Too often, women’s voices are left out of crucial conversations. We believe that real change starts with raw, empathetic understanding — hearing someone’s story first hand has the power to shift our perspectives in a way that policy-focused conversations alone often cannot.

Our model consists of small-scale events, where speakers share their experiences with students, either in a single discussion or a series. The goal is to facilitate dialogue that sparks reflection, interest, honesty and empathy — creating an environment where students don’t just learn about policy and conflict in sterile academic spaces, but feel compelled to engage with what they’re learning on a deeper, more personal level.

Trigger Empathy is a budding initiative founded by Ella Kushins, Natasha Halbfinger and Lara Jalal that works to amplify women’s voices from conflict zones around the world on college campuses. We're starting at The George Washington University, and we aim to open chapters across the country.

We're fundraising for:

1) The operational costs that are required to complete 501(c)(3) registration. We've signed on pro-bono with a representative from a law firm based in D.C., and our only hold-ups for filing the necessary paperwork are finances-based.

2) Administrative costs: our website domain, our email account, a mailing address (which is required to become a registered 501(c)(3)).

3) Programming costs: depending on how much we're able to raise, we hope to find donors like yourself who will be willing to contribute to the execution of our events, and the growth of our organization.

Your support would mean the world to us, and we're so excited to see where Trigger Empathy can go, and all that we can do.

triggerempathy.com

If you have any questions, ideas, or other ways you can help, please contact us using the email listed on our website! We're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and please feel free to share this link!