She tests them for HIV and syphilis, talks about nutrition, goes with them to their crops, weighs or simply touches and listen to them as a good friend. Yes, Inacia learned Kaiapo language in order to improve her work. Kaiapo women learn in their youth days how to help a birthing woman, and Inacia is always with them at birth, helping, teaching and learning at same time. Children are followed since they are born. Her work, that helps reducing malnutrition among little "curumins" (Indian word that means children) was presented and prized in a National Health Congress.

Inacia has been helping to reduce child mortality, improving maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS and other disease. For Kaiapo indians from Aukre, Pykararankre and Kendjan villages, she is making a difference.

Inácia é uma guerreira, tão forte e dura como os indígenas Kaiapó que ela auxilia. Por mais de seis anos esta pequena enfermeira devota sua vida a ajudar aquele povo na floresta amazônia, nas margens do rio Xingu. O trabalho começa com as gestantes. Ela faz testagem de HIV e sífilis, fala sobre nutrição, acompanha até as roças, pesa ou simplesmene as toca e escuta como uma boa amiga. Sim, pois Inácia aprendeu a língua Kaiapó para melhorar seu trabalho. As mulheres Kaiapó aprendem em sua juventude como ajudar uma mulher em trabalho de parto, e Inácia está sempre com elas no parto, ajudando, ensinando e aprendendo ao mesmo tempo. Crianças são acompanhadas desde que nascem. Seu trabalho, que ajuda a reduzir a desnutrição entre os pequenos curumins foi apresentado e premiado em um Congresso Nacional de Saúde. Inácia tem ajudado a reduzir a mortalidade infantil, melhorando a saúde materna e combatendo HIV/AIDS e outras doenças. Para os indígenas Kaiapó das aldeias Aukre, Pykararankre e Kendjan ela faz a diferença.

In her family’s traditional culture, a girl does not need to be high educated because at the end, a girl will only follow her husband after marriage & just be a good homemaker, that is all! She of course disagrees with this tradition.

She leaves her hometown to go to college at her own initiative & pays the tuition fee by herself. She works hard for paying it & her living cost. She wants to be high educated as well as widens her mind.

She thinks that it is not only man who has right for better education. She never gives up & always motivates herself instead of being stressed by her family pressure. That is what makes me amazed & nominates her.

From the age of eight Punnam was forced to work as a domestic help, to support her mother following her father’s death. Feeding five hungry mouths was no easy task and Punnam’s mother passed away shortly after her husband. Taken in by a reluctant relative, Punnam slaved in fields, selling grass and firewood to make ends meet so she could continue with her education.

Just when the family managed to ensure a decent life for themselves, the village ojha declared the children’s grandmother to be a witch who devoured the lives of the villagers. Soon after this pronouncement, a man in the village died. The villagers stormed into Punam’s home, beating up all the family members. Barred from entering people’s homes and the marketplace, the family were declared as ‘social outcasts’ by the community and persecuted mercilessly. Known locally as the ‘witch’s children’, Punnam and her siblings were brutally beaten if anyone set sight on them on the streets.

Eventually, tired of the constant abuse, Punnam moved to Ranchi to finish her education. It was there that she was able to obtain a small grant and set up Mahila Sangathon, an organisation which works to improve the lives of slum dwellers. Today the organisation covers 32 slum colonies in Ranchi, holding regular rallies and protests in support of local community development. A big supporter of the arts, Punnam has been widely praised for using drama to create awareness on the issue of women being unfairly branded as witches. Her play Gudkayan Daho has gained recognition all over Jharkhand and is giving people a better understanding of the ‘witch hunt’ violence that she suffered growing up.

With more than 10 years of experience in theatre, Punnam was awarded the "Best Change Maker” Youth Award, in 2004, presented through Oxfam. Meanwhile, she has also contributed to several inspirational documentary films including National Geographic’s Tantra, which focuses on the theme of witch hunters and a women’s rights film.

Growing up without a father and facing a life of hardship only strengthened her. She would think constantly about her society and how to improve it. Her only concern was how she could help her widowed mother, whom she used to watch working tirelessly to provide food for Zahra and her younger sister.

Seeing her mother hunched over her sewing machine, turning out the most exquisitely made pieces of clothing, at the age of nine she decided to try it out herself! She later learned how to make her own clothes and started taking the pressure off her aging mother. It wasn’t long before she was spending all her time, including her holidays beavering away non-stop at her sewing machine.

Banned from finishing secondary school she had no choice but to educate herself. Even after having her own family, she set about devouring whatever books she could so that she could dedicate her life to helping the poor and oppressed in Iraq.

She was forever thinking about ways she could serve society’s vulnerable groups such as widows, orphans and the poor. Eventually she organised study sessions at her house to encourage women to educate themselves, and develop their skills. She helped them set up microenterprise projects such as jewellery-making and running crèches.

