b'SI of the Americas >>>Soroptimist International of the>>> Live Your Dream: Education and Americas (SIA) has 30,000Training Awards for Women members in 21 countries andGrants totaling about $35 million have been awarded territories, improving the lives ofto over 30,000 women since 1972, through the SIA women and girls throughLive Your Dream: Education and Training Awards for programmes leading to social andWomen. Increasing access to education, vocational skills economic empowerment. and providing employment opportunities, the Live Your Dream Awards particularly focus on women in their struggletoovercomesignificantbarriersintheirlives,such as poverty, domestic violence, or drug and alcohol abuse. Presenting the opportunity to turn lives around, theLiveYourDreamAwardsbuildself-confidence,resilienceproviding resources and solutions for women and supporting their ambitions to create positive change in their lives.The Live Your Dream Awards empower and enable women such as Shamayel, born to human rights activists in Afghanistan, for whom, the award means freedom and opportunity. As a young girl Shamayels parents defiedtheTaliban,sendingShamayeltoanundergroundschoola move with tragic consequencesher father murdered and her mother dying upon learning of the devastating news. With her own life still in danger, Shamayel travelled to the U.S. leaving her six younger siblings behind. With the support of the Live Your Dream Awards, Shamayel now studies for a degree in international relations in the U.S, with her siblings now safe by her side. Shamayel says: My overall goal is very clear. I want to work on behalf of justice, equality, and peace on earth for all.Dream It Be It 10'