Voices of Courage Awards

Given by the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, these awards honour cutting-edge innovations in conflict-affected settings led by refugee or internally displaced women or youth, which measurably improve the lives of displaced women, children, and young people.

An “innovation” can be a product, a service, or an approach developed by a person who is leading change in a new way. Some examples:

• Developing a reproductive health response that helps reduce the incidence of maternal mortality
  
• Pioneering an alternative to detention to improve asylum practice in the United States (US).
  
• Finding a way for refugees to have a place in a thriving market economy and safely earn a living
  
• Developing an ethanol-fueled cook stove so that women and girls do not have to leave camps to collect firewood, risking rape
  
• Training refugee youth to run vocational training programs for displaced young people with disabilities.

Some of the criteria for receiving the awards are:

• Candidates should be refugee or internally displaced women or youth living anywhere in the world.
• Candidates should be passionate advocates for the right to and development of livelihoods in situations of displacement.
• Candidates must willing to participate in media interviews and be able to travel to New York, NY, US, in May 2009 (the awards luncheon is May 10) to accept their award (all travel and housing expenses will be paid).