Articles

Survivor of brutal torture during Guatemala’s civil war, Sister Dianna Ortiz transformed her unspeakable suffering into a lifelong mission for truth, justice, and solidarity with the oppressed, founding the only U.S. organization led by and for torture survivors.

As the COVID-19 pandemic raged and Guatemala was under lockdown, Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez told her story — one that mirrors the long history of struggle of Guatemala's Maya, especially that of its women.

Michelle did something a few years ago that no one at her seminary, or in her state, had done. She took biblical stories straight to men in a place that symbolizes their failure and society’s: Stateville Correctional Center.

Cynthia Choi and Manju Kulkarni launched Stop AAPI Hate — a website to report hate incidents and violence against Asian Americans. They track the location and frequency of these racially motivated incidents and propose policies and practical solutions to prevent these racist acts.

In the wake of the 2018 Ebola outbreak in Mangina, Democratic Republic of Congo, mental health counselor Noe Kasali braved distrust, danger, and grief to create culturally rooted rituals that helped survivors mourn loved ones.

Oakland is in Alameda County, whose officials report that 99 percent of sex trafficking victims are girls and 63 percent are Black. Art is one way Regina, 59, reaches these young victims. Several times a year, Regina gathers volunteers to help her create altars on different areas of The Track.

Shailly Gupta Barnes is the Poor People's Campaign's resident policy wonk. Her work — distilling data on present-day poverty — begins at gatherings in church basements, temples and classrooms, listening to poor people. Then she combs through transcripts from these meetings, looking for common threads.