Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presents award to Jansila Majeed of Sri Lanka

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the Women of Courage award to Sri Lanka’s Jansila Majeed at a ceremony held at the US State Department in Washington, Wednesday, March 10. Majeed was among 10 recipients of the 2010 award.

First lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton present the 2010 International Women of Courage Award to Jansila Majeed of Sri Lanka, Wednesday, March 10, 2010, at the State Department in Washington ~ AP pic.Tawbah (Repentance)  

 Women Of Courage Awards
Award goes to women who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for human rights and women’s equality:

U.S first lady Michelle Obama (L) is pictured on stage with the 2010 International Women of Courage Awards recipients at the State Department in Washington, March 10, 2010. With Obama are (2nd L-R) Afghanistan' s Shukria Asil and Shafiqa Quraishi, Sonia Pierre of the Dominican Republic, Kenya's Ann Njogu, Korea's Lee Ae-Run, Sri Lanka's Jansila Majeed, Syria's Sister Marie Claude Naddaf and Zimbabwe's Jestina Mukoko-Reuters pic

Ms. Majeed is the Managing Trustee of Community Trust Fund in Puttalam province. The Trust oversees a number of programs on minority and women’s issues, including women’s rights, peace building, relief work, working with young people, and mine-risk education in the North and East. Ms. Majeed’s own particular focus is on uniting the Muslim and Tamil communities in her province.
Having lived as an internally displaced person (IDP) for almost 20 years, Ms. Majeed has become an energetic activist for services for displaced Muslim and Tamil civilians, focusing particularly on grassroots programs on life skills, health, and women's empowerment. Her activism began in 1992 with a working group of five people. She overcame both the general neglect of the problem of IDPs in the Muslim minority as well as her own community’s strictures against women activists to build a broad-based organization that works on minority and women’s issues in a highly sensitive and politicized environment.