At Equality Now, we believe that people working together can change the world. This week marks our 30th anniversary, an exciting milestone for all of our supporters and for our team of experts across the globe.
Every day, our team works across over 30 countries to ensure women and girls fulfill their potential and live free from discrimination and violence. The passion, ambition, and dedication of those who have made this mission their work is on display daily, whether it’s undertaking strategic litigation, calling on governments to enact legal reforms, organizing a convening with our partners, or launching ambitious campaigns to raise awareness on issue areas. We could not be prouder of all that we have accomplished together.
To help celebrate three decades of working to make equality reality for women and girls, we asked members of our team to share with us the impact Equality Now has made that they are most proud of.
Antonia Kirkland, Global Lead, Legal Equality and Access To Justice
As both a staff member and as a mom of two adolescent girls, I’m most proud of the impact we’ve had working with partners to change blatantly discriminatory laws, including ones that actually promoted violence against women and girls like the so-called “marry your rapist” laws. I am also proud that we are now being asked by governments to help them institute, or strengthen, their laws to better protect all women and girls from sexual violence.
Asenath Mwithigah, Global Lead, End Harmful Practices
Equality Now has been a leader in efforts to end FGM and child marriage. Both by ensuring that women and girls are protected from harmful practices by the law and that they are empowered to shift social norms and attitudes leading to gender equality.
This has been made possible through strategic litigation, partnership building, and advocacy where Equality Now has called on governments to deliver on their international and regional frameworks and develop national legal processes to protect women and girls and provide access to justice all aimed at providing a safer world for women and girls.
Dima Dabbous, Middle East and North Africa Regional Representative
I am very proud of the good reputation and credibility of Equality Now among partner organizations in the Family Law Regional Coalition we started three years ago. Our partners have just confirmed their commitment to the coalition and gave us a vote of confidence by designating Equality Now as the lead organization.
Edith Kalela, Institutional Giving Associate, Africa
I am proud of the fact that the entire body of work at Equality Now is bringing change in the lives of women and girls…Specifically, I am very proud of the work Equality Now did in Sierra Leone to repeal a discriminatory law that prevented pregnant schoolgirls from attending school. Pregnancy should not define a girl’s future. I am proud that as Equality Now we fight for the rights of girls who are deemed voiceless by their communities.
Katherine Payne, Digital Lead
I’ve been at Equality Now since 2018, and I couldn’t be prouder of the progress we’ve made. As a member of the communications team, it’s always a privilege to tell the story of our work to our audiences around the world. I am incredibly proud of the ever-growing library of resources that we are building, which are accessed and used by women’s rights activists around the world. I know that we are moving the dial toward gender equality and enabling others to do the same.
Tamar Dekanosidze, Eurasia Regional Representative
In Eurasia, we have pioneered important initiatives to help elevate sexual violence from a largely overlooked issue to a matter of significant attention. As a result of our work, international human rights mechanisms called upon governments to make specific changes in sexual violence laws and practices – for the first time we’ve brought together a dynamic and constantly growing network of human rights advocates in the region, who we are supporting with our strong evidence-base and global expertise to affect change for sexual violence.
Tsitsi Matekaire, Global Lead, End Sexual Exploitation
I am proud of the work that Equality Now is doing to end the sexual exploitation of women and girls globally. Our advocacy in this area is extremely urgent as the world adjusts to the reality of COVID-19 and its impact on vulnerable people, as well as the increasing misuse of the internet and digital technologies to sexually abuse and exploit women and girls at a globally unprecedented scale.