| Ottawa, ON – Friday evening, November 1st, Janice Eisenhauer was awarded the Lewis Perinbam Award in International Development at the WUSC/CECI annual awards gala. This prestigious award acknowledges her tireless efforts in helping provide education for women in Afghanistan.
Ms. Eisenhauer was honoured this weekend during the 2013 International Forum, hosted by World University Service of Canada and the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation. The awards gala took place at Ottawa’s Delta City Centre Hotel where over 450 professionals, students, development leaders and academics attended.
“This is of course a great honour, personally,” said Janice Eisenhauer. “My life has been deeply enriched through working in partnership with women in Afghanistan. However, the award is also important as it clearly demonstrates the strong commitment individuals have across Canada and in Afghanistan, through our CW4WAfghan network, towards improving conditions of universal human rights.”
Ms. Eisenhauer is the volunteer Executive Director and co-founding member of Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan). The goals of this membership-based Canadian charity are to ensure effective long-term education programs for Afghan women and their families and to engage Canadians in important global issues.
For over 15 years, Janice has managed the day-to-day activities of CW4WAfghan, working closely with their Afghan staff in Kabul and supporting the volunteers in their 13 chapters across Canada. The CW4WAfghan programs in Afghanistan include teacher training, benefiting 1,000 teacher trainees and 80,000 students each year. Other programs include the Afghanistan Reads! literacy classes and providing small libraries for women and girls in rural communities.
“Social change is slow and takes patience”, said Eisenhauer. “It is the tiny baby steps we take each day in our efforts towards this goal of universal human rights that are the building blocks of strong, successful programming in Afghanistan.”
The Lewis Perinbam Award comes with a cash prize of $2,500 and is in recognition of the grassroots achievements of outstanding individuals who’ve helped to improve lives in developing countries and raise awareness of development issues in Canada. These funds will be donated to CW4WAfghan’s Lantern Fund.
About the Lewis Perinbam Award: The award was named after former WUSC Executive Director, Lewis Perinbam who passed away in 2007. Perinbam’s long career in international development includes working for the United Nations, CIDA and the World Bank. The award in his honour seeks to commend individuals who make volunteer contributions to international development.
About the International Forum: Building on its experience and success, World University Service of Canada is holding its third annual International Forum, in Ottawa, from November 1-3, 2013. This year the three-day event will be organized in cooperation with WUSC partner, CECI (the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation). The Forum, with over 450 registered participants aims to stimulate discussion, draw out the best thinking, share best practices and promote effective partnerships to provide practitioners, decision-makers and researchers in the international development field with the latest knowledge and insight. www.forum.wusc.ca.
About Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan: CW4WAfghan is a member-based, not-for-profit organization founded in 1996 with 13 volunteer chapters across Canada. Their goals are to advance educational opportunities for Afghan women and their families and to educate Canadians about Afghan human rights. Donor-funded projects are implemented and managed in partnership with Afghan civil society organizations, and fall within our two field program areas: Community Libraries & Literacy Program; and Investments in Public Education.
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