Circle Officers Travel to Vital Voices Event in Washington, DC

On Tuesday, April 12th, Circle of Women officers Alexandra Douwes, Jennifer Keeley and Janelle Morris attended the 10th annual Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards at The John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The event honors and celebrates women's leadership around the world recognizing women who are social entrepreneurs, political representatives, businesswomen, human rights defenders and civil society advocates. Vital Voices Founder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened the event to honor Fatema Akbari, an entrepreneur from Afghanistan who provides job training for women; Liron Peleg-Hadomi and Noha Khatieb two peace activists from Israel -- one Arab, one Jewish; Sunitha Krishnan, a rescuer of trafficked women and girls in India; Kah Walla, a presidential candidate from Cameroon and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the democracy movement in Burma. Speakers included U.S. foreign policy. Melanne Verveer, the co-founder of Vital Voices, who is leading as our Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues in addition to Tina Brown, Sally Field, Cokie Roberts, Michele Norris, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Wolf Blitzer, and Diane von Furstenberg.

The event was incredible and hearing each woman speak about her story was inspiring. These are truly remarkable women who have faced obstacles that are hard to even imagine but their optimism and determination reminds us how important our mission is to empower and educate women and girls around the world. By investing in women and girls, we are supporting the movement to create a more peaceful and prosperous world.

For more information about the event and video of the phenominal speakers, please visit:
http://www.vitalvoices.org/global-initiatives/global-leadership-awards

THREAD Film Screening and Panel Discussion

On April 7th, 2011, Princeton Circle of Women, along with BPeace and the Liechtenstein Institute of Self Determination, presented a screening of the documentary THREAD.  This movie follows the journey of five Afghan businesswomen as they travel to the United States with the non-profit organization BPeace (Business Council for Peace). In the United States, the women learn practical business skills that they can take back to Afghanistan to help their businesses flourish. The film captures the heartbreaking lows and the triumphant highs of these women as they strive to help their country, which has been devastated by war and where women have very few rights. After the movie, we had a panel discussion with the CEO and co-founder of BPeace Toni Maloney, the director of THREAD Laurie Chock, and the producer of the movie Dana Kuznetzkoff. These amazing women were gracious enough to answer all of our questions and stayed for a dessert reception following the discussion. We were so honored to have them on Princeton's campus and appreciate all the support we received from the Liechtenstein Institute of Self Determination and BPeace. Here are some pictures from the event in case you missed it: