Morenike Olufunmilayo Akpo

Nigeria

MPH Public Health

Southern Connecticut State University

Morenike earned her MBBS degree in Nigeria where she started her career as a house doctor, subsequently becoming a resident doctor specializing in anesthesiology at the Jos University Teaching Hospital. Apart from treating surgical patients, she was also involved in training medical students and nurses. She was also a volunteer coordinator of a community healthcare program, Global Medical Missions, dedicated to alleviating poverty and ensuring better healthcare through free medical services. Here she organized a free 'deworming' program for children under five years by treating them in the presence of their parents. Her husband, a consulting surgeon, is the coordinator of the G77 South-South Care Delivery program assisting in reviving the health sector in rural areas of Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Together they have worked with various organizations delivering free medical services including free surgeries, drugs, medical exams, health talks and campaigns. Having been involved in various community based programs in Africa and realizing the efficacy of addressing health needs through community campaigns, she decided to pursue a Master's Degree in Public Health. Although her thesis topic is 'Factors associated with participation in breast cancer screening activities among African-American women', she will be comparing the results with results in Nigeria and seek to make her findings applicable to her own country. Morenike plans to return to Nigeria in May 2007. She would like to continue to work with Global Medical Missions and also organize community campaigns to encourage women to participate in breast and cervical cancer screenings and educate women on the importance of immunization of children..

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Khin Mar Aung

Myanmar

MA Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management

School of International Training, Vermont

Raised in a family with limited finances and in a province with little access to education, Khin persevered with her studies and for the past 20 years has been an educator at various levels. She began her career teaching in her native province of Shan which included three years in a conflict-ridden area. She says she came out of this experience richer in her awareness of the educational and development needs of the rural and underserved populace and learned to be creative in resource poor settings. Khin has worked for Save the Children (UK) in Myanmar since 1997. In her capacity as the Education Coordinator she has been responsible for management of the community-based Early Childhood Care and Development Program (ECCD) and the Non-formal Education Project in selected rural communities throughout Myanmar. During her tenure, community-based Early Childhood centers have been established in 56 communities. Khin's studies in sustainable development will further her professional development and help her achieve her goals of continuing her work in education while taking an active role in policy advocacy on education and development issues. Her study program has furnished her with essential networking skills and she is a co-founder of the newly formed Myanmar-US Friendship Exchange Association. Khin plans to return to Myanmar in September 2007. She will continue to work with the Association on a voluntary basis to implement community development activities.

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Truphena Moraa Choti

Kenya

PhD Education

University of Maryland

With a background in high school teaching, Truphena has been a counselor for students facing difficult socio-economic situations and with this insight she has formed an NGO, "Give me another Chance". Its mission is to assist teenage mothers to get back to school after pregnancy. Choti is dedicated to uplifting women in her country. She is a strong believer that if women are educated the whole society is educated.  One of her programs has been to mobilize a group of 150 semi-literate women to start home improvement under the organization, "Nyakoigwana Woman's Group". Truphena has a Masters Degree in Education from Georgia University. Her master's thesis on Women Administrators in Kenyan Universities was a great contribution to the understanding of gender inequalities in Kenya's education system. This motivated her to broaden her education research to public policy issues and how they impact women. With the knowledge she is gaining in the U.S. she aims to involve Kenyan Universities in combating the spread of AIDS. Her goal is to advocate for reform of the education policies to increase women's participation at all levels of education. Truphena plans to return to Kenya in May 2008. She will continue to work with her NGO and plans to pursue a teaching position at a university in Kenya.

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Sakeena Ayoub Elayan

Palestine/Jordan

PhD Education Policy/Administration

Michigan State University

A Palestinian and citizen of Jordan, Sakeena was raised in the West Bank where she completed her schooling before proceeding to Jordan for further education. She has been an educator for 30 years and is on sabbatical from her position as principal of a teacher training college. Her keen concern is to bring the many women in her country who have leadership potential and achievement track records to the fore in decision and policy making. Her dissertation will explore the social and political factors that give rise to the under-representation of women at the policy making level in her country. Her earlier publication, "Women's rights in the Saudi personal laws and Islam", further illustrates her interest in understanding the status of women. Her quest to uplift the status and rights of women in her country led her, and two colleagues, to seek and achieve the amendment of the Working Mothers Act, which lengthened maternity leave from 60 to 90 days. Sakeena has also assisted with literacy classes for elderly women in remote villages of Jericho and given much of her time to teaching students in refugee camps in Kalandia and Shufat. She performed volunteer work with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education on initiatives on Civic Education and Environmental Education. Sakeena continues to be actively involved in her college and local community groups from her current US base, and is an active member of LATTICE, a group that brings together both local and international university educators and K-12 teachers. Sakeena is eager to return to the West Bank in December 2007 to resume her duties and work for reforms on child employment.

