We are excited to inform our Global Community that Women for Women International will reopen its Sponsorship Program in Iraq this fall.  Sponsor a woman in Iraq today.

Due to increasing security concerns in 2005, Women for Women International modified our program in Iraq to protect the women participating in our program and our staff:

• We shortened the length of our services from one year to three months, and temporarily stopped the direct aid and letter exchange through the Sponsorship Program.
  
  
•  Women continued to meet for rights education and job skills training in the South Central Provinces of Hilla and Karbala, areas with greater security than Baghdad. 
  
  
• In Baghdad, we collaborated with fledgling non-profits to provide training and grants to encourage the building of civil society in the country. 
  
  
• And, we brought together nearly 100 Iraqi leaders, parliamentarians and governing council members in two conferences to help ensure women’s participation in reconstruction. 

Despite the tenuous security situation throughout Iraq, our staff has determined that the need is so great that they recommend that we restart our Sponsorship Program in South Central Iraq. 
We have developed a strategy that will allow us to reinstitute our full year of rights education, job skills training, access to capital and assistance for small business development.  To ensure the safety of our staff and program participants, we have put together a detailed security plan for the operation of this program.  These are precautionary measures taken to protect the women in our program:

• While we will be relaunching our full year of services and direct aid through the Sponsorship Program, sponsors will not be able to exchange letters with their sisters in Iraq at this time. 
  
  
• In addition, sponsors will not receive the last name of their sister and will likely not receive a photo. 

You can help today.

Sponsor a woman.  We hope you will consider sponsoring a woman in Iraq.  If you are already a sponsor, please consider adding an additional sister.  Your support will make a world of difference to a woman who has lost everything in the aftermath of war.

Make a donation.  Your donation to our Iraq program will provide the tools Iraqi women need to rebuild their lives after war - rights education, job skills training and small business development.