Women's International Center

Women's International Center Partners

The Women's International Center partners with various initiatives whose missions we endorse. Since we operate on a collaborative rather than competitive model, Women's International Center welcomes every opportunity to help promote other NGOs (Non Governmental Agencies), charities, organizations, festivals and projects. We encourage networking and hope our partners distribute information online or in print at our luncheons, and we do our best to include partners' information in our Living Legacy Award annual program, on our website online, and in our newsletters. For the past 27 years, Women's International Center has helped bring attention to over 50 organizations including Children as Teachers of Peace, American Association of University Women, UNICEF, PETA, Operation Smile (more listed on our About Us page) and we look forward to continued collaborations with many more.

Women's Museum of California
www.womensmuseumca.org The Women's Museum of California is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1983 as theWomen's History Reclamation Project. It was the life-long dream of its founder, Mary B. Maschal, and other women who realized that women were not included in the mainstream version of history. Mary B. Maschal spent a good part of her life collecting and preserving many historic artifacts that exemplify and document the life histories and achievements of many women, in both the United States and abroad and called it The Women’s History Reclamation Project. We are one of only five museums of women’s history in the country. Since 1996 the WHM has blossomed into a full-fledged women's history museum and valuable community educational resource. With the help of many volunteers and a dedicated staff, the WHM features a diverse variety of changing exhibits and displays on women's history, sponsors workshop and lecture series (open to the public), develops and implements educational events including art shows; performance presentations, maintains a library and research archive, and provides speakers for the community through its Speaker's Bureau. The WHM is a co-founder and sponsor of the San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame. We collaborate with dozens of women’s and girl’s organizations and agencies throughout San Diego.

ShelterBox USA
www.shelterboxusa.org Providing Shelter, Warmth and Dignity to Disaster Survivors Worldwide
ShelterBox is a disaster relief charity that provides humanitarian aid in the form of shelter, warmth and dignity to people displaced by natural and other disasters worldwide. The organization instantly responds to earthquake, volcano, flood, hurricane, cyclone, tsunami or conflict by delivering boxes of aid. In 2000, ShelterBox realized the typical aid response to most disasters was in the form of food and medicine to help people survive the immediate aftermath. Little or no assistance was given in terms of proper shelter to help survivors through the first few days, weeks and months as they tried to rebuild their lives. In response, ShelterBox developed a solution to help disaster survivors during the critical period following a disaster but preceding reconstruction.

ShelterBox is the leading provider of shelter-based disaster relief around the world. Each ShelterBox supplies an extended family with a rugged tent, water purification, cook-stove, blankets, children’s activity kit and other essential tools. Contents are tailored to the nature and location of the disaster and allow families to begin rebuilding their lives—independently and with dignity. Highly trained volunteers—ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) members hand-deliver aid across the world, often partnering with other aid organizations, local authorities and community leaders to determine those who are in most need.

ShelterBox provides aid to the most vulnerable people in the world and has responded to over 150 disasters in more than 70 countries. The charity, which has delivered aid to over a million disaster survivors, prides itself on the ability to act quickly when disaster strikes. Often, ShelterBox is the first outside aid agency on the ground distributing desperately needed shelter and emergency aid to people whose lives have been destroyed. In many cases, ShelterBoxes have made the difference between life and death.

ShelterBox aid is sponsored by the generous support of individuals, businesses, foundations, Rotary clubs and other groups from around the world.

California Against Slavery
californiaagainstslavery.org Our mission is to defend the freedom of every child, woman and man by empowering the people of California to fulfill our obligation to stop human trafficking. California Against Slavery (CAS) is a non-partisan human rights organization dedicated to ending human trafficking in our state. CAS can yield the greatest blow to human trafficking by enacting stronger state laws that remove the lucrative profits from human trafficking and significantly increase the penalties and risks to the criminals while protecting the victims. Our plan is to take the issue directly to California voters by placing an initiative on the November 2012 election ballot. Once the initiative is passed (and experts agree it will pass), up to 17 million California voters will form the largest single movement against human trafficking in the United States.

