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By October, 2009, Karama disbursed grants to support eight action plans proposed by local organizations in Egypt and Jordan.  Ten complete action plans were proposed and approved by realms and joint coalitions in five of the nine countries to date.  Looking forward, Karama will be providing funds for strategic initiatives in Lebanon, Syria and Sudan. Action plans are proposed by local women’s organizations based within the eleven countries we currently work within and each plan responds to one or more of eight realms identified by Karama as significant in ending violence against women.

Honored with a special NGO membership, Karama participated in the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) from September 22-25 in New York City.  In the past, CGI annual meetings have brought together more than 100 current and former heads of state, 14 Nobel Peace Prize winners, hundreds of leading global CEOs, major philanthropists, and accomplished members of the media.  This year, the annual meeting noted a special focus which was of particular interest to Karama: Investing in Girls and Women.

Bill Clinton presents Karama Founder and

From  May  25-27, 2009, a workshop on preparing and submitting parallel reports for the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was held at and sponsored by the Swedish Institute in Alexandria. Participants from Syria, Lebanon Tunisia, Sudan and Egypt gathered together to build their capacity with regard to writing and researching for these types of reports. This workshop was especially significant for the Syrian participants who, through this meeting, wrote a draft shadow report to submit to the CRC committee underlining the issues of the girl child in Syria.

Karama's policy paper, fact sheet, and press release presented its solutions to the lack of net growth of women's seats in governments noted between 2007 and 2008 in the Arab region, giving it the lowest global standing with regard to women's equal representation in decision-making. Karama organized formal and informal communications and interventions at CSW to share its approach and to encourage high-level support of proposed initiatives.