Jerusalem, March 3, 2013 – Seventeen prominent female NGO and civil society leaders will participate in the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s (JDC) Second International Women’s Leadership Workshop opening today. The five-day intensive seminar, based in Israel, will focus on women as proactive change makers and provide educational, networking, and professional development opportunities in global development and disaster relief. Participants come from thirteen countries, including Argentina, Bosnia, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Russia, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Tanzania and the U.S.

The participants – many of whom have previously worked with JDC as partners in its humanitarian and development efforts around the world – include: Maryse Penette Kedar, president of ProDev in Haiti; Mirai Chatterjee, director of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India; Lejla Somun-Krupalija, senior program/research officer at the Human Rights Centre of the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia; Fernanda Ortega Garcia, Director of Shalom Bait in Argentina; Danielle Butin, founder and executive director of the Afya Foundation in the U.S.; and Anna Bitova, CEO and founder of Center for Curative Pedagogics in Russia.

In addition to sessions on empowering women, partnership building, and best practices training, this year’s program features a forum on Adaptive Leadership.

Participants have also chosen to hone their skills in resource development, impact measurement, and public speaking through a series of workshops run by JDC professionals. As part of their post-Workshop activities, all seminar participants have committed to establishing similar networking and peer support undertakings in their home-countries.