WIC was a proud supporter of:
"Move to Stop Modern Day Slavery!"
Sunday, August 28th, San Diego 5K race & 5K walk
Harbor Island Park, San Diego, CA
website: californiaagainstslavery.org/get-involved/walk/

View event photos at: http://www.facebook.com/CASJustice

Pacific Arts Movement, home of The San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF)
The San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF) is put on annually by the Pacific Arts Movement. Since 2000, the mission of SDAFF has been to connect audiences to the human experience through the Pan Asian media arts. While the film festival has an emphasis is on Asian American cinema, the festival also showcase international films, along with shorts, documentaries, and animation. Women's International Center has been co-prsenting films with the SDAFF since 2011, including: Wonder Women - Shorts Program, I Am - Coming Out in India, My Wedding and Other Secrets - Chinese New Zealander covertly marries white boyfriend, Asian American Women in Hollywood Panel, Eden (won Audience Award in 2012).

WIC is proud to have recently partnered with The Azerbaijan/San Diego Sister Neighborhood Project linking Switzer Highland in San Diego with the Nasimi District in Azerbaijan, in support of Education. Sponsorships of scholarships in support of this initiative are welcome.

A brief history of the Sister Neighborhood Partnership which Switzer Highland has with the Nasimi District of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan:

2007. Physical education teachers from Azerbaijan visited San Diego through the efforts of the San Diego Diplomacy Council and the State Department; one of them stayed with a neighbor on 29th Street. Rather than simply send e-mails to stay in touch, we created the concept of a Sister Neighborhood and wrote the Azerbaijan Ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, who was thrilled with the idea and suggested we contact the Consulate General in Los Angeles.
2008-2010. Developed extensive list of contacts in U.S. and Azerbaijan. In November 2010 Consul General Elin Suleymanov visited Switzer Highland and San Diego. In December we visited Baku and met with officials of the Nasimi District, Human Rights Institute, Tourism Department, public and private schools, academies, colleges and universities, multi-million dollar tennis training facility, Parliament, etc. Also, in December Azerbaijan folk musicians performed for 300 people at Joan Kroc Peace & Justice Center along with performances in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
2011. Established partnership between McKinley Elementary School and School No. 23 in Nasimi District; creating partnership with a Middle School as well. Establishing partnership between Grossmont College Music Department and a music academy in Nasimi District, and planning a March 2012 concert/festival at Birch Theatre. Attended reception at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades commemmorating the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan independence from the Soviet Union. In June 2011 Monterey (California) and Lankaran, Azerbaijan signed Sister City agreement, only the second one involving a U.S. city; the other is the Baku-Houston Sister City partnership.

Factoids:
1. The Switzer Highland-Nasimi District arrangement is the first Sister Neighborhood Partnership in the world.
2. Azerbaijan and Baku were featured in the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Large Enough.
3. John D. Rockefeller visited Baku in the 1800s because of the oil.
4. Switzer Highland has a 13-member Steering Team and a 7-member Advisory Group, which includes a Poway resident who built the largest flag pole in the world in Baku.
5. The former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan lives in San Diego

The Sustainability Alliance of Southern California (SASC)
http://sascorg.groupsite.com/main/summary The Sustainability Alliance of Southern California envisions our region becoming a successful model for sustainability by 2020. Southern California will become a leader in minimizing the stress on our natural ecosystems, while maximizing the quality of life for all. Our mission is to make sustainability the policy of Southern California. Our founder, Mr. Alan Ball, called for this group to engage in action which is: purposeful, thoughtful, directed, passionate and effective to impact carbon dioxide emissions. He stated the importance of having an organization that is respected, has credibility, is listened to and is perceived as always oriented in the best interests of the region. How the Alliance serves the community and promotes sustainability:
Provides a neutral place to dialogue, present information, and collaborate on all sustainability related issues (ie. energy, water, land, food, and health).
Advocates for policies that promote sustainability and encourages energy and water efficiency and conservation.
Serves as a connection point for organizations and businesses to share information about initiatives.
Engages leaders both in government and the private sector to implement changes that reduce carbon dioxide emission levels

Growth Nation
http://growthnation.com Growth Nation helps companies create growth that respects human and natural resources. We support the growth of clients in nearly every segment including the more traditional green industries like cleantech, solar, wind energy, algae and biomass. We also help companies in any industry grow and grow responsibility. We love companies that want to create a high impact in the market but a low impact on the environment. All of our team members are experienced in supporting the growth of green initiatives and attracting clients that find environmental and corporate sustainability an essential way of doing business. Growth Nation offers sustainability reporting training that shapes the future of companies as they look to be more environmentally responsible. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Certified Training is offered at our global headquarters and in special corporate sessions by our world-class training resource partners. Contact us for more information about your successful implementation and management of green initiatives. Our extensive work with multi-billion dollar Fortune 50 companies, fast-growing start-ups and international cross-border wonders are all a bonus for clients because we understand what it takes for global companies to grow in the US, and for US companies to grow outside the US. Our global growth expertise helps customers develop world-class growth strategies, plans and implementations.

