This International Women’s Day we are honored to recognize just a few of the many incredible women who Pearl Jam and Vitalogy Foundation get to know. Read more about these women and the important work they do below. 

O-e Kayapo is one of a new generation of young Kayapo leaders who accepted the torch from her forefathers and is carrying on the fight for territory and indigenous rights in the 21st century.  O-e's father was the famed Kayapo leader Paiakan who in the 1980's led decisive action against invading goldminers, forced the government to cede the Kayapo their eastern territory, and organized a successful protest that resulted in halting construction of a hydrodam on the Kayapo's Xingu river (Altamira 1989). 

Protecting their vast territory in the midst of the lawless southeastern Amazon region of high deforestation requires ongoing leadership. Previous generations of Kayapo used traditional warrior skill and organization to gain official recognition over much of their territory after the frontier of logging, goldmining, and ranching reached them in the early 1980's. Todays young Kayapo leaders, however, must employ different tools than the war clubs and guns used so effectively by their parents and grandparents: they must bridge the Kayapo and outside worlds, understand how to deal in outside society, and form partnerships. O-e Kayapo is one of these new leaders who is charting a bright Kayapo future on Kayapo terms on Kayapo land.

Friend and collaborator Ivy MacDonald is a Montana-based director, filmmaker, producer, and cinematographer from the Blackfeet Tribe. She has produced, shot, and directed works for Showtime, ESPN, ACLU, and HBO and is finishing her first feature-length documentary titled When They Were Here. Most recently, she (and her brother Ivan) produced the Showtime documentary series: Murder In Big Horn, focusing on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons crisis on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations in rural Montana.

 Let's Help Together Foundation was founded on the backdrop of events in 2022 after the outbreak of war in Ukraine. They opened a psychotherapy center for Ukrainian refugees who fled their country from the war to Poland and are currently residing in Krakow. Their patients are 95% women and children who have experienced trauma, struggle with PTSD, depression, and problems with adaptation in a new city, or school. The team consists of 5 Ukrainian psychotherapists: Nila Novikova, Viktiriia Lisovska, Svitlana Mokhonko, Olena Shekshuieva, and Iryna Valiavko along with Patient Supervisor Anna Grodzka, team's supervisor Bartosz and Center Administrator Anna Kosenko.

In just a short time, they have already helped more than 300 patients with long-term psychotherapy and have 157 patients with another 30 waiting to be admitted. More and more refugees are arriving in Poland every day and the need for psychotherapeutic help continues to grow.

Kelly Davis has dedicated her career to Black women, birthing people, and the Reproductive Justice Movement. In February, she celebrated her one-year anniversary as the Executive Director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice, an organization that is committed to amplifying the voices, experiences and leadership, and providing direct material resources to Black women, girls, femmes, and gender-expansive folx.