IWF Congratulates June Arunga

For Immediate Release:                                                                                 Contact: Kate Pomeroy
June 11, 2007                                                                                                   (202)349-5889

December 11, 2006 Washington, D.C.,–The Independent Women’s Forum is pleased to announce that June Arunga, a Kenyan-born filmmaker, who holds a law degree from England’s Buckingham University, is the first recipient of the organization’s Women Who Make the World Better award.

“IWF often finds itself in the role of critic,” said IWF President and CEO Michelle Bernard. That is one of our important roles. But we also want to draw attention to positive ideas and people. This award will honor women who, by their words and deeds, make the world a better place.

The name of the award is a play on the name of Kate O’Beirne’s bestselling book, Women Who Make the World Worse. Recipients will be announced from time to time during the year and can be in any field of endeavor. IWF welcomes nominations from the public.

Ms. Arunga, who currently resides in California, is perhaps known for her film,”The Devil’s Footpath,” made with the BBC, in which she traveled from one end of Africa to the other to probe the causes of poverty. She is an advocate of the free market and globalization.

The IWF noted on its website that Arunga is a woman who makes the world better because, as a young woman in Kenya, she “thought deeply about the terrible poverty of her continent and pondered how wealth is created.” The citation continues:

“She could have embraced the hackneyed ideas of the aid establishment or the celebrities who drop into an African country for a photo-op and to pontificate on the sins of the developed West. Because June Arunga didn’t take this easy path, because she has the courage to grasp and promote less popular ideas and because she has the talent to present these ideas compellingly in writing and film, June Arunga is making the world better. She even has the impudence to say that what elite activists sneeringly call a sweatshop may actually be a factory that improves somebody’s standard of living.”

A wide-ranging interview with June Arunga is available on the IWF’s website (iwf.org). It is sure to provoke discussion. Arunga sees a positive side to what some critics deride as sweatshops (“For the activists who talk about people being exploited in sweatshops, this is what I’d say: There’s nothing wrong with sweat.”) and proposes solutions to poverty in Africa.

To interview June Arunga, please contact Kate Pomeroy at 202-349-5889 or [email protected].

The Independent Women’s Forum is a non-partisan, 501c3 non-profit organization. