Launch of a new MMEG program

In 2023 MMEG launched a new pilot program. The very first cycle of the France Program, through which MMEG awards grants to French-speaking women from developing countries studying in universities in France, was successfully completed by MMEG’s France Program Selection Committee.

At the end of a rigorous selection process that maintained MMEG’s standards for excellence, two exceptional women—one studying water engineering, hydrology and flood risk, and the other, information technology—were selected and awarded the first grants in the program. Congratulations to MMEG’s two new France Program grantees!

The selections were made possible through the dedicated and excellent work of the France Program Selection Committee, a seven-member team of hard-working volunteers. From five different countries and with varying professional backgrounds, Committee members brought to the selection their collective commitment to advancing women’s education, as well as their individual experiences and skills. Their diversity of knowledge and perspectives enriched the process.

We sincerely thank the France Program Selection Committee for brilliantly ushering in MMEG’s fifth and newest grant program, and for furthering MMEG’s mission to improve the lives of women and children by supporting the higher education of exceptional women from developing countries.

Kudos to MMEG South Africa Program Selection Committee

MMEG’S South Africa Program Selection Committee had another very successful cycle in 2023, presenting nine exceptional women who have been awarded our education grant.

 The South Africa Program Selection Committee’s members bring to the selection process not only their commitment to the work of promoting women’s higher education, but also the skill and experience they have acquired through their own professional fields: business, finance, public health, economics, law, agriculture, corporate banking, ethics, and food policy.

 The members’ diversity, with nine different nationalities and various places of residence, is remarkable, enriching the Committee’s awareness of South Africa’s context, and enhancing their ability to identify exceptional women from developing countries who are studying while working to improve the lives of women and children, therefore fulfilling MMEG’s mission.

We thank these hard-working volunteers, whose dedication to MMEG promotes a better world through our exceptional grantees.

Felicitations to MMEG Latin America Selection Committee

We thank MMEG’s Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) Selection Committee for their dedication and hard work. They recently proudly presented as grantees 10 exceptional women that they had identified from a large pool of candidates.

MMEG LAC is very fortunate to have a diverse Selection Committee composed of volunteers from nine different nationalities and various professional backgrounds, who nevertheless share the same passion and common goal: to identify the extraordinary and exceptional women that our grantees represent.

The FY 23 LAC grantees are citizens of five different countries, currently studying at one of the program’s partner universities. Their fields of study are finance and medical imaging engineering, gender anthropology, gender studies, history, industrial engineering, law, management and development practices, rural development, and sociology. They are enrolled in master’s or PhD programs.

Throughout their careers, our grantees have been committed to working and volunteering in disadvantaged communities and with the vulnerable. With their study plans, they have manifested their dedication to uplift the lives of women and children in developing countries.

Year after year, our applicants’ increasingly diverse fields of study confirm our belief that women are strong leaders in their communities!

Queremos agradecer al Comité de Selección de América Latina y el Caribe (LAC) de MMEG por toda su dedicación y arduo trabajo: recientemente, presentaron con orgullo a 10 mujeres excepcionales que identificaron como beneficiarias entre un gran grupo de candidatas.

MMEG LAC tiene la fortuna de contar con un Comité de Selección compuesto por voluntarios de 9 nacionalidades diferentes y diversos antecedentes profesionales, que comparten la misma pasión con un objetivo común: identificar a las mujeres extraordinarias y excepcionales que representan nuestras beneficiarias.

Las beneficiarias para el año fiscal 23 en LAC son ciudadanas de cinco países diferentes, actualmente estudiando en una de las universidades participantes con el programa. Sus campos de estudio son Antropología de Género, Derecho, Desarrollo Rural, Estudios de Género, Finanzas e Ingeniería Especializada en Imágenes Médicas, Historia, Ingeniería Industrial, Prácticas de Gestión y Desarrollo, y Sociología. Se encuentran cursando programas de Maestría o Doctorado.

A lo largo de sus carreras, se han comprometido a trabajar y ser voluntarias en comunidades desfavorecidas y con personas vulnerables. Con sus planes de estudio, han manifestado su dedicación a mejorar las vidas de las mujeres y los niños de países en vías desarrollo. Año tras año, los campos de estudio cada vez más diversos de las candidatas confirman nuestra creencia de que las mujeres son líderes fuertes en sus comunidades!

