Empowering Reads: A Journey Through Inspirational Books for Women and Girls

In October 2025, students from over 30 schools across the UK, Mexico and Kenya came together for the Global Girl Leading Summit. Read about how our #PowerToChange workshop equipped more than 300 girls with the skills, confidence and solidarity to lead change in their communities.

Following her recent experience at the second Africa Climate Summit (and with COP30 about to launch in Brazil), Maryline Njoroge, our Global Policy and Advocacy Manager, shares her reflections on how gender equality continues to be sidelined from high-level policy on climate change action - and what we can do about it. 

Poni Abraham is our Advocacy and Communication Coordinator in South Sudan. After being abducted, she has found renewed strength for her work with other women survivors of conflict and violence. She says, "this experience didn’t break my spirit – it rebuilt it. It reminded me why this work matters, why we can’t give up, even when the world feels cruel and uncertain". Read her story. 

All women remember their teen years – some with joy, others with pain, and most with a hormonal tangle of both. When I think of my own adolescence, if I scroll back from the fever dream that is sixteen and fifteen and fourteen and land on that hopeful, fresh-faced moment that is being twelve years old, one of the first things I think of is Women for Women International.

Women for Women International is gravely alarmed by the UN Commission of Inquiry’s finding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza - a determination that recognises what women and our partners in Palestine have been sharing with us for months. The Commission concluded that four of the five genocidal acts defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention have been carried out in Gaza - namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

How do you mourn for a loved one if you're still holding out hope that they might be alive? In this blog, hear from women facing ambiguous loss on how they've found courage in their community, even when closure never comes. 

In July 2025, students at Seven Kings School hosted a powerful week of fundraising in support of Women for Women International. In this blog, we hear directly from Wania - the student leading the project - as she reflects on the importance of activism, sisterhood and what it means to create meaningful change.

In May 2025, Natalie bravely took on an 86-mile ultramarathon in support of Women for Women International. In this blog, we learn about the importance of sisterhood, determination and strength, and how these can inspire us to support the women we serve.

To mark International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, we are amplifying the voices of women who are not just enduring the harsh realities of war and displacement - but who are also working every day to protect, support and empower others. Hear from two women in Palestine.

At Women for Women International, we count a number of dedicated and compassionate male staff among our global community working towards a more equitable future. I spoke to several of our male colleagues – from Iraq and South Sudan, to DRC and the UK. I asked what allyship means to them, how their work has shaped their understanding of gender justice, and what they’ve learned from the women in their lives. What emerged was not just a collection of stories, but a testament to the quiet, determined work of transformation – both personal and societal. ​​​​​​

Florence Dumba is a social empowerment trainer at Women for Women International in South Sudan. Her work, working with survivors and creating safe spaces for women to heal from their trauma, is grounded in her own experience of being abducted twice.

On March 28, 2025, a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, intensifying a crisis already marked by armed conflict, political instability, and widespread displacement. What was once a complex humanitarian emergency has now deepened into a compounded catastrophe - one that disproportionately affects women and girls. As infrastructure collapses and humanitarian access becomes even more restricted, the disaster has laid bare the urgent need for gender-sensitive responses in conflict-affected settings.