The nine recipients of the Henry R. Kravis Prize for Leadership, which honors the efforts of leaders in the non-profit sector, are more than just winners, they’re a community working for the same goal – change – and spreading that message with the media’s help in order to make that community grow.
Land is the key
Inaugural recipient Roy Prosterman and his Seattle-based organization, Landesa, were the subject of a front-page special report featured recently in the Sunday edition of the Seattle Times. Coverage looks at Landesa’s work in West Bengal to teach young women in impoverished villages how to cultivate gardens.
It’s more than just a practical skill that will help feed their families, it’s also a metaphor: In learning to grow food, the young Indian women are taught about women’s rights, self-empowerment and cultivating a stronger sense of self. That effort to boost social justice through land rights advocacy as been Prosterman’s focus for several decades – often at the risk of his life.
“By the time a coconut plantation owner with a gun strapped to his leg came looking for Roy Prosterman,” Seattle Times staffer Melissa Allison writes in an accompanying profile of Prosterman, the University of Washington law professor’s reputation “was well established as a land-rghts advocate for the poor.”
- To read more on this recent coverage of Landesa: http://seattletimes.com/html/specialreportspages/2020565872_landesa.html
- To read a profile of Roy Prosterman: http://seattletimes.com/html/specialreportspages/2020566120_prosterman.html
The airwaves of Radio France International crackled with FAWE’s call for an end to violence against women on an important day, March 8.
The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) used that special date – International Women’s Day – to deliver a message against all the forms of abuse experienced by women around the world, including human trafficking, rape and other forms of domestic violence.
Global statistics are ominous and eye-opening, according to FAWE: It is estimated that one in three women will suffer some kind of abuse during her lifetime.
- To read more about FAWE’s broadcast: http://www.fawe.org/news/news/article.php?article=169
2012 Kravis Prize recipient organization mothers2mothers and 2010 Kravis Prize recipient organization Pratham have recently gained significant support from celebrities in the U.K., leading to two exciting upcoming charity events.
In honor of Mother’s Day, mothers2mothers will auction off designer clothing and other items donated by celebrities in order to support the organization’s work to improve the quality of life for thousands of HIV-infected women around the world. Celebrity donors include singer Annie Lennox, actor Colin Firth, and former Spice Girl Emma Bunton. The organization directs much of its attention to providing medical support and treatment for mothers and their infants in Africa.
Meanwhile, Pratham, which is aimed at boosting literacy in India currently through its Read India program, announced an April 24 Fashion Event in London in order to raise money for its literacy movement in India. Numerous Bollywood and local celebrities will attend the event, which will also showcase clothing and jewelry by famous Indian designers and feature a performance by the "Got To Dance" TV stars known as "Pulse Collective."
- To read more on the mothers2mothers event: http://www.looktothestars.org/news/9855-annie-lennox-and-colin-firth-raid-their-closets-for-charity
- To read more on the Pratham event: http://www.pratham.org.uk/index.php?p=97&pp=0&i=284&page=Friends%20of%20Pratham%20present...
- To track the latest efforts by recipients of the Kravis Prize, including the newest recipient, Johann Olav Koss and his nonprofit organization Right to Play, visit the Kravis Prize blog: https://www.claremontmckenna.edu/kravisprize/blog/