21wilberforce is a human rights

Christianity , Religion

Advocacy: as global religious freedom advocates, we equip and activate partner networks, including faith-based groups of all faiths, to advance freedom of belief in hostile places. Inspired by our organization's namesake, william wilberforce, we embrace a top-down, bottom-up approach to social change. Leveraging the power of networks, our vision is to equip people of faith to collaboratively assist persecuted communities, challenge religious repression, and expand religious freedom globally. Since 2016, 21wilberforce has continued to stand with religious minorities in iraq pushed to the edge of extinction by the islamic state in iraq (isis). We co-lead advocacy with key us congressional leaders to secure a genocide designation. We traveled to iraq several times producing key reports, which influenced the u. S. Administration to increase crucially needed assistance to displaced religious minorities. In 2017, we supported syrian refugee children displaced in lebanon, providing education sponsorships for a full year. We also partnered in key programs at the holocaust museum and the the newseum institute to build genocide awareness. In addition to testifying at congressional hearings on iraq, we also provided expert testimony on saudi arabia, nigeria, and china. In 2017, we broadly expanded advocacy efforts in nigeria and china in coalition with activists and multi-sector ngos. In nigeria, we traveled to dozens of burned villages as part of a fact-finding trip, producing an extensive report on religious freedom violations. Returning to nigeria, we shared our research at a leadership conference with over 2,500 faith-leaders from across the country. We also partnered on a workshop and an advocacy strategy session with nigerian faith and political leaders. This helped lead to the early confirmation of the u. S. Ambassador to nigeria. We also provided one-year education scholarships to children displaced by boko haram. In the u. S. , we published the international religious freedom (irf) congressional scorecard that tracks relevant legislation. We briefed over 60 congressional offices and helped advance key legislation including the frank r. Wolf international religious freedom act and the iraq and syria genocide relief and accountability act of 2017. Overall, we have supported religious freedom advocacy on china, eritrea, ethiopia, iraq, lebanon, nepal, nigeria, and taiwan. capacity building: our capacity building empowers grass-roots organizing for religious freedom reforms. We strategically train, equip, and partner with multi-sector networks, organizations, activists, leaders, and students. Around the world, we have equipped 25,600 people at 80 events for religious freedom awareness and activism. In africa, we trained religious and civic leaders on leadership and religious freedom as a rule-of-law imperative. For example, in ethiopia we trained 950 local leaders technology: promoting irf advocacy innovation, 21wilberforce has used technology to scale-up partner activism via web-based tools and social media. We raised the importance of technology in the international religious freedom sector at congressional hearings, panel discussions, working groups, and policy initiatives. We challenged the use of technological tools oppressing religious minorities and confronted internet censorship, including internet firewalls. We advanced irf technology policy thro