Too Young to Wed is an aid agency dedicated to empowering girls and ending the practice of forced child marriage. Its multimedia projects are the centerpiece of its advocacy efforts and feature the haunting stories of child brides from Nepal, India, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan and even the U.S. In collaboration with nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits, Too Young to Wed uses storytelling to amplify the voices of the girls in those stories and build a global community able to transform advocacy into tangible action.

For more than 30 years, the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) has offered support and legal services to those escaping war, political persecution, intolerance, exploitation and other expressions of violence. From its basement office in a church in Berkeley, Calif., EBSC, which recently celebrated its 3,000th asylum success, advocates on behalf of low-income and indigent refugees and immigrants. An asylum grant allows individuals to stay in the United States, helps them to petition for family members, and provides a path for residency and naturalization.

Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA) is a grassroots organization with a dual mission of promoting personal transformation and building community power as a means of achieving social and economic justice. MUA’s innovative leadership development model trains its Latina immigrant members to advocate on their own behalf and is a national model for immigrant empowerment. The organization has launched a variety of local, state and national coalitions and alliances, all focused on improving the lives of immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

Daraja Academy provides a safe place for girls who lack access to a high school education. It provides exceptional secondary education for Kenyan girls from underserved homes, and offers a beacon of hope, safety, and promise for marginalized girls to develop leadership skills. Daraja believes every girl deserves the education she needs to change herself, her community, and the world.

The Nepal Youth Foundation brings freedom, health, shelter and education to Nepal’s most impoverished children. In addition to providing schools, workshops, housing and nutrition to orphans and displaced children, the Sausalito-based nonprofit has freed more than 15,000 girls from indentured servitude, an advocacy that has changed the country’s culture.

The Brigid Alliance arranges and funds confidential, personalized travel support to women seeking abortion care in increasingly hostile environments. Working in partnership with a network of providers, the Brigid Alliance seeks to close the gap between the right to an abortion and the ability to access one.

RefugePoint advances lasting solutions for at-risk refugees by identifying refugees who fall through humanitarian aid cracks. The nonprofit organization has directly assisted over 54,000 refugees in resettlement, and works in partnership with other groups to guarantee access for thousands more. Instead of asking, “How can we feed and shelter more refugees for longer?” RefugePoint asks, “What are the long-term solutions that will enable refugees to lead healthy, dignified lives and become contributing members of society again?”

If, When, and How…You Decide!
If/When/How envisions a world where everyone has the right and resources to make reproductive decisions free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. The organization also believes all people should have the power to define, create, and sustain their families on their own terms. If/When/How is helping transform the legal and policy landscape to make these beliefs reality.

A feminist grassroots organization in Nairobi, Kenya, TeenSeed focuses on sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). Led by young women, Teenseed nurtures and supports African teen women, helping them develop powerful voices that will enable them to claim their rights, hold leaders accountable, and become leaders themselves. Areas of focus include the empowerment of women and girls for leadership in SRHR, prevention of Human HIV infection among adolescents, and eradication of sexual and gender-based violence.

Medical Students for Choice helps to create and support tomorrow's abortion providers and pro-choice physicians. The organization recognizes the physical and emotional toll reproductive oppression takes on Black communities, and works to hold the needs of people of color front and center.

The Human Trafficking Legal Center works to hold traffickers accountable for their crimes. Working together with pro bono attorney partners, the Legal Center fights for justice on behalf of trafficking survivors, helping them reclaim their lives.

The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project is the only organization that provides free legal and social services to immigrant detainees in Arizona. Dedicated to defending the rights of detainees against an arbitrary and punitive immigration policy that has attacked asylum seekers—including women and girls who are the victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence—the Florence Project aims to ensure that all immigrants facing removal have access to counsel, understand their rights under the law, and are treated fairly and humanely.

Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) provides pro bono attorneys to represent unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in their deportation proceedings. It also offers legal screenings and “Know Your Rights” presentations. KIND works to ensure that unaccompanied children receive fair and appropriate treatment from the U.S. immigration system. In addition to protecting children’s rights and safety before, during and after migration, KIND also helps children returning to their home countries to reintegrate back into their communities.

Immigrant Legal Defense (ILD) is a nonprofit agency dedicated to providing immigration legal services. ILD’sattorneys have worked together for many years, and their expertise —which covers the full scope of immigration law and procedure — has enabled the agency to represent thousands of unaccompanied minors, families seeking asylum, and other individuals throughout California.

Global Fund for Women is one of the world’s leading foundations for gender equality, standing up for the human rights of women and girls. It campaigns for zero violence, economic and political empowerment, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. In accordance with its vision that every woman and girl is strong, safe, powerful and heard, the foundation funds and partners with women-led groups fighting for justice in their own communities. Its rights-based approach gets to the root of gender inequality and is seen as the most effective way to create permanent social change.

ReCrea builds community within an informal migrant settlement located on outskirts of Antofagasta in northern Chile. Although set up as a temporary place of refuge, the settlement has become home to thousands, including women and children. The foundation works to empower women to recreate their world and contribute to a more inclusive and egalitarian society.

Unapologetically focused on those who want contraception or an abortion, Ipas builds programs around those needs. As part of the broader reproductive justice movement, the Ipas Impact Network works with partners across Africa, Asia and the Americas to ensure that abortion and contraceptive care are essential health services—and that all people can access them. Ipas programs use a comprehensive approach that addresses health, legal, and social systems.

Thistle Farms is a sanctuary for female survivors of abuse, addiction, prostitution and trafficking. Founded in 1997 by Rev. Becca Stevens, Thistle Farms’ residential program provides housing for up to 32 women and serves hundreds more with advocacy and referral services. Its social enterprises employ 45 current and former residents who produce natural bath and body products and operate the Thistle Stop Cafe and the Studios Workshop. An additional 1,000 women worldwide are employed through the Thistle Farms Global Marketplace.

The only global legal advocacy organization dedicated to reproductive rights, the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) has used the law for more than 20 years to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right that all governments are legally obligated to protect. CRR envisions a world where women are free to decide whether and when to have children, have access to the best reproductive healthcare available and can exercise their choices without coercion or discrimination.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is a human rights organization renowned for fact-finding, impartial reporting and effective use of media and targeted advocacy, often in partnership with local human rights groups. Each year, the nonprofit, non-governmental organization publishes more than 100 reports and briefings on human rights conditions in some 90 countries, documents that generate extensive press in local and international media. The leverage such coverage brings facilitates access to government officials, the United Nations, regional groups such as the African Union and the European Union, financial institutions and corporations—access the organization uses to press for policy changes that promote human rights and justice around the world.

The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights protects and advances the rights and interests of immigrant children. With the aid of bilingual volunteers, Young Center attorneys and social workers are appointed as child advocates to ensure that separated and unaccompanied children facing the U.S. immigration system are treated as children first. Young Center’s volunteer child advocates also meet with children in federal custody weekly to make sure they are not alone, their stories are heard, and their safety and well-being is prioritized in immigration proceedings.