AN ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN: SAVING LIVES & PROMOTING RIGHTS

Featuring Reggie Littlejohn, 

Founder/President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

Reggie Littlejohn exemplifies a powerful combination of credentials, experiences, and insights that set her apart for advocacy – especially for women worldwide.  As the founder and President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, she has worked globally to address a range of injustices that impact women and girls.  

Reggie is an acclaimed international expert on China’s One Child Policy.  Her organization has been called the “leading voice” in the battle to expose and oppose forced abortion and gendercide (the sex-selective abortion of baby girls) in China.   

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is saving lives in China through their “Save a Girl” campaign. This campaign finds women who are about to abort or abandon their babies because they are girls and enables them to keep their daughters by providing the family with monthly stipends for a year.  They have saved hundreds of baby girls from gendercide and grinding poverty.  They have also launched their “Save a Widow” campaign to give help to destitute widows in rural China.  In recognition for their work, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has been selected three times to present an event at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York and Geneva, Switzerland.  

A graduate of Yale Law School, Reggie is an accomplished advocate.  She has testified eight times at the United States Congress, three times at the European Parliament, twice at the British Parliament (House of Lords), and has spoken at the Irish and Canadian Parliaments, The Hague, United Nations, State Department, White House, and the Vatican as well.   

She led an international movement to free blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who spoke at the Republican National Convention on August 27, 2020.

Reggie has also been featured in many media outlets.  She appeared on C-Span and the BBC, as well as CNN and ABC News television.  Her opinion pieces have been published by CNN, the National Review, the Daily Beast and the Women’s United Nations Reporting Network.  Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, Kathleen Parker, has published a feature interview of her work in the Washington Post.  The Washington Times, the New York Post and the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs have published feature interviews of her as well.   In addition, she has delivered a TEDx Talk.

Reggie has had the privilege of working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta.  Reggie was given the National Pro-Life Recognition award by Priests for Life at the 40th March for Life.  For her tireless efforts on behalf of the women and babies of China, she was honored as one of the “Top Ten people of 2013” by Inside the Vatican Magazine.  Reggie met Pope Francis shortly after his election to the pontificate.   

In each of her experiences and accomplishments, Reggie has placed her advocacy for women and girls at the forefront.  She has continued her quest to save lifes and promote women’s rights.  

G.L.O.B.A.L. was pleased to feature Reggie Littlejohn in our recent 6th Annual Film Festival where she served as a featured panelist for the It’s a Girl film screening addressing gendercide in China and India. 

RESCUING INDIA’S INVISIBLE GIRLS

Featuring Jill McElya

Founder/President, Invisible Girl Project

Jill McElya has a heart for justice and for the vulnerable.  As an attorney and human rights advocates and Co-Founder and President of the Invisible Girl Project, she has set her heart, mind, and focus to rescuing girls who face the worst forms of injustice in India.   

Before founding Invisible Girl Project, Jill spent nearly ten years practicing law, in various roles—as a prosecuting attorney, a criminal defense attorney, and a human rights advocate.  She then joined an international human rights organization that led her work to India. 

In January 2008, she moved to India to serve as the Deputy Director and Director of the Legal Department for the Chennai field office of that organization.   In this capacity, she and her staff of Indian lawyers worked to rescue victims of bonded labor (slavery) and hold their perpetrators accountable through the public justice system.  During that time, she worked with Indian government officials and participated in training efforts for various level officials.

While living in India for two years, Jill and her husband, Brad learned of the practice of female gendercide (the systematic killing of females) resulting from the devastating preference for boy children in India.  They responded to this injustice by founding Invisible Girl Project (IGP). 

 IGP’s sole mission is to end female gendercide in India. IGP raises global awareness concerning the loss of female lives in India and educate on gender discrimination and related cultural practices. IGP works with indigenous organizations to rescue and care for vulnerable girls, educate them, and teach them their inherent value. They use social workers to counsel families and teach them that girls are valuable, not burdens. In addition, IGP seeks justice for mothers who are pressured to abort or kill their daughters, understanding that the public justice system in India must work to save girls’ lives.  

Invisible Girl Project is the only international, secular, non-profit organization addressing gendercide in this manner. And, through IGP’s partners' efforts, over 700 girls have been saved and hundreds of mothers have been empowered to protect their daughters. 

Jill continues to be a passionate advocate on the issue of gendercide and has shared about this work in many contexts.  She has spoken extensively on the issue across the US, including testifying before Congress on the subject of “India’s Missing Girls.”   

G.L.O.B.A.L. was pleased to feature Jill McElay at our 6th Anniversary Film Festival where she served as a panelist for the It’s a Girl film screening on the topic of gendercide.