May 28, 2024

The Invisible Warriors of Ukraine’s Refugee Crisis:
Women's NGOs are leading the charge—but not getting the funding they need.

By Mendy Marsh, the executive director of VOICE, and Lauren Messina, a gender-based violence in emergencies technical specialist, and a Ukraine crisis response regional manager at VOICE. [Read article here]

December 21, 2022

Taliban ban women from Afghan universities - BBC News

BBC News interviews VOICE's Yalda Royan on the Taliban's latest assault on Afghan women's rights.  [Watch interview here]

December 21, 2022

The Taliban Is Barring Women From Studying at Universities. Here’s What to Know

By Amy Gunia

VOICE's Yalda Royan, who fled Kabul during the 2021 Taliban takeover, tells Time that in the short-term she expects the decision to result in an increase in domestic violence, forced marriages and suicide. Afghan women are asking for more help from the international community. [Read full article here]

November 28, 2022

Afghan women, undeterred by Taliban, secretly network for change

By Michal Kranz

The Taliban promised women’s rights and free speech when they stormed to power. But Afghanistan’s new rulers have gone back on their promises, imposing curbs on women’s movement, introducing dress codes for women, and shutting down high schools for girls – bringing back memories of their repressive rule in the 1990s. [Read more here]

November 24, 2022

Underfunded and restricted: The struggle of Afghan women’s rights NGOs

By Jenny Lei Ravelo

VOICE, an international nonprofit that describes itself as bridge-builders between donors and women and girl-led groups, described in its latest report that it receives daily calls from Afghan women asking for support, as many of the international NGOs, U.N. agencies, and governments they previously worked with are no longer doing so. [Read more here]

November 18, 2022

A Voice for Afghan Women

From Global Insider Newsletter by Ryan Heath

Across 80 interviews with Afghan women human rights defenders (who are now spread across 20 countries), VOICE — which works to hold the humanitarian aid sector accountable around treatment of women in crisis settings — found an overwhelming lack of critical health care and financial resources, insufficient training for caseworkers around gender-based violence risks and “rampant nepotism in the resettlement process.”

November 17, 2022

Afghan Women Human Rights Defenders Address Safety and Security Concerns, Mental Health and Barriers to Activism in New Groundbreaking Report

A new report from VOICE analyzes the realities facing displaced Afghan women human rights defenders in Afghanistan, bordering countries and western nations one year since the Taliban’s takeover. [Read more here]

October 5, 2022

For Migrants, Targeted Interventions are the Warmest Welcome

By Natasha Simone Alexenko, Opinion Contributor

In recent months, Govs. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) have exploited the stream of migrants traveling over the Texas border to score points with their conservative base — with Abbott busing tens of thousands of migrants to Washington D.C., Chicago and New York City since April, and DeSantis flying 50 refugees to Martha’s Vineyard in September.. [Read more here]

September 4, 2022

Russia's war on Ukraine has increased human trafficking across the war-torn region, humanitarians say

By Taiyler Simone Mitchell

More than six months into Russian President Vladimir Putin's unprovoked war on Ukraine, the region has become ripe for human trafficking. Of the estimated 12 million people who fled Ukraine when Russia invaded in February, 90% are women or children — the primary targets for trafficking.

"Out of all the violence against women and girls that exist around the world, the little that we actually know about is truly the tip of the iceberg," Mendy Marsh, a humanitarian aid worker, told Insider. [Read more here]

August 29, 2022

Where Things Stand in Afghanistan One Year After the U.S. Withdrawal—And What Could Happen Next

By Sanya Mansoor

One year since the Aug. 31, 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country has spiraled as many had feared. The U.S. absence has brought a sense of relief to many Afghans who lamented the violence caused by a two-decade long war but there is now a deep humanitarian crisis. Nearly 20 million people—about half the country—are facing acute hunger amid a significant fall in per-capita incomes and foreign currencies. [Read more here]

August 1, 2022

Millions of women and children have fled the war in Ukraine. Traffickers are waiting to prey on them

By Ivana Kottasova

Chisinau, Moldova (CNN) -- There was nothing obviously untoward about the woman who approached the Palanca border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova with a 15-year-old boy she said was her nephew. But something about the pair just seemed odd. The boy, in particular, appeared embarrassed and uncomfortable.

Suspicious, border officials started asking questions, bringing in social workers and psychologists. “We saw something was not okay, but didn’t know what. So we interviewed them separately,” the psychologist who helped conduct the interview told CNN. [Read more here]

July 27, 2022

Democrats Push Bill to Allow U.S. Aid to Fund Abortions Around the World

By Khaleda Rahman

The Supreme Court's historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was quickly felt around the country as states quickly moved to enact abortion bans. But abortion rights advocates fear not enough attention is being given to how the impact of the decision will ripple around the world. [Read more here]