On March 8, the United States of America’s Secretary of State, John Kerry, will honour 10 extraordinary women with the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award.
The American First Lady, Michelle Obama, will perform the ceremony alongside Kerry, with the awardees as special guests at 3pm.
The function will hold in the Dean Acheson Auditorium of the US Department of State.
One of the awardees is the President of the Campaign for Democracy in Nigeria, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin.
A statement on the event by the US Department of State said the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award annually recognizes women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women’s rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk.
The statement said since the inception of this award in 2007, the Department of State has honoured 67 women from 45 different countries.
The 2013 awardees are:
Malalai Bahaduri, First Sergeant, Afghan National Interdiction Unit (Afghanistan)
Samira Ibrahim, Coordinator, Know Your Rights (Egypt)
Julieta Castellanos, Rector, National Autonomous University of Honduras (Honduras)
Dr. Josephine Obiajulu Odumakin, President, Campaign for Democracy (Nigeria)
Elena Milashina, journalist, human rights activist (Russia)
Fartuun Adan, Executive Director, Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre (Somalia)
Tsering Woeser (Wei Se), Tibetan author, poet, blogger (China) *
Razan Zeitunah, human rights lawyer and Founder, Local Coordination Committees (Syria) *
Ta Phong Tan, blogger (Vietnam) *
Nirbhaya “Fearless,” champion for justice (India) **
The honorees, according to the statement, will begin their visit to the United States in Pittsburgh, where they will participate in an open to the press forum at Chatham University on March 4, as well as in meetings with organizations such as the Women and Girls Foundation and Gwen’s Girls.
They will arrive in Washington on March 6 for meetings with Department of State and White House officials, members of Congress and NGO leaders.
Following the award ceremony, the honorees will travel separately to cities across the United States to engage with the American people through an International Visitor Leadership Programme.
They will visit Indianapolis, Jackson Hole, Portland, San Francisco, and Tampa.
The women will reconvene in San Diego to reflect on their visit and discuss ways to work together to improve the lives of women and girls around the world.
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