Press and Publications

Executive Director, Yifat Susskind, reflects on the late Michael Ratner, a MADRE friend and supporter. 

As the president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), Yanar runs an “underground railroad” for women and LGBT people to escape ISIS sexual slavery and assassination. My trust in her is not a figure of speech but the fruit of long-term partnership between our organizations, forged through the years of US occupation, sectarian war and now ISIS.

Awaz’s fiery determination to make a difference is obvious the moment you meet her. “When I can’t help everyone,” she told us, “I feel it deeply in my heart.”

Human Rights groups came together at CUNY School of Law to discuss living as a woman and a non-gender conforming individual in Iraq under ISIS rule: “When Coming Out is a Death Sentence: Policy Strategies to Address the Persecution of Women & LGBT Persons by ISIS in Iraq”. 

MADRE’s shipment of much-needed medical supplies and equipment has now completed its last mile of deliveries to Nicaragua! With your help and generosity, we collected basic necessities and scarce medical supplies to send to our sister organization in Waspam, Nicaragua. 

Great news! Thanks to you, we’re about to open a brand new art therapy and counseling center in el Choco, a poor community in the north of Colombia. Your vital support will help even more people!

In April 2016, over a dozen Iraqi women’s organizations came together in Erbil, Iraq for a convening entitledStrategies for Change. As the facilitators of this workshop, MADRE and partners sent the recommendations generated from this convening to the UN Security Council, to inform their upcoming expert group review of women, peace and security concerns in Iraq.

MADRE’s Strategies for Change Conference series provides an open and safe forum for Iraqi and Syrian women working in conflict, humanitarian disaster, and confronting violence and extremism. 

As advocates on behalf of women’s and gender rights worldwide, we want to express our deep concern about the recent escalation in Egypt of government attacks on dozens of civil society organizations that work for human rights and particularly women’s rights.

When an Iraqi woman is threatened with deadly violence in her home, where can she turn to for information and help? For many, the answer was Al Mousawaat (Equality) radio, the human rights radio station run by MADRE’s partner group, the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq. 

Young women and girls who have escaped sexual slavery by ISIS have found safe haven and security, thanks to you. That’s because your support helped MADRE and our partners at the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) open the doors to a brand new shelter and rape crisis center in Dohuk, Kurdistan—the only one of its kind in the region. 

It’s planting season on Nicaragua’s North Atlantic Coast! Thanks to your help, soon we’ll be Harvesting Hope.