Women Forward International is a global platform for systemic change in international affairs education, reorienting research towards the principals of unity, collaboration, and service. We create unique partnerships that lead to behavioral changes that advance women to advance humanity.

On April 17, 2025, our Ambassadors for Human Rights Program for Newcomer Students to the United States hosted a powerful full-day event at UC Berkeley’s International House. Highlights included a campus tour, mentoring luncheon, and moving poetry presentations on The Poetry of Human Rights. Newcomer students also attended a college-entry session led by Diablo Valley Community College. The success of our partnership has led to an annual event with Woven Teaching Foundation and UC Berkeley’s International House. In 2026, we will work with our teams at UC Berkeley and California State University San Marcos to scale the program to a statewide and eventually national level. More than an educational initiative, this is a movement—fostering student leadership, creative expression, and real-world engagement with human rights. Most importantly, it empowers newcomer students to dream big and shape hopeful futures.

Opening the U.S. Market to ZariZar The Need: The export of textiles is integral to the Indian economy, and skilled artisans are critical to that success. Given appropriate support, independent women weavers can continue to be the vital core of that workforce, maintaining a valued heritage as it provides livelihood for their families. This project demonstrates how a unique partnership can expand this cottage industry, which produces sustainable world class, “slow fashion” products, for the benefit of India, women, and style-conscious customers in the United States. ZariZar: Founded by two entrepreneurs in the Aurangabad area of Maharashtra, ZariZar (www.zarizar.com) sells luxury had-woven shawls and a curated collection of minerals in the United States. The company builds on an established network of master weavers, mostly women, that, with their apprentices, has become one of the most renowned and honored in India. Their skill and patience enables them to spend days and even weeks at their looms, crafting a single magnificent shawl as a work of art. With ZariZar, this network of craftspeople is entering the globalized world of high fashion, using the most refined silk, Kashmiri wool, and Zari threads to weave luxurious patterns in the ancient art of Himroo shawls for a new market of customers. WFI is partnering with the Strategic Design & Management graduate students Parsons School of Design in New York and students from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Mumbai with Faisal Quraishi's ZariZar Himroo Shawls, to implement a strategic plan to open up new markets, especially in the United States, to uplift ZarZar's community of businesswomen artisans, their families, and their communities. For more information: https://www.womenforwardinternational.org/copy-of-weaving-a-path-to-peace-2

Women and girls are the most vulnerable demographic worldwide to food insecurity. Statistics show that at least thirty million or more people experience food insecurity in Mexico. With the generous support of TC Energia, through its social impact program, Build Strong, WFI is piloting a food rescue program for women and girls in Veracruz, one of the most underserved regions in the country, and in states across Mexico. Women Forward International (WFI) is expanding its collaboration with White Pony Express (WPE), a pioneering volunteer-powered nonprofit organization with a mission to eliminate hunger and poverty by delivering the abundance all around us to those in need—with love. Together WFI and WPE are spreading the principle of shared abundance worldwide. A conglomeration of Mexican businesses, including COPARMEX, the Consejo Coordinador de Mujeres Empresarias, and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Mexico are also exploring how they can support the project through in kind, financial, and volunteer contributions. Join us! Email WomenForwardInternational@gmail.com in the United States, or alas.de.amor.24@gmail.com in Mexico. Las mujeres y las niñas son el grupo demográfico más vulnerable en todo el mundo a la inseguridad alimentaria. Las estadísticas muestran que al menos treinta millones o más de personas padecen inseguridad alimentaria en México. Con el generoso apoyo de TC Energia, a través de su programa de impacto social, Build Strong, WFI está poniendo a prueba un programa de rescate de alimentos para mujeres y niñas en Veracruz, una de las regiones más desatendidas del país, y en estados de todo México. Women Forward International (WFI) está ampliando su colaboración con White Pony Express (WPE), una organización sin fines de lucro pionera impulsada por voluntarios con la misión de eliminar el hambre y la pobreza entregando la abundancia que nos rodea a los necesitados, con amor. Juntos, WFI y WPE están difundiendo el principio de abundancia compartida en todo el mundo. Un conglomerado de empresas mexicanas, entre ellas COPARMEX, el Consejo Coordinador de Mujeres Empresarias y la Cámara de Comercio de Canadá en México, también están explorando cómo pueden apoyar el proyecto mediante contribuciones en especie, financieras y voluntarias. ¡Únete a nosotros! Envíe un correo electrónico a WomenForwardInternational@gmail.com en Estados Unidos, o alas.de.amor.24@gmail.com en México.

On April 17, 2025, our Ambassadors for Human Rights Program for Newcomer Students to the United States hosted a powerful full-day event at UC Berkeley’s International House. Highlights included a campus tour, mentoring luncheon, and moving poetry presentations on The Poetry of Human Rights. Newcomer students also attended a college-entry session led by Diablo Valley Community College. The success of our partnership has led to an annual event with Woven Teaching Foundation and UC Berkeley’s International House. In 2026, we will work with our teams at UC Berkeley and California State University San Marcos to scale the program to a statewide and eventually national level. More than an educational initiative, this is a movement—fostering student leadership, creative expression, and real-world engagement with human rights. Most importantly, it empowers newcomer students to dream big and shape hopeful futures.

Oct. 29, 2020 Women Forward International - Counsel Of Leopards All over the world, women—for no other reason than being who they are—are left behind in the call for justice. It took George Floyd’s death to raise an outcry over the unjust violence of Breonna Taylor’s death, even though her murder occurred months earlier. When 16 mothers were killed with their newborn babies this summer in Afghanistan, the world did not rise up. Why? Together with change-makers and award-winning artists from Mexico, Nigeria, India, South Africa, and Afghanistan whose exhibitions and narratives put into question the status quo in their countries and speak the unspeakable, Women Forward International will bridge the gap between the heart and the mind, demanding real change at this momentous turning point.

The Woman Forward International program was coordinated by Sciences Po’s Gender Studies Program (PRESAGE) and hosted by the Projets Collectifs, this project was led by graduate students under the supervision of a faculty advisor. EquiPop was created by a team of doctors and journalists in 1993. It combines social mobilization and policy, project development, technical assistance and support, and partnership building in order to improve the health and rights of women and girls around the world.

Recommendations for the International Community on Countering Human Trafficking in the Balkans. A team of students from Stanford University’s Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy are carrying out a project for the international community on solutions for countering human trafficking in the Balkans under the direction of political scientists Dr. Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and Dr. Jeremy Weinstein, Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at FSI.

Born in Rio de Janeiro on July 11, 1963, and nationalized Mexican, Vera André is a plastic artist who comes from the design discipline. Various institutions dedicated to the arts have been the hosts of what today is her performance in different artistic expressions.