President of Women for Women International Zainab Salbi Helping Women Emerge From Horrors of War by John Shaw Zainab Salbi, president of Women for Women International, said she is all for written constitutions that support freedom, democracy and human rights. And she is delighted when governments endorse equal rights for women and promise ample economic opportunities. But she is far more impressed when constitutions and governments provide tangible guarantees for women in specific areas of day-to-day life. ìA lot of politicians learn to talk the talk about womenís rights. After all, itís politically correct. Bravo. But excuse me, I need to see more. I want to see tangible protections of womenís legal, economic and social rights,î she said in an interview with The Washington Diplomat at her office in downtown Washington. Salbi said fair and respectful treatment of women is enormously important for the health of individual societies. ìI believe women are the indicators, the bellwether, for the society. When women are progressing they are taking the society up with them. When they are regressing they are taking the society down with them. We need to monito r where women are moving in a society in a very careful way, both legally and tangibly,î she said. Warm, engaging and passionate, Salbi was born in Iraq and lived there during the Saddam Hussein years. She has vivid memories of Iraq under Saddamís repressive regime and the gloom that often pervaded Baghdad during the long, brutal Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. ìGrowing up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein you had to learn to shut off your mind. I learned you couldnít express your political views,î she said. ìI had a good childhood, but I also remember discussing with my family if we should sleep in one bedroom, so that if a missile fell on us we would all die together.î Salbi visited the United States frequently because her father is a commercial pilot who was trained in Seattle. It was during a visit to the United States that Salbi learned about, and was struck by, the war in Bosnia. She was stunned and appalled by the brutal treatment of hundreds of thousands of women whose lives were devastated by the war. She felt responsible to help the victims in Bosnia and wanted to volunteer but found few organizations that were on the ground helping victims. Salbi and her husband, Amjad Atallah, received support from All Souls Unitarian Church in Northern Virginia and traveled to Croatia to distribute money and supplies. When they returned to the United States, they created Women for Women International (WFW) to help the survivors of rape and concentration camps in Bosnia. The group now helps female victims of war, displacement and oppression in eight countries. Salbi said she was driven to help women in need, not to set up an institution. ìI decided to come up with an idea myself. I just wanted to do something for Bosnia. I didnít start to create an organization. I just wanted to help,î she recalled. ìIt was much more an instinctive response as opposed to an intellectual, prepared response.î During its first three years, all the money WFW raisedóand much of Salbiís personal savingsówere sent to women in Bosnia. The small staff was unpaid. ìWe were all volunteers,î Salbi noted. In 1996, just as Salbi and her husband where reassessing whether their finances would allow them to continue Women for Women International, the group received a $60,000 grant after Salbi was interviewed on a National Public Radio show in California. ìThat was a turning point. That $60,000 seemed to come out of the sky. I decided that was a clear enough sign. Thatís when we decided that weíre going to stay. Weíre going to create an institution,î she said. Four years later, WFW was catapulted to a new level of prominence and financial security by a peculiar feature of American life: exposure on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Salbiís first appeared on Oprah in September 2000 and her discussion of WFWís mission and work generated a tidal wave of interest and support. Salbi said that four of her six appearances on Oprah have generated pledges to WFW of $2 million within a month of the show. Now financially secure, WFW remains committed to helping women in war-ravaged countries overcome family loss, widowhood, rape, forced migration, poverty, trafficking and torture. It has developed programs to help women rebuild their lives, families and communities. Salbi said WFWís work is based on a vision of a world in which no one is abused, impoverished or illiterate, where people are treated fairly and equally and have opportunities for good health and economic independence, and where everyone has the freedom to define the scope of their lives and strive to achieve their full potential. Salbi said WFW has developed multiphase programs that offer direct aid, emotional support, skills training, rights education, leadership training, micro-enterprise loans, and small business development. She said the underlying premise of WFWís work is that women can advance from ìvictim to survivor, to active and self-assured members of their communities.