“We have survived a war. There are still kids who don’t know if their parents are alive, don’t have anything to eat or books to go to school. So the fact of becoming [an] Olympic champion is just huge for all of us.” – Majlinda Kelmendi (judo gold medal winner, Kosovo) From Chicago to Sydney, in...

August 3rd marks the commemoration of the 2014 genocide perpetrated by ISIS against the Yezidis in Sinjar and Nineveh Plains, Iraq. It has been two years since the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” conducted a genocidal campaign against the Yezidis in their homeland of Sinjar, in northern Iraq. During...

In a small, garage-like building in northern Iraq, Seve wakes up each morning not knowing how she’ll provide for her six children. Her husband is injured and unable to work. Their only income comes from the few vegetables her 12-year-old son can sell. Two years ago, they and thousands of other...

“I just kept faith in myself, and knew we would get through it,” my mother used to tell me, when I asked how she got through a difficult childhood. Mother’s Day always brings up a mix of emotions. I miss my mom, who passed away six years ago. And I feel blessed to be a mother at all. Ten years ago...

Sara is a divorced single mother who has survived war and exile from her home country. She says she has been inspired by her trainers to keep working and striving. Sara enrolled in the Women for Women International program in March 2014. She is receiving training in growing vegetables, and has...

War has almost always been a part of Regina’s life. It forced her to drop out of school, led her to flee to the Democratic Republic of the Congo with her family, and even took the life of one of her eight children. With the support of her Women for Women International training group, Regina changed...

Edita Veseli, a Life Skills manager for WfWI-Kosovo, shares the story of how women in the program inspire her and each other. Over the years I have gathered so much inspiration and strength in so many different ways from every woman I have encountered. When I was asked to share a story about a woman...