Dear Friends,

Founded in 1968, American Women for International Understanding (AWIU) is a community of women who care deeply about improving international understanding. We envision a more humane and interconnected world and strive to build goodwill and collaboration through voluntary, non-partisan, female-led action. We support equal access for women and girls to education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. The heart of our mission is to improve international understanding through personal connection, while empowering women to become highly effective global leaders, communicators and problem-solvers.

The 2020 Annual Report illustrates our continuing alignment with our vision and mission, despite a year marked by Covid 19 and quarantine worldwide. Chief among our accomplishments was the creation of a strategic plan in which we mapped our vision, intentions, growth, membership, staffing, and funding needs. Despite the challenges of COVID, our micro-grants program, which supports women and children through non-governmental organizations and women leaders, funded several projects such as a transformative grant to support a Stem School Project. Many of us travelled to Washington, DC to participate in the State Department’s International Women of Courage Ceremony. However, with the outbreak of COVID, we had to cancel our Celebration scheduled for two weeks later. Nonetheless, we still celebrated the 12 Women of Courage on our website and honored them with grants to further their work. Through Passports to the Future, young women interested in careers in international relations participated in meaningful skill-building, networking and mentorship through teleconferencing, email and phone calls.

This Covid year also saw the introduction of a new means to communicate with our membership, grantees, Women of Courage and AWIU friends: Conversations, a Zoom series, encouraged dialog among our constituents, and led to many fruitful relationships.
AWIU is grateful for your support, as we continue in our quest to empower women around the globe.

Sincerely,

Tatiana Gfoeller
President, AWIU