Simona Lee of Trinidad Wins 2011 Internet Activist BlogHer Scholarship

Congratulations to Simona Lee of Trinidad, creator of the blog “Women Speak: Women Tell Their Stories of Discrimination,” for being chosen to receive a 2011 Internet Activist BlogHer Scholarship. Simona will attend the BlogHer 11 conference in San Diego in August where she’ll present her very important work at one of the sessions. Her blog is a forum for women in the Caribbean to tell their stories of discrimination “and in so doing has given them a way to begin to take charge of their lives,” she has said, “and provides a resource for women looking to know more about their rights and the resources available to them” when dealing with discrimination. The BlogHer Conference is the world’s largest conference for women in social media. BlogHer.com is now the largest community of women who blog, with 25 million visitors a month. It is one of the largest and highest quality publishing networks of blogs authored by women. There are 22,000 blogs in the BlogHer directory but only four scholarships are granted every year to women bloggers in developing countries to give them the opportunity to attend the conference. I’m proud of our Caribbean sister for being one of this year’s scholarship winners, and especially glad that she is a Feminist writer/blogger who cares about the lives of women and is using the both the power of the free web and the power of women's stories to resist and to transform. One of Simona's sistren scholarship winners is Yoani Sanchez of Cub, probably the most famous woman blogger of all time. Esteemed company indeed. Simona deserves it. Her blog Women Speak is needed and wanted at this time. (And yes, I quite like the name as well!)