International Women’s Day: Leading the Way

This year we are celebrating International Women’s Day at a critical moment for communities in crisis. While global displacement, conflict, and climate catastrophes continue to have a particularly devastating effect on vulnerable women and girls, we’re proud to celebrate the women who are making a difference.

At IsraAID it’s a point of pride for us to have so many incredible women serving in leadership roles across the organization. Some 60% of our Country Directors at our missions are women, and 80% of our Senior Management Team are also women. We are dedicated, in our work with communities and our organizational culture, to ensuring that women’s voices are heard, their needs are met, and their futures are bright.

Today, we spoke with several of the inspiring women leaders in our organization – about what makes them proud, how humanitarian crisis affects women and girls in their communities, and why it is so important to keep supporting women. Here’s some of what they had to say:

Jemimah Owande – Country Director IsraAID KenyaJemimah began working with IsraAID Kenya four years ago as a protection specialist. Since 2024, she leads the mission’s work supporting refugees and local host communities in Kakuma, Kenya. Jemimah explained the unique challenges facing women in the community.

In Kenya, women often must walk long distances to fetch water. Especially for young girls, these travels can be very dangerous, exposing them to high risk of gender-based violence. We also see a high dropout rate for girls in schools. As you get to higher levels of schooling, you’ll find there are very few girls because they cannot meet their basic needs – so many feel that their only option is to get married.

The majority of people in Kenya’s refugee camps are women and children. As a woman in a leadership position, I personally and deeply understand their challenges – meaning that I can extend that understanding and emotional support. This opens the door to them to be confident enough to come speak with you. Seeing a woman in a leadership role also serves as a testament that it’s possible for women to hold this position.

I want to tell women everywhere, to never give up. Fight on – through consistency, we can achieve any goal.

Alena Druzyhnina – Country Director IsraAID UkraineAlena joined IsraAID in 2022, a few months after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Ukraine, she notes, a huge part of the male population has been conscripted into the military. That means that women have taken on a much bigger role in leading civilian efforts, and especially in humanitarian spaces. She notes with pride that about 90% of our Ukraine team are women.

For vulnerable communities – like IDPs or people living in conflict zones – women endure all the risks of living through war time. But at the same time, women have gained many more responsibilities, acting as breadwinners for their families, taking on more leadership roles with so many men serving in the army. On one side it’s empowering, and on the other side it’s a lot of pressure that not every woman chose for herself.

There are so many things that I’m proud of in my job. I’m so proud of my team, but that’s not my achievement. I’m just so privileged to work with such great professionals and such incredible women. There’s an amazing energy when women come together – it creates space for more inclusive thinking and new approaches to problem solving. The power and strength of every woman is supported by the entire global community of women. And the power of women everywhere is built upon the personal resilience of each individual woman.

Delphine Mugisha – Country Director IsraAID UgandaDelphine has more than 20 years of humanitarian experience. Uganda hosts the highest number of refugees of any country in the world. Every day Delphine uses her extensive experience in the sector to support refugees and host communities across Uganda.

Women and children make up over 80% of refugees in Uganda. Therefore, the burden of care for refugee women is quite immense. Many are expectant or lactating mothers. While taking care of their own children and acting as foster parents for unaccompanied children, they often must work to support their families. Many face issues of gender-based violence. They face enormous levels of stress.

I am proud of the fact that I can easily relate to the challenges that women and girls face, and that this influences the way I lead my team and make programmatic decisions. While planning, I am always looking out for ways in which we can minimize or eliminate the traps that lead women and girls to difficult situations. I apply my lens as a mother to help ensure that every child who comes to our Child-Friendly Spaces is treated with dignity. I tell my staff every day, ‘be kind, pay attention to their needs, and nurture their talents. You never know who will become President among these boys and girls 30 years from now.’

Refugee women have exceptional strength and courage. I am deeply humbled by their sense of duty, urgency, and desire to make a difference, even in very difficult circumstances. They keep going. They keep hoping for the best. The silent women who endure the most unbearable of all circumstances deserve our recognition and a badge of honor.

Shlomit Tron – Chief Transformation Officer at IsraAID HQAs a member of our Senior Management Team, Shlomit oversees our hiring practices, organization’s culture, and people values. Supporting women in their careers is a deep and personal passion of hers, which she works every day to actualize. We asked her why she thinks it’s important to have women in leadership roles:

It is the fact that in 2025 we are still asking this question that gives us the answer. Women should be in leadership positions in all industries, representing 51% of the world population, no questions asked, as simple as that.

The fight for women’s rights should be the compass and our bridge to making sure equality, diversity, and inclusion are not only values but a real-life practice to all groups and individuals. I hope everyone, women and men, will ask more, do more, be curious and open. It is not a fight against, it is a fight for. It is not us vs. them, it is for us all.

I would like to finish with a quote:

“Stop telling girls they can be anything they want when they grow up. I think it’s a mistake, not because they can’t, but because it would’ve never occurred to them that they couldn’t.” – Sarah Silverman

This is the world I would like to raise my children in.