Social Justice

“Gardi Sugdub is a tiny island the size of five soccer fields with 1,300 inhabitants off Panama’s Caribbean coast. It has been home to Guna Indigenous people for over 100 years. However today, Gardi Sugdub faces new challenges. Floods and storms, in addition to a lack of space for expansion, have made life even harder on the island, affecting housing, water, health, and education. Such extreme weather is only expected to become more common as the climate crisis accelerates. While urgent government action can still mitigate the worst climate change scenarios, scientists are also virtually certain of a rise in sea levels globally, undermining the habitability of the island these residents call home. Facing these inevitable realities, the Gardi Sugdub community has been requesting government support for their relocation to a safer mainland site since 2010 . Our work on the planned relocation of Gardi Sugdub led to recent concrete…

A collective of organizations and individuals, Pink Haven formed in response to the increasing number of anti-trans bills proposed across the United States in recent years. The coalition is creating networks of safety and aid for “trans beloveds and their families who need to healthcare across state lines, or stay as safe as possible where they are.” Pink Haven is building a bigger table for trans individuals and their families when so many states are cutting away place settings. Pink Haven staff share that the growing number of fascist legislative threats to trans people “has created a human rights crisis of internally displaced persons fleeing anti-trans states for safer states elsewhere.” 2023 set records for anti-trans legislation, and 2024 has proved just as dangerous, with more than 600 anti-trans bills being considered by federal and state legislators. Oklahoma, for example, isn’t O.K. While many of their 55 anti-trans bills have…

I was working as a teacher in Syria In 2015. One day in June, on my way to buy some gifts for my students, I was caught by the regime forces and detained for 10 days.  Before this, my family and I lived happily together. I’m a university graduate and worked as a teacher for six years. I had many friends and was a social person.  Then, our neighbors’ house was bombed and demolished.  My sister, brother and father died in the bombing. Once I was released from detainment, they imposed a one-month travel restriction on me, and I couldn’t leave the country. My mother and the sisters who survived the bombing had already fled to Jordan, so after waiting 30 days, I fled to Jordan to follow my surviving family.  When I arrived, I was sent to a refugee camp for two months. After that, I moved to Jerash…

Some of Malaysia’s most precious rainforests and the Indigenous communities who live there will now be protected.   We partnered with Indigenous leaders and environmentalists in the state of Sarawak, home to 25 Indigenous peoples and most of Malaysia’s remaining rainforests, to document how laws and policies enable the takeover of Indigenous land by private companies, leaving communities displaced and destitute.  We met with Malaysian officials, and we impressed our findings on European Union authorities, urging them to use their leverage.   On February 20, Sarawak announced the state will no longer issue provisional leases for oil palm plantations, specifically with the aim “to mitigate deforestation” and citing “international scrutiny, especially from the European Union.”    These “provisional leases” have been one of the most harmful weapons the Sarawak government has yielded against Indigenous peoples, as they do not require the state to survey the land before leasing it and can last up to 60 years.  Our researchers met repeatedly…

In the heart of Malawi, where dreams grapple with harsh realities, the wish for a stable and secure home resonates deeply, particularly with children of incarcerated parents. The stark reality is that a significant number of The Child’s Journey beneficiaries reside in homes so dilapidated that it’s hard to imagine how they withstand the relentless challenges posed by their environment. Housing assistance is not just a means to provide shelter but is a crucial foundation for a child’s overall well-being and development. The Child’s Journey is dedicated to ensuring that children don’t just live, but thrive in safe and stable homes. Filesi, Rehema and Kenneth are three children whose lives have been positively transformed through the program’s housing support initiative. After a meticulous assessment by dedicated caseworkers, it was clear that the family desperately needed a safer living environment. Embracing a spirit of empowerment and collaboration, the family was encouraged…

In Senegal, women were largely excluded from politics until recently. A collective of women activists that AJWS supports, Association des Juristes Sénégalaises (AJS), has worked to change this — and is shifting Senegal’s entire political landscape in the process.