Maria Elena Berini | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 9 December 1944 Sondrio, Italy |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Occupation(s) | Mission worker, teacher |
Sister Maria Elena Berini (born 9 December 1944) is an Italian Catholic nun, and mission worker. She won an International Women of Courage Award in 2018.
She entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Jeanne-Antide Thouret. [1]
From 1963 to 1969, she trained as a teacher. In 1972, she went to Chad, to work in rural schools. In 2007, her congregation sent her to the Central African Republic. [2] In 2017, she provided refuge at her Catholic mission, when rebels attacked Bocaranga. [3] [4]
The Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco, formally known as the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians are a female religious institute formed by Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello in 1872. They were founded to work alongside Saint John Bosco and his Salesians of Don Bosco in his teaching projects in Turin. They continue to be a teaching order worldwide.
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia or Elena Lucrezia Corner, also known in English as Helen Cornaro, was a Venetian philosopher of noble descent who in 1678 became one of the first women to receive an academic degree from a university, and the first to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially in promoting women's rights.
Berini is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Elena Sofia Barucchieri, known by the stage name Elena Sofia Ricci, is an Italian actress. She is known, among other things, for playing Sister Angela in the Italian television series Che Dio ci aiuti.
Eugenia Bonetti is a nun who works to rescue girls from being trafficked in Italy and help women leave the country's prostitution industry.
Carolin Tahhan Fachakh or Sister Carol, is a Syrian nun who cared for women and children in Damascus during the Syrian Civil War. She was awarded an International Women of Courage Award in 2017. This was despite her support of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Semma Julissa (Julissa) Villanueva Barahona is a Honduran public servant, who is the Director of the Honduras Public Prosecutor's Office Forensic Medicine Department.
Aliyah Khalaf Saleh, also known as Umm Qusay, is an Iraqi humanitarian who helped over 50 individuals escape persecution by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2014. She is widely regarded as being a folk heroine in Iraq.
Aiman Umarova is a Kazakh human rights lawyer from Jambyl Region. She won an International Women of Courage Award in 2018.
Orla Treacy is an Irish Loreto sister who runs a boarding school in war torn South Sudan and she works for Women's education and prevent child marriages. Born in 1973 in Bray, County Wicklow, she became an International Women of Courage Award recipient in 2019.
Colonel Khalida Khalaf Hanna al-Twal is a Jordanian police officer. She is currently serving as one of the prominent highest-ranking women in security services of Jordan.
Lucy Kocharyan is an Armenian journalist and blogger known for having taken a stand in her country against gender-based violence. She was chosen as an International Women of Courage in March 2020 by the US Secretary of State, the first Armenian to win this award.
Shahla Humbatova has been an Azerbaijani human rights lawyer since 2013. After speaking out about prison conditions she found herself disbarred from being a lawyer. There were international protests and in 2020 she was recognised as an International Woman of Courage by the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
Claire Ouedraogo is a nun and an anti female genital mutilation (FGM) activist in Burkina Faso. She became the President of the Songmanegre Association for Women’s Development and one of her country's Ambassador of Peace. She was chosen as an International Woman of Courage in March 2020.
Susanna Liew is the wife of Raymond Koh, a Christian pastor who was abducted by Malaysian police in 2017. In 2020, she was suing the senior officials for failing to carry out an investigation. She has been recognized by the U.S. Secretary of State as an International Woman of Courage for her stand.
Debra Baptist-Estrada is Director of the Immigration Department in Belize. In 2016 she received the International Women of Courage Award. In 2019 she became the Director of the Immigration Department.
Alicia Vacas Moro is a Spanish-born nurse and a leader of the Comboni Missionary Sisters in the Middle East and Asia. She served as a nurse in Egypt and in Bethany in the West Bank. During the pandemic she returned to help in Italy. She was awarded the International Women of Courage Award in 2021 on the recommendation of the Holy See for her work.
Canan Güllü is a Turkish activist who is the President of the Federation of Women Associations of Turkey (TKDF). She was awarded the International Women of Courage Award in 2021.
Marina Elvira Calderone is an Italian politician. In October 2022, she was appointed Minister of Labour and Social Policies in the Meloni Cabinet.
This article incorporates public domain material from this U.S government document. Biographies of the Finalists for the 2018 International Women of Courage Awards