UNITED NATIONS GIRLS EDUCATION INITIATIVE

Zainab Salbi
Founder and CEO, Women for Women International

Zainab Salbi is the founder and CEO of Women for Women International, a group that is dedicated to helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives. A survivor of war herself, Ms Salbi started Women for Women International in response to the rape and concentration camps in Bosnia in 1993.  Since then, the organization has served more than 250,000 women in 8 conflict and post-conflict areas from Congo and Rwanda to Afghanistan and her native country Iraq.  

Ms. Salbi is the author (with Laurie Bucklund) of the national best selling book "Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny: Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam," that is an account of life in Iraq and the hold that Saddam Hussein had over her family. She documents the stories of women survivors of wars in her second book "The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival and Hope."

For her life dedication to providing educational and economic training and opportunities for women survivors of wars, Ms. Salbi has received many honors including but not limited to:  A White House Honor from Former President Bill Clinton for her work in Bosnia (1995), the Forbes’ Trailblazer Award (2005), Innovator of the Month by Time Magazine (2005) and most recently a nomination from President Clinton as a Harper's Bazaar 21st Century Heroine.  Women for Women International was the recipient of the prestigious Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize Award in 2006. 

Her work has been featured in major media outlets, including 8 appearances on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and countless appearances on CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Ms. Salbi has a master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and BA in Sociology and Women's Studies from George Mason University.  She is a blogger for Marie Claire Magazine and the Huffington Post and documents her travels and encounters with women worldwide on Twitter.

http://www.womenforwomen.org