Following the recent war in Iraq, Zahra went back to education and was finally able to complete he studies, and embarked on a Law degree in Cairo.

The four years she spent there were among the most productive of her life: She worked on a charity tailoring project and volunteered in a women’s centre she helped refugees from Chechnya and Sudan to save them from a life of poverty and prevent their children being deprived of an education. She was especially concerned with helping victims of persecution or domestic abuse. As well as this she used to run dress-making workshops to raise funds for orphans and the poor. She helped young orphaned girls by running projects to make wedding clothes, and decorate the orphans’ bridal cars.

For Zahra, it makes no difference how strong or self-reliant female victims may appear; she offers her support to all. After returning home she became even more determined to spend her life alleviating the plight of the millions of orphans and widows in Iraq. So when she read about the Charity Bank for Small Businesses, a scheme being run in Baghdad by the Iraqi Charities Forum, she wasted no time in signing up to teach a tailoring course to a group of Iraqi widows.

The women who enrolled said that they had noticed a real improvement in their skills. They had increased their self-esteem, got over their phobia of using machines and learned how to make marketable products.

The Iraqi Charities Forum has provided 43 widows and women in need with sewing machines, fabrics and other materials via interest-free loans. In this way, the project has given women the opportunity to earn their livelihood and work their way out of poverty independently and with dignity. Zahra continues to support the project!

It was here that she became exposed to the idea of collective empowerment when working on the issue of housing rights.

She worked with collectives set up by the organisation, enabling people living in the slums to claim their rights to housing and shelter. This theme of collective empowerment would later become central to her work in her own organisation, Shaishav.

By 1990, Parul was working for the Society for Education, Welfare and Action – Rural (SEWA-Rural), an organisation that provides access to healthcare for tribal people in a very rural area of Gujarat. During her time here she undertook a series of research projects, to determine the effectiveness of maternal health care and make improvements accordingly. In addition, Parul worked for the Centre for Non-formal Education and Development for women, where she was involved in the design and publication of materials such as manuals, papers and reports.

Her considerable experience in the NGO environment led to the establishment of Shaishav in 1993. The organisation’s primary goal is empowerment for children and young people, which is reflected in all its work. Shaishav’s projects give children the tools they need to not only understand their situation but to challenge it. In Indian society women, children and young girls face daily injustices because they have no means to protect themselves.

Parul has been responsible for Shaishav’s most important and innovative programme to date; Balsena. Meaning “children’s collective” in Gujarati, it encourages children from all different backgrounds to come together to experience the power of unity and collective strength. Membership is not limited to any one group and includes children of different religions, castes, and economic backgrounds.

Despite the many conflicts that exist in their communities, Balsena children invite society and government to resolve the problems that so many people in India face on a daily basis. Run by children for children, the Balsena youngsters organise themselves into small groups for each area of the city, elect their leaders, decide their own agenda, and develop their own ideas on how best to improve the situation of children. Parul’s self-sustaining creation has offered children the chance to achieve their own goals rather than relying on outside help and assistance.

Within Balsena there are a multitude of different initiatives including Kishori Mandal, a girls group which aims to empower and educate young girls. Teaching them to rise above the social stigma of gender, the group has helped to change people’s attitudes towards menstruation, by teaching the science behind it.

To those around her, Parul is a constant source of inspiration and strength.

Nothing comes for free. She spends 70% of her time, training these farmers on the benefits of farming as a business. Nobody, not even her enterprise can cover the cost of these trainings and technology transfers. But she persists despite the fact that supply of high quality raw materials from small scale farmers has proved to be inconsistent, time consuming and expensive. Many other companies like hers would have easily initiated their own farming, but not Margaret.

She wants the farmers to be elevated to another level. To stop depending on hand-outs and to form strong, reliable food supply chains that are sustainable, consistent and offer high quality products. Her energy and passion is immense, despite unsuccessfully trying to convince many small scale fames who prefer to receive free gifts and grants, Margaret has not tired. Her patience, passion and zeal continue 9 years on and I believe the drive and passion of this woman is immense. Margaret not only trains her farmers to produce her own products, but strives to build up a culture of all round farming. To keep records, in order to know if the farming is paying. She tells her farmers that this farming is their job and not a curse as many farmers think. She helps them to have a different mindset. Through her employees in the field, Margaret has transformed the lives of many, reduced complacency and made many women know that they are able and they can do it.

Margaret has a non-governmental community based organisation whose main objective is to expose the farmer’s women groups already producing raw-materials for her enterprise, to other income generating activities. She has assisted these women groups from merry-go rounds or table banking, chicken rearing and dairy farming. Water catchment and irrigation technologies and next in line for her farmers. She is partnering with relevant organizations to offer these services to her farmers. In turn they will increase income.

