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October News
  • Save the Dates: Upcoming Events at AIWA
  • Meet an AIWA Member: New Board Member Anna Ohanyan
  • From the AIWA-SF Blog: Young Leaders in Technology
  • Goodread of the Month:The Gardens of Silihdar
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Upcoming Events
  • October: (AIWA San Francisco) Donate $10 to support AIWA's work against Domestic Violence.
  • Tuesday, November 21: (AIWA) Giving Tuesday - Donate to AIWA to make lasting change in women's lives.
  • Tuesday, November 28: (AIWA New England) Stopping Violence Against Women: From Local to Global, 7 pm (Discussion), Watertown Public Library.
  • Saturday, March 10, 2018: (AIWA San Francisco) Bridging Opportunities and Connecting our World (Fundraiser Gala), Four Seasons Hotel, Palo Alto, CA.
Meet an AIWA Member: 
Anna Ohanyan
 
We are excited to start a new monthly feature in our newsletter: Meet an AIWA Member. Every month we will celebrate our members and supporters, who exemplify AIWA's mission and values. This month, we are delighted to introduce to you Anna Ohanyan.

Anna is a newly-elected Board Member, but she's been focused on the intersection of women and international security for her entire professional life. She sees international security as a result of human and community security, and brings these values to her work.

Anna spends her summers in Armenia, teaching a course on Global Development and Security Studies for her students from Stonehill College who are in Armenia as part of the Learning Inside-Out Network (LION) internship program, which she established.

The course includes the "Local Roots of Global Peace: Junior Voices in Global Security Studies International Conference" which Anna organizes in partnership with Eurasia International University and Eurasia Partnership Foundation-Armenia. The conference as well as the course engages most of AIWA's partners in Armenia, and highlights issues of human (in)security, such as domestic violence and environmental protection. Lara Aharonian and Maro Matossian were invited as speakers at the conference in the past two years, helping the scholars to situate domestic violence in Armenia a global context. This year, Nvard Manasyan of UNICEF spoke on gendercide and its disastrous consequences for Armenia. Anna also reached out to potential new connections for AIWA to empower more women. Read More.

You can connect with Anna in our AIWA Network (see below for details). We got a chance to ask Anna:

What was the last best book you read or your favorite book?
- The last book I read was on my way to Armenia for a conference in September, titled "The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes. My favorite is by Ian McEwan called "Nutshell".

Who inspired you, personally or professionally growing up?
- I grew up watching my father, white chalk in his hand, in front of large University classrooms in Armenia. The adoring eyes of students fixed on him as he was waving the chalk around and pacing the room, was a scene I will never forget. I always wanted to be a professor, and this really sustained me in the tough years of energy crises and the war in NK, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating. My Mom has been a major inspiration as well. She worked as a researcher in a University but was unable to start her dissertation due to the demands of motherhood at the time. She raised four children, one of whom is a poetess in Armenia, the other is a surgeon and the third is a specialist in education administration running two educational institutions.

What is the best advice you ever got?
- Someone told me early on that I should write a book. I thought that was crazy at the time.

What is your favorite podcast/movie/tv show (any or all)?
- Breaking Bad!!!!
Meet the Young Women Who Created the  
Armenian S ign Language App
by Christine Soussa, AIWA San Francisco

 The developing country of Armenia has many assets, including a strong focus on education, a global diaspora and a population of motivated and eager to learn youth. AIWA-SF is dedicated to inspiring, mentoring, supporting, and connecting Armenians worldwide. With a particular focus on leadership development and education, AIWA-SF helps bridge opportunities.

During the Summer of 2017, AIWA-SF learned that Armenia had participated in a Global Technovation Challenge.  Technovation is an organization focused on
 providing "girls around the world the opportunity to learn the necessary skills to  become tech 
entrepreneurs and leaders. Young girls ages 10 to 18 learn to identify a problem in their community and create a mobile app solution to address the problem." It is an extraordinary organization, this year, more than 11,000 girls from 103 countries took part in Technovation Challenge.                                           READ MORE
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Goodread of the Month  
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The Gardens of Silihdar
by Zabel Yessayan

From her earliest years until her tragic death, Zabel Yessayan championed social justice and women's rights. Even as a young woman, she fought against the injustices she saw at school, refused to accept the restrictions placed on girls in her community, and demonstrated a fierce determination to succeed in the literary world at a time when few women were allowed entry. Yessayan authored several novels, short stories, newspaper articles an eyewitness account of the aftermath of the 1909 Adana massacres. Her memoir, The Gardens of Silihdar, (translated and published by AIWA in 2015) is a poignant narrative of her childhood and a vivid account of Armenian community life in Constantinople (Istanbul) at the end of the nineteenth century. Author, educator, and social activist, Zabel Yessayan (1878-1943) is recognized today as one of the greatest writers and leading voice for Women's Rights in Armenian literature. Learn more about Zabel Yessayan here .  
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AIWA's Network:
When you join AIWA, you can connect with other members around the world who share your passion for empowering Armenian women. Connect around your interests, look for a mentor, become a mentor, and search for other members in our Network. Already a member? Login and update your profile. Go to the "For Members" tab on the menu to enter the network and see other member-only content. 
 
AIWA's Mission: 
To promote and enrich the social, economic and personal advancement of Armenian women worldwide through educational and other community activities that unite Armenian women, promote gender equity, and emphasize our Armenian cultural heritage.
 
AIWA