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Zainab Salbi Receives Sixth Annual Forbes Trailblazer Award

On Monday, April 4, 2005, Women for Women International President and CEO Zainab Salbi was awarded the 2005 Forbes Trailblazer Award. Each year the award is presented to extraordinary women whose work has helped opened the doors for other women.

Ms. Salbi was chosen for her decade-long work to help women in war-torn communities rebuild their lives and the lives of their families, communities and nations. Ms. Salbi founded Women for Women International in 1993. Since its inception, the organization has assisted more than 33,000 women and distributed more than $18 million in direct aid and microcredit loans.

“The women we work with are strong, resilient and courageous – they just need some support dealing with the aftermath of conflict,” Salbi said. “We give them the tools they need to help themselves and their families, while providing them with the education to be leaders and advocates in their communities.”

Women for Women International provides women with direct aid, political rights awareness, leadership education, vocational skills and technical training with the hopes that the women become self sufficient and active participants in the post-war reconstruction of their communities. Women for Women International also provides women with microcredit loans and business strategy support to help them start or grow businesses.

Women for Women International currently operates in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, and Rwanda.

This year’s winners included Ms. Salbi and Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia Past recipients have included Patricia Carbine, Co-founder of Ms. Magazine and Nancy Barry, President of Women's World Banking.