Many farmers are only comfortable producing the traditional products which they know how to produce and have produced over their whole lives. But Margaret has commercialized other non-staple, high value products (herbs and spices) which in turn have generated increased incomes for farmers through export via her enterprise. She has made the farmers know that diversity is the key to success. This achievement is not possible without reliable partners and collaborators.

Margaret has been able to rally many organizations, private sector partners and even government agencies to support her course. This has created a ripple effect where she has been able to reach more farmers and initiate new production areas.

She is a champion of change. If we have only 20 Margaret’s in Kenya, we will end poverty before 2015.

The clock strikes 8:00am and the bell goes.It is assembly time and you can not help but notice the zeal and energy that characterize this early morning activity. Conducting the assembly is Elizabeth,the "veteran" primary school Headteacher.

Elizabeth got her first experience of being an administrator as the Assistant Headmistress of Ebenezer Primary School, Lagos. She continued at that position for about a year until she was redeployed to United African Methodist Primary School, Lagos as a Headmistress.In the year 2000, seven months to the Millennium Summit in New York, Elizabeth was transferred to Anglican Primary School, Isawo, a rural area in Ikorodu, Lagos.The situation Mrs Onyeahialam met at Isawo was, in her own words "quite pathetic.It did not even look like a school,there was no office for the Head teacher.There was just a single block of three classrooms which were in a terrible bad state,the pupils were having classes sitting on the floor,and population was very low:150 pupils- with only 55 girls".

Elizabeth set out to work immediately by running campaigns in the villages appealing to the parents to send their wards to school. She also formed a vibrant Parent-Teacher Association where the villagers pooled together very little individual resources to procure desks,chairs,tables and benches.Within a space of 18 months,word had gone round about the work Mrs Onyeahialam was doing in Isawo.As a result of this,the then Chairman of the Ikorodu-West Local government donated a block of 7 modern classrooms with 2 office rooms and sanitation facilities.School population grew by over 700% with a 95% increase in girl enrollment.The result of her tireless efforts earned her the awards of "Best Headteacher for Ikorodu local Government" from 2000 to 2002 consecutively amongst other awards which the school won. In September 2009,Elizabeth was transferred and it almost caused an uproar among the inhabitants of Isawo.

Mrs. Onyeahialam has also impacted on the social and economic development of women in the different communities where she has found herself.She was the President of the women group of her Hometown Union based in Lagos from 1983 to 1995.During his period,she encouraged the women to be financially independent and initiated a women dance group through which funds were raised to build a hospital in their hometown in Mbano, Imo State. She is also a very active member of the Catholic Women Organisation in her local church parish successively holding the posts of Financial Secretary and Vice President amongst others at different periods. On the 13th of May 2005, the "Lagos Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women Organizations" presented her with an award of excellence in recognition of her "outstanding contributions in her career, enhancement of better life for women and in the preservation of the dignity of womanhood".

She is, in fact, still at odds continuing the legal battle against her previous employer with the hope of putting an end to various forms of oppression in the workplace. All the agony and the pain that she has gone through are the things that she now uses as catalyst to evolve and appreciate the many things that she can do to make a difference.

She is zealously involved and takes a very active role in AYNLA INTERNATIONAL - an organization of nurses in the Philippines that supports UN MDGS 2015. She was appointed as Governor of Region 3 in September, 2010. She welcomed the appointment as much as she has welcomed the responsibility that goes with it. She has organized medical mission that catered to 300 indigent individuals especially women and children on December 20, 2010. Together with her very able and equally hardworking team, she was able to successfully spearhead a feeding program that accommodated 250 children in the Aetas community in a remote area of San Ramon in Florida Pampanga. She has also coordinated with several officials in disseminating health teachings regarding HIV/AIDS in the Cabanatuan area. She has also established communication with one NGU in Uganda regarding his concerns on how assistance can be provided to 123 children with AIDS in their country. She has provided health teachings on the improvement of maternal health care in some barrios in Region 3. She is now planning to undertake a tree planting program in the Region to prevent the devastating effects of Typhoon ONDOY when it hit Manila.

Standing for her convictions, she bravely gets in the middle of controversies to promote gender equality. During the AYNLA Black Rose Campaign which symbolized strong defiance against nursing volunteerism with pay, she went to an institution to refer their members. Now that school vacation is fast approaching, she is now in the middle of negotiating with Korean community to help out of school children to have books and learning materials to be distributed for free.

Partnership and coordination have been very essential in order to make all these things possible. She manages to talk to every people from all walks of life. She never gets tired of travelling to other places and meeting people and come home with good news to share. The good news that she shares are things that live up to the organizations mission and vision.

Because of such achievements and accomplishments done in her area, their humble President and founder of AYNLA, appointed her as Chairperson of the League of Governors -----to help other chapters build the power in them and implement UN MDGS 1015 and set example on how to be the best that you can despite life’s difficulties. Literally, when life is pulling you down. And as proud husband, I seldom say this—In everything she does”. I'm proud of IVY G. TEJADA.