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Annah Anikie Molosiwa

Botswana

PhD Teaching, Curriculum & Education Policy

Michigan State University

Annah grew up in a rural village of Botswana, where the most common form of literacy was storytelling by elderly people. She first saw a library or a book-store when she went to a city for her secondary education. She completed her junior degree in 1982 at the University of Botswana, majoring in Setswana and English. In 1988 she received a scholarship from USAID to study for a Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin. Currently Annah is on study leave from the University of Botswana where she teaches while she pursues a PhD. Her thesis topic is "Language Teachers' Perceptions of Literacy Teaching in Botswana Secondary Schools. As her professor states, "it will contribute to the research literature not only in her country, but to the entire continent of Africa." Her interest in language and literacy is reflected in an earlier publication in Setswana entitled: "Tlhamo letekwalo: the teaching of writing composition and letter writing", which is a resource welcomed by many teachers in her country. She aims to make an impact on Botswana's education system, especially in language education at both teacher education and policy level. Her concern is that the education policy should meet the educational needs of different language groups. A mother of three daughters she is passionate about the education of girls. She is also involved in the Diphalana project to enable pregnant teenaged girls to complete their education and learn about reproduction and health issues, childcare and HIV/AIDS. This project is run by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with UNICEF and she wrote the Setswana modules. Furthermore she was volunteering as a tutor for the Boiteko Study group. These study groups are organized to help prepare students who have not performed well in the national examinations at secondary school level to retake the exams a second time. Annah plans to return to Botswana in August 2007 to resume her position as lecturer at University of Botswana.

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Van Thi Nguyen

Vietnam

PhD Social Work

University of Texas, Arlington

Born and raised in Ha Dong, Vietnam, Van has a strong educational background in statistics. She spent the last ten years working on social policies at national and local levels, particularly on issues relating to sexual exploitation and drug abuse. She has written numerous reports, and given presentations, on the social implications of drug use and sexual abuse in Vietnam. Her passion is to help these vulnerable populations and their families. Her current studies will help to formalize her education in social work and enhance her professional abilities. In her dissertation, Van will explore the impact of substance abuse on families and children in Vietnam and the findings will be used to formulate intervention strategies. Van envisages a role for herself in which she will disseminate her newly acquired skills and knowledge with emphasis on women and children to fellow colleagues, or through teaching at the University in Vietnam. She also plans to be involved with voluntary projects that raise awareness and reduce the stigma and discrimination associated with sex work and drug abuse in Vietnam. She plans to return in May 2008.

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Bishnu Maya Pariyar

Nepal

MA International Development/Social Change

Clark University

Born in Nepal, Bishnu grew up in a remote village in Western Nepal, one of nine children in a family of destitute farmers. As a member of the Dalit caste, the lowest and poorest class in the country's rigid caste system, Bishnu experienced daily the bitterness of caste-based discrimination. With the help of a Peace Corps volunteer she was able to study social work in Kathmandu in 1995–1998. At age 20, with a grant of $150, she started her own organization, EDWON or "Empower Dalit Women of Nepal" with the goal to build solidarity between women of different castes and sub castes, enabling them to overcome economic and social oppression. Today, 10 years later, the organization has helped more than 1,500 women in 20 different communities, bonding and empowering and allowing them to be independent and self-sufficient. In recognition of her efforts, she has spoken on caste and unsociability at a congressional hearing in Washington, DC. She was also named one of six Harvard University International Bridge Builders in 2006. She also served a year with the Asian Task Force against Domestic Violence as a Family Advocate, which provided her with valuable and practical experience in working with disadvantaged women. Bishnu sees her life's goal as bringing fundamental and urgently needed social change to the most marginalized women and girls in Nepal. On returning to Nepal in May 2007, she will continue to expand her work through EDWON.

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Malati Rao

India

MA Film & Media Arts

Temple University

Malati has studied Mass Communication in India and has a BA in literature from the St. Stephens College in Delhi, India. Women's issues have always been at heart and center of her work. Her latest film, "A safe place", is about a battered woman living with her child in a transitional home. Another short film, "Between Dualities" (a film about madness and women), earned her great reviews. Her thesis film is about a 17th Century female mathematician, and is aimed at motivating girls to study math and science. The film will examine the neglect of feminist icons in history through creative story telling. Malati holds a conviction that there are many stories to be told outside the characterization of mainstream cinema. Her efforts have been to use the medium of film-making and story telling to highlight social issues and concerns which find themselves at the margins of public attention. Malati is looking forward to returning to India in 2007 and using her skills as teacher and filmmaker to do creative writing workshops with women who have faced domestic abuse. This will then be used to make a film on domestic abuse of women, for which she is trying to secure sponsorship from key women's organizations in Delhi.

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Tashi Zangmo

Bhutan

PhD Education

U of Massachussetts, Amherst

Born into a family of subsistence farmers in a very remote village, Tashi was the first girl from her village, and the only child in a family of eight children, to go to school. Through her mother's persistence she went on to complete both primary education and high school away from home. Tashi own experience has inspired her to serve the cause of underprivileged women and girls and bring literacy to remote areas. She has established a female education center in a Buddhist nunnery in her village and has set up a non-formal adult literacy program and a library from personal funds she won when she was awarded the Samuel Huntington Public Service award at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Tashi has also raised funds to provide for solar lighting, water supply and smokeless wood burning stoves with the intention of reducing the work load for women and girls and thus enabling them to attend literacy classes. She has undertaken her current studies to arm her self with skills and networks that will enable her to better serve her community and country. Her dissertation will explore how the measures of development as defined by the unique Bhutanese concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH), will address the educational and developmental needs of women and girls. She will endeavor to preserve Bhutanese and Buddhist values while bringing development and education to rural Bhutan. Tashi's presentations of her work and aspirations at International fora and to Bhutanese officials have been well received and strengthen her hope that she will achieve her goals. Tashi plans to return in May 2008.

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