Happy International Women's Day

MMEG TALKS: THE RIGHT TO A VOICE

You’re invited to a MMEG TALKS on “The Right to a Voice: Augmentative and Alternative Communication.”

Four MMEG grantees from diverse fields—Ensa Johnson, Faatima Ebrahim, Netsai Gwata, and Vuledzani Ndanganeni—will discuss their common goal: how best to grant a voice to people, especially children, with different capacities for speech and hearing. The ability to communicate is a right, not a privilege.

Our moderator, Ensa Johnson, is a respected international researcher and educator who has even instructed at least one of our panelists and other grantees, so this is in fact a two-generation MMEG panel! Come and raise your voice, offer your opinion, ask questions, or simply listen.

To join this webinar, go to our EVENTS page, where a link will go live 15 minutes before the start time, at noon EST on Monday, February 22, 2023.

ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS OF MMEG's 2022 PHOTO COMPETITION: "EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN"

© Sourav Karmakar

We the “Sheroes”

Congratulations to the winners of MMEG’s second annual photo competition! They all captured powerful images that tell meaningful stories about extraordinary women, this year’s theme.

The winners are:

First prize: Sourav Karmakar for “We the Sheroes”

Second prize: Arpan Chowdhury for “Bleed Green”

Third prize: Mithail Afrige Chowdhury for “Rage for Rape”

Honorable mentions:

Kyaw Zay Yar Lin for "Myanmar's Women”

Roberto Gregori for "Caring for the Poor”

Kanishka Puri for "Women Lifeguards of India”

We received 213 entries from all over the world. The photographers portrayed extraordinary women from Bangladesh, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Vietnam, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They Illustrate stories of endurance and improvement in which women are the key drivers of change.

Many thanks to all the participants who shared with us their vision of extraordinary women. Thank you to LensCulture for hosting the competition. And thanks to our judges—Afia Nathaniel, Carla Rhodes, and Dawn Whitmore—for undertaking the difficult task of selecting the winners from so many fabulous entries.

We look forward, over the coming year, to sharing some of these entries—beyond the winners featured here—and the story behind those photos, to recognize and celebrate even more extraordinary women.

 Congratulations to all concerned!

You can read more about the winners here

MMEG now has five programs!

The year 2023 will see MMEG award its 500th grant. What better way to mark this milestone than by expanding our grant offerings! On November 15, 2022, applications opened for MMEG’s new pilot grant program, the France Program. The France Program will offer two to three grants of $5,000 each to women from developing countries studying in France.

With programs in the United States and Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South Africa, MMEG reaches a broad range of women from developing countries studying in either English or Spanish. However, there is a wide swath of women from developing countries that MMEG has up till now not been able to support: women who are French speakers and are studying in French, one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Bridging the language barrier, MMEG’s pilot program will enable women studying in France to apply in French. Through the France Program, MMEG will be able to support women students from West and Central Africa, North Africa and the Maghreb, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean.

As with all MMEG programs, the France Program grant will be awarded to exceptional women whose focus is on improving the lives of women and children in their communities. The general criteria, which you can check out here, are the same as they are for MMEG’s other programs. Applications may be submitted online from November 15, 2022, through January 15, 2023.

We are very excited to open up to a new population of extraordinary women and to expand the MMEG community of exceptional grantees across the globe!

Questions? Please email us at france@mmeg.org.

Our Impact: 2012 MMEG grantee Sandra Jatoonah

This is the story of a remarkable woman, Sandra Jatoonah from Mauritius, who earned a Master’s degree in Social Development in South Africa, and returned to her home country to offer social services to disadvantaged families.

With financial support from MMEG, Sandra completed a Master’s degree at the University of Cape Town in 2013.   Upon graduation, she returned to Mauritius determined to make a difference in the lives of others. During her first year back home, she worked with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) as a labour migration and client service assistant.  Through IOM’s various programmes, Sandra provided support to locals who were stranded abroad, assisting their repatriation and reintegration into society after they returned to Mauritius.  Many were women, some with children, who were very grateful to return with IOM support.  Sandra also supported workers and their families who were leaving to work abroad, helping with applications for entry visas and training to help them adapt to life in a new country.