XSlaves
Xslaves.org is a student-founded and student-led 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization which was created around one mission: to eradicate slavery worldwide. Xslaves.org supports educational, vocational training, microcredit, and other sustainable assistance programs in Africa and throughout the world where slavery proliferates.

In 2009 we supported our partner organization Friends of Orphans (FRO) in Northern Uganda by funding a baking and catering program that provided vocational training to 30 former child soldiers for 9 months as well as start-up capital so the students could start their own businesses. In the course of that work, we learned more about the tragic impact of the 21-year old war in Northern Uganda in which the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted children, attacked civilians and government forces and destroyed infrastructure. Up to 40,000 boys and girls, some as young as eight years old, were abducted and forced into child soldiering, and hundreds of thousands of people had family members killed, maimed, raped, and traumatized. Many children were orphaned by the war and the high rate of HIV/AIDS, and over 750,000 children are now out of primary school in Northern Uganda. A top UN official described the rebel war in Northern Uganda as “the worst forgotten humanitarian crisis on earth.” Today, the average age of the entire country of Uganda is 14.5 years old.

Vocational Training Workshop Project Summary
Through our prior work we learned of the critical need to create a permanent vocational training workshop for Friends of Orphans. The workshop was identified by FRO as their number one need. Vocational training is a vital part of supporting former child soldiers and abductees who have little or no education and no skills to generate income. FRO has been providing these programs in temporary facilities that are poorly suited to the task of vocational training. Xslaves.org worked with FRO to design a permanent vocational training workshop that would be a one-of-a-kind facility in Pader County (See Figures 1 and 2). The workshop will have 4 core areas: auto, metalworking, bricklaying/concrete, and carpentry. The workshop will house equipment in each of these 4 vocational disciplines, as well as providing instructor offices and storage areas. FRO will continue to provide vocational instructors to meet the needs of the large group of former child soldiers, orphans, and displaced individuals it serves. The workshop meets our criteria for providing sustainable assistance programs because it will serve thousands of children in desperate need for many years to come, while also contributing to the long-term economic development of Northern Uganda.
The estimated cost of the workshop is $53,000. To date, Xslaves.org has provided $15,000 of initial funding which has enabled FRO to break ground and begin Phase 1 construction.

ART PARTNER, Dottie Stanley. Award winning, internationally known, admired and collected, Dottie Stanley is an amazing painter. Her brilliantly colored world-wide ethnic and still-life paintings capture the heart and imagination.
www.dottiestanley.com

Sophia Women's World Conference
Sophia Circles - Global Action Network http://www.sophiacircles.com
SOPHIA WOMEN AND WISDOM
SOFIA, BULGARIA
Sofia, Bulgaria May 25-29, 2010
The “Women's World Conference: Sophia, Women and Wisdom,” (SWWC) to take place in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 25-29, 2010, builds on the United Nations four World Conferences on Women and the UN Platform for Action Declaration-Beijing 1995.
The conferences and the Platform for Action have created a worldwide women's movement to advance the status of women and girls. It includes a vast network of millions of people engaged in human rights, fundamental freedoms and social development. Sophia WWC will create the connections among the civic, political and spiritual will needed to implement critical "living documents" of the UN through the following WWC objectives:Actualizing the UN Platform for Action
Achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Attending the Environment
Affirming the Men
Advancing the Young People

The SWWC will promote awareness, advocacy and action for women's equality and empowerment, social development, environmental preservation and world peace.

Children's Hospice International
WIC has proudly established a partnership with nonprofit Children's Hospice International. CHI is one of the world's finest organizations ensuring medical, psychological, social and spiritual support to all children with life-threatning conditions and thier families from diagnosis by providing a network of resources and care. CHI promotes hospice care through pediatric facrilities, encourage the inclusion of children in existing and developing hopice, pallative and home care programs. CHI was founded in 1983 by Ann Armstrong-Dailey, a Living Legacy Award honoree and Women's International Center Board Member as our, appropriately, Child and Youth Director. We are proud to join forces to further the health and welfare of children world-wide. Children's Hopice International is headquarered in the Washington, DC area.
www.chionline.org