Just after sunset on a Friday night in Pikine, Senegal — one of the poorest neighborhoods in the capital, Dakar — the energy at a local community center is electric. Spotlights make the courtyard glow as a headphone-clad DJ plays music from two massive…
Author Archives: Justin Jacobs
Activists Up Close: Meet Pisey, who’s Leading the Movement for Marriage Equality in Cambodia
Ly Pisey grew up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where LGBTQI+ people are alienated and pushed to the fringes of society. But Pisey — along with the activist organization she co-founded, Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK) — is working to change what’s possibl…
Activists Up Close: Meet Pisey, who’s Leading the Movement for Marriage Equality in Cambodia
Ly Pisey grew up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where LGBTQI+ people are alienated and pushed to the fringes of society. But Pisey — along with the activist organization she co-founded, Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK) — is working to change what’s possibl…
Activists Up Close: Meet Mercy, a Girls Boxing Coach and Mentor in Kenya
Mercy Musila Musikali grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, like so many girls in her community: shy, lacking confidence and feeling limited by the social expectations of what women can be or do. But then she discovered boxing, and an entire world opened up to he…
Activists Up Close: Meet Mercy, a Girls Boxing Coach and Mentor in Kenya
Mercy Musila Musikali grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, like so many girls in her community: shy, lacking confidence and feeling limited by the social expectations of what women can be or do. But then she discovered boxing, and an entire world opened up to he…
Claiming a Seat at the Table: The Feminization of Politics in Senegal
In the corner office of a municipal building in Dakar, Senegal, Adama Mbengue sits behind a huge, wooden desk. She interlocks her fingers and stretches her mouth into a wide grin. It took a long time to get here — generations, even — but Adama has arri…
Claiming a Seat at the Table: The Feminization of Politics in Senegal
In the corner office of a municipal building in Dakar, Senegal, Adama Mbengue sits behind a huge, wooden desk. She interlocks her fingers and stretches her mouth into a wide grin. It took a long time to get here — generations, even — but Adama has arri…
Medicine, Tents, Tarps and Seeds: How Activists Took Action to Save Lives After Haiti’s Earthquake
At 8:30 a.m. on August 14, 2021, a massive, 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern Haiti, its epicenter in the heart of a rural region home to many of the country’s poorest communities. Globally, it was the deadliest natural disaster of 2021, with ne…
“No One Else is Helping”: Women and LGBTQI+ Legal Aids are Fighting for Survivor Justice in Indonesia
“There’s a stigma in society that we’re a curse,” says 26-year-old Feronika, a transgender woman in Palu, Indonesia. “But we’re perfect the way we are. We have two hands just like everyone else, and we’ll use them to improve our society. If people thin…