Sandra then worked for four and a half years at the Decentralised Cooperation Programme (DCP), funded by the European Union (EU), facilitating the distribution of EU grants to non-profit organizations and ensuring the funds were properly used to implement social development projects.  Her work at the DCP gave Sandra the opportunity to monitor projects of various NGOs and non-state actors in Mauritius and its surrounding islands, while also providing training in project implementation, follow-up and budgeting. Some of these programs were focused on women’s empowerment, assistance for people with disabilities, women’s health, agriculture, water harvesting, and education.

With this deep understanding of the landscape of social service organizations in Mauritius, in 2018 Sandra joined Lovebridge, a local non-profit that provides services to vulnerable populations and aims to reduce extreme poverty, as a senior social worker. 

Sandra now works closely with about twenty, mostly female headed, households in the most impoverished rural areas, giving them guidance to access the available social services that will support their empowerment end eventual economic independence.  Her work with each family addresses six fundamental pillars: – education, housing, health, employment, food & nutrition and MASCO (motivation, attitude, skills and courage). Issues Sandra commonly faces are the lack of basic amenities (electricity, sanitation), illiteracy, the emotional and physical abuse of women and children, disabilities, health issues, and often the advanced ages of key household members that make finding adequate employment very difficult. Helping family members find adequate employment is a crucial service, among others, that Sandra provides.   

With its holistic and multifaceted approach to family support, Sandra believes her work with Lovebridge can make a real difference. With time and consistent support, she hopes the families under her guidance and care will graduate from Lovebridge programs and lift themselves out of extreme poverty.     

Our impact: 2011 MMEG grantee Sr. Elizabeth Namazzi

Sister Elizabeth Namazzi was inspired to help ostracized unwed teenage mothers in her homeland, Uganda, after witnessing firsthand how a hopeless pregnant girl’s life was transformed with practical support. After teaching secondary school for many years, Sister Elizabeth completed a PhD in Curriculum Studies at Canada's University of British Columbia (UBC), supported by a MMEG grant in 2011, and then returned to Uganda. She is now changing the lives of young people, both at the university where she works and through a center to support and empower young mothers.

While studying in Canada, Sister Elizabeth also worked to advance her ambition to help young unwed mothers. In Uganda’s conservative society, pregnant girls are often expelled from their homes and communities and left to fend for themselves. Homeless and helpless, the girls struggle to survive and too often lose their unborn babies. Sister Elizabeth’s vision was to build a center that could offer the young women a safe place to give birth, provide them and their babies with healthcare, teach them skills that promote self-reliance, and work with their families and communities to end ostracism of pregnant girls and reintegrate unwed mothers into society.

Upon graduation, Sister Elizabeth returned to Uganda Martyrs University, southwest of Kampala, where she is now Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies and Research. As well teaching, supervising graduate research, and conducting innovative research herself, Sister Elizabeth is responsible for the School’s administration and co-ordination. She also designed the Curriculum of Educational Administration and Management program, a recent addition to the university’s offerings.

While studying at UBC, Sister Elizabeth persuaded engineering students in nearby Seattle to design the center she was dreaming of, based on her hand-drawn sketches. The prize-winning design for the Early Mothers Self-Realization Center is now becoming a reality. The center is being constructed in Sister Elizabeth’s home town with funds raised from well-wishers near and far. (Donors can contribute via https://www.gofundme.com/uganda-mothers-shelter). As of mid-2022, the first building was 80% complete and was already accommodating the urgent needs of young mothers. Once finished, the center will house a dormitory, an education center, and a medical clinic, and the girls will receive training in parenting, childcare and nutrition, and self-reliance skills. The clinic will also provide pre- and postnatal health services.

The center is eventually expected to accommodate and train up to 100 girls a year, supported by 15 staff members. In mid-2022, 18 girls and babies were housed at the Center and 26 others had been assisted with food and clothing. The center grows some of its own food, and plans to start rearing pigs and poultry and train the girls in animal farming as a potential source of income. Girls are also taught sewing skills, on donated machines.  

In her formal role as instructor and dean at Uganda Martyrs University, Sister Elizabeth saw student enrollment grow by 25% since her return in 2015 to 6,189 students in 2019. Sadly, the COVID pandemic has since caused enrollment to drop to 4,632 students, of which some 45% are women. Her own research has focused on child-led households and children’s perspectives on HIV/AIDS.

MMEG’s investment in Sister Elizabeth is having an exponential impact as she supports and empowers young unwed women while working to change community biases against them, researches a range of child-focused issues, and trains future educators.