î With a 180-person staff and an annual budget that is nearing $10 million, the Washington-based Women for Women International now supports women in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Colombia, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. It has distributed nearly $18 million in direct aid and micro-credit loans, assisting more than 33,000 women. About 144,000 family members have benefited. WFW receives financial support from individual contributors, foundations, governments and businesses. Salbi said WFWís signature program involves women sponsors from nearly two dozen countries paying $27 a month to help support women in the eight countries where the organization has programs. These individual sponsorships, Salbi explained, are a direct way for women to help female survivors of war. The $27 monthly financial support allows women to purchase necessities such as food, clean water and medicine, and pay school-related expenses for their children. A portion of the funds is also used to provide each woman with education, skills training, rights awareness and other services that help rebuild her life. The sponsor and her ìsisterî also exchange letters that are translated by WFW staff. Last year, WFW sponsors and their sisters exchanged 44,000 letters. Salbi said these letters create a practical and emotional connection. ìMany of these women feel hopeless and then a stranger writes to say, ëI care. I am listening to you.íî After one year, the women graduate from the monthly sponsorship program. The second phase of WFWís program teaches practical business skills such as carpentry, leatherworking, beekeeping, jewelry making, traditional folk art and shoe repair. Participants may also take out a small loan to start a business. WFWís micro-credit program is based on the successful Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and has a 98 percent repayment record. Salbi said a small loan of $300 can help a woman start a business in many countries. This in turn stabilizes families and bolsters communities. ìRefugees are the best entrepreneurs in the world. They donít take anything for granted,î she said. Salbi meets women in war zones and is inspired by their strength and resolve. ìThe first resistance we face from women is the feeling that they are too helpless to be helped. They say we should leave them behind and help someone else,î she said. ìBut once you give them that first helping hand, you see a resilience that is amazing.î Salbi said helping women in need is a humane but also practical way to rebuild battered societies. ìWhen you are not addressing women, you are losing that sector to the same enemy weíre trying to fight, like terrorism. Unless we are learning to compete on a basic levelófor example, a bag of riceówe are going to lose,î she said. ìThese women want three meals a day. They want a job. They want to send their children to school. The impact these tangible things have on the hearts and minds of people goes a long way. I really believe that building peace is a cheap process. Itís much, much cheaper than war.î Salbi said there is a striking disparity between the abstract discussion of such ideals as human rights, democracy and freedom and how these lofty principles resonate on the ground for people who have nothing. ìWe need to switch the paradigm about how we think about development in a political way,î she explained. ìAt the end of the day, people want normal things in their lives. If we deliver that sack of rice with literacy train ing and with training in social, economic and political rights and a job, she is going to choose us.î Salbi said the accomplishments of the women in her program have been impressive. ìWe have women who abolished female genital cutting and widow practices in Nigeria on their own. We have women in Iraq who lobbied the government to bring water to the community and refused to pay a bribe. We have women in all countries who stopped domestic violence by simply demanding that their husband communicate in different ways.î Salbi said there are many reasons why women should be provided basic protections in areas such as inheritance, education and the right to divorce. But the bottom line is that when women are not there to protect themselves, their interests are often set aside. ìWhen women are not at the negotiating table, they get negotiated,î she said. ìHistorically, governments always use the womenís card to negotiate with the religious establishment because the religious establishment wants to control women, the family, the private sphere. So the deal is made: You give me free trade, Iíll give you the family.î Salbi is proud of WFWís work but is cautious about expanding its programs and operations. ìThere are 40 wars going on at the time. So there are limitless opportunities for ëgrowth.í But growth is not our objective. Staying true to our mission and vision is our goal. My dream is to stick to our mission as we are moving forward. If we can work in 20 countries and stick to our mission thatís great,î she said. ìBut I donít care how big we are. I care about the very intimate service we are providing in each womanís life.î John Shaw is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.