Woman of Courage
Each year UNANIMA International presents the “Woman of Courage Award,” which honors Women from around the World who have exhibited exceptional courage and leadership to make a difference in their communities, especially for the betterment of the lives of women and children.
Nominations are submitted by our member congregations, and a vote is held by UNANIMA International’s Board of Directors. A “Woman of Courage Award” Ceremony is then held to honor the winner.
Brigid is a former long-term board member of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and a litigation guardian for young Indigenous people and young people seeking climate action. Her support for many asylum seekers who need a representative in Federal Court matters has helped them obtain critical, urgent care in Australia.
With patience, courage and compassion, Brigid continues to care for asylum seekers embodying the motto of the Brigidine Asylum Seekers Project: ‘Strength and kindness’.
Maria José Cavalcante is from Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil. As a young leader fighting for the rights of her community—displaced by a big sugarcane corporation—she faced the gunmen of the sugarcane owners and the police force in confrontations. As a militant of the C.P.T. (Pastoral Land Commission) and of the Women’s Workers’ Movement (MMTR) she acquired new social-political awareness while occupying the land with other leaders and facing police violence and threats of eviction.
After years of struggle and persecution, Maria and the other leaders were were able to conquer an area of land. Thirty-five families were allocated seven hectares of the land per family. As time went on Maria has led her community in beginning pesticide-free agriculture—working on planting and reforesting the land so damaged by the chemicals used for so many years in the fertilization of sugarcane.
Her efforts to fight against poverty and inequality were also evident in 2009 when she spent six months working to help rebuild Haiti after an earthquake, and then during the coronavirus pandemic, as she organized other women in surrounding settlements to collect food to help 40 nearby families that were suffering.
Together with her husband and children, María has created the association “Familiares en búsqueda María Herrera” (“Relatives in Search”), which aims to “organize, embrace, strengthen and empower people [who] share the pain of the disappearance of loved ones." She has become a symbol of peaceful and tenacious resistance whose presence gives security and comfort to other mothers who suffer the same pain.
With strength and clarity, she has led other relatives of missing people to confront the Mexican government in many ways, including by meeting with Felipe Calderón in 2011 and joining the Caravan for Peace movement throughout Mexico and the United States.
She is one of the founders of the Association and Care Centre where she helps victims of human trafficking and domestic violence. The Center assures social and material help for those under its care, helping them recover their balance–both psychological and spiritual–and regain the sense of self-respect and dignity. It 24 hour care, including therapeutical activities, and gives those in need the opportunity of entering a support group. She also runs prevention workshops on human trafficking, and trains professionals working with those in need.
Guinea, Seraphine used her agricultural skills to work with women close to the main station, as well as setting up a women’s club at which she taught sewing, and trained young women to help her. As she became established, her outreach increased to the surrounding villages, which were very isolated. Eventually she found the small Gebusi Tribe, living a few hours walk and a canoe ride from Nomad. These people became the focus for Sr. Seraphine in this area, and she worked with the men and women in all fields of learning. A worthy recipient of the Woman of Courage award, Sr Seraphine was unassuming and humble in her acceptance. UNANIMA International was extremely pleased to present this annual award to Sr Seraphine, who in her ministry and personal life embodies the qualities which we believe are essential for the advancement of women everywhere:
solidarity, and a passion for human rights and the poor.
UNANIMA International’s admirers Sr. Seraphine's outreach and the lengths she went to to work with even the most isolated communities, what we often refer to at the United Nations as the “furthest left behind”. We congratulate Seraphine on her courageous work and
thanked her deeply for her commitment to UNANIMA International’s values.
She is now the monitor / evaluator of programs at Good Shepherd Welcome House in Cebu. Not only does she work with and support girls and women on the street; but she educates pimps about trafficking, and networks with bar managers in an effort to identify and help women in need. Marietta has done many international presentations, and is now getting a degree with research focused on interventions for recovery of trafficking survivors.
Helena Maleno Garzón is a researcher, investigator, journalist, and activist who stands up for the rights of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and victims of human trafficking who attempt to reach Europe by sea and land. In her reporting she has denounced human rights violations on the Spanish Southern Border and works with migrant communities in defense of their rights.
In 2002 Helena founded Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders), an organization that rescues sea vessels carrying migrants that are in danger of sinking, and provides support for them once they arrive in Europe. It is estimated that she has saved at least ten thousand lives through her work relaying the locations of sinking sea vessels to Spanish naval authorities. Helena continues to do this work despite ongoing judicial harassment and threats from the governments of Morocco and Spain, who have criminalized her efforts.
Meera is a young, water justice warrior who has helped people and the planet immensely in her advocacy and action. UI is inspired by her courage, determination, and leadership, and are confident that the work she did on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will continue to help hundreds of thousands of people around the globe.
Máxima and her daughter Ysidora have testified to human rights officials in Paris, Brussels, and Geneva against the disproportionate struggle in which her basic democratic rights have been trampled. When UNANIMA offered to bring her to the UN to speak about land-grabbing, and mining, and water issues, she had to refuse because she was afraid that ifafraid if she left the country at that time, the company would tear down her little hut. UI has become more involved in the issue of mining and land-grabbing as they relate to water, the environment, and Indigenous Peoples, and many of our sisters are working in this area.
Today, she is a global activist for peace and reconciliation and an in-demand motivational speaker. She has been honored by the White House and named the 2009 Humanitarian of the Year by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. ln 2012, she founded the Rose Mapendo Foundation, a non-profit committed to empowering widows, women, and children around the world. Rose’s story has been chronicled in the documentary film “Pushing the Elephant.” Mapendo is a victim no more. She is an incredible survivor, a true hero, and an inspiration to us all.
Margaret Mary worked for over 30 years as an educator, social researcher, community organizer, communication specialist, and activist. She produced and delivered her own radio programs in nutrition, health, and sanitation, bringing health education and development to poor, non-literate, rural populations with a focus on empowering women and girls. As a senior consultant in a management consulting firm, she enabled communities to manage water and sanitation facilities. As Executive Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development Initiatives, Margaret Mary helped empower women through education and training. In a society where most women thought they were meant to be seen and not heard, it took real courage to help women to know their rights, to become economically independent, and to take their rightful place at all levels of society.
Hasina Kharbhih, a founder, president, and team leader of the Impulse NGO Network, responded by developing an expansive tracking system to combat child trafficking. This comprehensive model successfully brings together the state government, security agencies, legal groups, media, and citizen organizations to combat the cross-border trafficking of children in the region and on the nearby crossings to Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Her desire to build a world fit for children takes on issues of child trafficking, HIV/AIDS intervention, and livelihood support initiatives for rural Northeast India.
On several occasions she has faced violence or imprisonment. More recently, as the Chairperson of the Archdiocese of Nairobi AOSK Peace & Justice group, she was imprisoned. She and about 100 representatives from different organizations were peacefully demonstrating to ask for cancellation of the World Bank debt. They had just handed in a letter at the World Bank offices when they were surrounded by riot police. Therese and 62 others were then bundled into a riot police lorries and taken to a cell at Central Police Station, Nairobi. At the police station, Therese was in a crowded police cell with the other arrested marchers. At one stage the religious were told they could leave, but they would not go with- out the others, so they all remained in the same cell. Finally, in the morning they were transported to the district court and again imprisoned in a crowded basement cell to await being called. They were all charged with holding an illegal demonstration even though they had notified the police in advance.
Consequently, she was the first woman to file a federal suit against a governor, a district attorney, and a judge for corruption and attempted rape in prison. She was also the first woman in Mexican history to take a women’s rights case to the Mexican Supreme Court.