued from page 1)

19 March, 2004Prishtina

Dear colleagues and friends, dear supporters of Kosova*,

Until March 17, 2004, I believed that violence, injustice and terror were slowlybeing replaced by peace and reconciliation in Kosova. I, and other citizens ofKosova, have spent so much time and energy on the reconstruction of our country.We cannot believe that the violence and destruction of these past three days hashappened to us. I wish that this was a bad dream, but unfortunately that is not thecase. It is like planting your land, and as you wait for it to harvest, it is taken fromyou.

I find myself asking questions. “How did this happen?”…We have worked for toomany years, in spite of continual hardship and poverty, to give up now. The last fiveyears in particular are a testament to the will of Kosovars.

During this time, Women for Women International — Kosova has assisted morethan 5,000 women as they strive to put their lives back together following the ethniccleansing and other horrors that all people in Kosova suffered during the early1990s. These women have actively participated in Women for Women International’s

core program of sponsorship, rights-awareness education and vocationalskills training. Women for Women International – Kosova is now in theprocess of implementing a project funded by HEKS (a Swiss association)that would support income-generating projects in beekeeping, handicrafts,weaving and flowers; small business development for women; andscholarships for young women to attend secondary school, university, oradvanced trainings that will enable them to find employment.

Now more than ever, efforts like these need to be acknowledged andappreciated. Recognition of the hardship, as well as the successes, ofKosovars will help us move forward and avoid tragedies like that of the pastfew days. For the sake of humanity, and our country’s future, it is up to usto identify and to fight against those who killed people; burned churches,houses, and other property; and attacked NATO and K-FOR…

… I ask you to stand by Kosova. Kosovars need your support. Togetherwe will fight those who threaten the prospect of a stable and secure futurefor Kosova. In a time when the world is more insecure and unsafe thanever before, I believe that every individual in support of democracy andpeace matters greatly. I believe in my people and in the fact that we willmanage, as we have in the past, to win this struggle. Together all Kosovarswill repair the damage that has been done, and we will move forward. Ionly hope that this violence has not driven away individuals who believed inus and supported us during difficult times. I hope that those who shared

their knowledge and resources have not been alienated, and most importantly, thatthose who at times risked their lives do not feel betrayed.

On behalf of myself, everyone at Women for Women International — Kosova,and all of the women who participate in our program, I express our appreciation forall that has been done so far in support of Kosova. We express our deepest andmost sincere condolences to the families of those lost to this violence. It is our hopethat these will be Kosova’s last victims, and that the peace-building can continue.

Hamide Latifi, Country Director, Women for Women International — Kosova

* “Kosova” is the accepted Albanian language spelling of the province and reflects the localpopulation’s hope for a future of autonomy and self-rule. “Kosovo” is the internationallyrecognized and Serbian language spelling because the province remains a part of Serbia andMontenegro.

Hamide Latifi (far right backrow) with the staff of Womenfor Women International –Kosovo

7

Women for WomenInternational is proud to announceour partnership with SoroptimistInternational, to expand ourprograms in Afghanistan, Bosniaand Herzegovina, and Rwanda.Through Project Independence:Women Survivors of War,Soroptimist International membersaround the world will raise $1.2million in funds to bring ourprograms to 2,000 more women inthese countries. The funds will beused to expand our core servicesof direct aid and emotional supportthrough the Sponsorship Program;rights awareness education,leadership training and vocationalskills workshopsthrough theRenewingWomen’s LifeSkills(ReneWLS)Program; andopportunities forincome frommicrocreditloans,cooperativestores and othersources throughthe IncomeGenerationSupportProgram.

Although thepartnership isonly a fewmonths old,SoroptimistInternational hasalreadymobilized to

Women for WomenInternational andSoroptimist InternationalTeam Up to Help WomenSurvivors of War

Soroptimist International member Dawn Marie Lemonds(left) with Bosnian program participants

support Project Independence. InAustralia, members hosted a dinnerand served traditional food from eachcountry to raise $1,000; in Italy, aclub designed a greeting card whoseprofits will benefit the project; and inRwanda, a local club is seeing howthey can work with women in ourprogram to benefit the project.

Soroptimist International is aworldwideorganization forwomen inmanagementand theprofessions,working throughservice projectsto advancehuman rightsand the status ofwomen. Theorganization wasformed in theUnited States in1921, and todayhas more than95,000 membersin about 120countries.

We received an excellent response rate of nearly 25% to our Sponsorship Survey.Thanks to your thoughtful responses, we are currently making the following improvementsto the Sponsorship Program:

• Updating our materials to include more information on the Sponsorship Program, and what youcan expect from your sponsorship experience.

• Alerting you prior to your sister’s graduation so you have time to send her a final letter.

• Updating you on the progress of your sister’s training group.

• Sharing updates on our programs from our Country Directors.

• Adding a Sponsorship Community section to our website that will provide information on letterwriting; stories from other sponsors and from program participants; answers to frequently askedquestions; and other updates from the field.

• Continuing to work to make the letter writing process as simple and fast as possible.

Thank you again for your responses. We appreciate your feedback and will continue to workdiligently to ensure that we fulfill our promises to you and to the women we work with. If you haveany additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us.

To learn more about Women for Women International, become a sponsor, volunteer or make adonation, call us at (202) 737-7705 or visit our website at www.womenforwomen.org.

April 7, 2004 marked the tenthyear anniversary of the beginning ofthe genocide in Rwanda. Anestimated 800,000 people werekilled in only 100 days and as manyas 500,000 women were raped.Women and girls were 70 percent ofthe post-war population.

In the aftermath of genocide,women took up the mantles ofleadership and began the long,arduous process of rebuilding theircountry. They uncovered massgraves, buried the dead, builtshelters, and found homes for nearly500,000 orphans. And they haven’tstopped working toward a betterfuture.

Indeed, since the genocide,women’s influence can be felt in allfacets of society. Women have beeninstrumental in addressing the rootcauses of the genocide, establishingnational and community-based

reconciliation efforts, drafting thenew constitution, and mapping thefuture of the country.

In 1998, the InternationalCriminal Tribunal for Rwanda(ICTR) was the first internationalcourt to find that rape is an act ofgenocide when it iscommitted with theintention ofdestroying aparticular group.The first executivesecretary of theNational Unity andReconciliationCommission,established inMarch 1999, wasAloisea Inyumba, awoman whooversaw itsconception, designand initial

Rwanda: Never Forget programs. (Inyumba is now theGovernor of Kigali-Rural Prefect anda member of Women for WomenInternational’s Advisory Board.)

The new constitution adopted inApril 2003 includes a provisionguaranteeing women 30 percent ofdecision-making positions in all levelsof the government. Following parlia-mentary elections in September2003, women hold nearly 50 percent

of seats inRwanda’s newbicameral parlia-ment.

In July 2004,

1850 M Street, N.W., Suite 1090Washington, D.C. 20036

NON-PROFIT ORG

US POSTAGE PAID

ALEXANDRIA, VA

PERMIT #05651

“Reconciliation andunity is a challenge…We can’t forget whathas happened, but weare trying to forgive.

That is why wealways have national

mourning from the 1stto the 7th of April

every year.”— Program participantDorothee Nyiramberwa

Women for WomenInternational willrelease a reportchronicling theprogress of themost marginalizedwomen in Rwandasince the genocide.Look for moreinformation aboutthe report on ourwebsite.