India – Girls of Holy Family Update
July 2018 Update on all the girls - and the Sisters.
In Our America
Some reflections for the tumultuous time that is America today. This is not an overnight, temporary crisis. We are entering a period of full-on internal warfare: another generation is about to find their days, their lives, marked by demonstrations, activism, and violence. It will get worse before it gets better. Now is the time for activism; it is not the time to sit by, watching, civilly expecting someone else to defend our rights. Think this sounds overly dramatic? I think not. The tea leaves are all lined up. If the world calms and you can slip into a life untrammeled…
Our 19th Annual Film Festival!
The Through Women's Eyes (TWE) Film Festival was back at the Sarasota Hollywood 11 this April, bigger and better than ever. Once again we partnered with the Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) and our fantastic line-up of 19 short and six feature TWE films included: "On Her Shoulders," a riveting documentary about Nadia Murad, a Yazidi in Northern Iraq "Half the Picture," Amy Adrion's exploration of women in Hollywood, and, of course, "RBG," the full-length feature which reveals the notorious Ruth Bader Ginsberg before, well, before she was notorious! I'm delighted to add that RBG won the audience choice award for the entire…
Our Walk Against Violence
Saturday, March 19 Payne Park Sarasota for UN Women-USNC. Thanks to all our supporters and friends! Come see us next at the Through Women's Eyes Film Festival April 1 and 2! TWE Film Festival
Film Festival Update!
Through Women's Eyes Film Festival is here! This is a wonderful opportunity to see films not available elsewhere - and it's our biggest UN Women-USNC Chapter Fundraiser. See the full line up on our site (link below). Best deal: the weekend package! TWE Film Festival - April 1 and 2
Go Togo RPCVs!
Togo - a tiny country in West Africa - doesn't make it into Western news very often, but it's getting some good press today thanks to fellow Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Jenny Schechter and Kevin Fiori. They are the recipients of the 2016 Sargeant Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service in recognition of their work founding Hope Through Health (HTH) a non-profit dedicated to improving health care in underserved northern Togo. Since 2004 Hope Through Health has focused on expanding health care for the community living with HIV/AIDS. Recently, much needed Maternal and Child Health services have been added to their work. The work of HTH is…
Nirbhaya: Three Years Later
December 16 is the 3rd anniversary of the horrific attack and rape of Jyoti Singh, later called Nirbhaya, in a neighborhood not far from where were living in Delhi. She died of her wounds shortly after, galvanizing a movement in India to speak up about the prevalence of violence against women. The outcry garnered international attention, a critically acclaimed play ("Nirbhaya") and a fine film, banned in India, ("India's Daughter".) The event was very much the backdrop for SPOILED, the play I created last year. Today, however, three years on, it is clear that meaningful change will be slow at…
Cities for CEDAW: Sarasota
Cities for CEDAW Officially Launched in Sarasota! Quick quiz: - do you think men and women should have equal rights in America? - do you think women should have equal access to job opportunities? - do you think men and women should earn the same salary for doing the same job? If you answered yes to any of these questions, sounds like you support CEDAW! Which means you too can help make Sarasota - or New York, or your city - a CEDAW city! CEDAW is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It's been…
Mary Catherine Bateson
For those of you who are already fans of the writer and cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, you'll be interested in her October 1st interview with Krista Tippett on the radio program "On Being." And if you have never discovered her thoughtful wisdom, then start by listening to this. (Download the program here.) Among other things, Bateson sees some hope for climate change, discusses why humans are actually more biologically and evolutionarily hard-wired for cooperation than competition, and reflects on how 'juggling' is such an anxiety-producing metaphor for the artistry, the composition, that is our lives. The daughter of celebrated…
MAVA Mumbai
Who? Based in Mumbai, Men Against Violence and Abuse - MAVA - is a group I discovered while doing research for my play SPOILED. One day I cold-called Harish Sadani, MAVA's founder and 'chief functionary', from Delhi, seeking information about how boys and young men in India develop attitudes toward women and what some typical experiences were. Harish was gracious and helpful, sending me links and information. When I traveled to Mumbai last year, we had a long lunch together. He fielded all the questions I could think of and supplied both hard data and an authentic, local perspective. You…