Inspiring Hope Through Sports: Reclaim Childhood Empowers Young Women in the Middle East

Tuesday, April 24
Reception: 6:30 pm
Program: 7:00 pm
Free for members, $10 for guests

Join us for the remarkable story of Reclaim Childhood, the organization founded by two Williams College alumni to bring the experience of sports to young women in the Middle East. Founder Anouk Dey will tell us how they addressed the many obstacles involved in bringing their vision to life.  We will also learn firsthand about the power of sports to inspire confidence, hope, and ambition in young women.

As lifelong sportswomen, founders Anouk Dey ’09 and Katherine Krieg Fischer ’08 knew the impact that athletics could have on the lives of young women, and they were struck by how their Jordanian and refugee peers lacked access to coaching, equipment, and basic facilities. In 2008, together with a group of aspiring Iraqi refugee athletes from Zarqa, they applied for and won a Kathryn Davis Peace Grant to run a summer sports camp.  Overcome by the outpouring of support for their programming from within the local community, Anouk and Katherine knew they needed to do more. Upon returning to the U.S., they founded Reclaim Childhood with the goal of running year-round programming for marginalized girls and women of the Middle East.  Since then, RC has been running summer camps, year-round leagues, and coaching clinics in two cities. RC provides programming for refugees from more than eight countries as well as at-risk Jordanian women and girls, bringing together refugees, host communities, and volunteers from around the world.

Anouk will be joined in conversation by RC board member, Robert Jackall, Williams College Professor of Sociology & Public Affairs, as well as RC’s US Operations Director Maddie Ulanow.  Maddie graduated from Carleton College in 2015 with concentrations in Arabic and Education Studies; in the following year she came to Jordan on a Fulbright teaching fellowship and became RC’s Director of Jordan Operations.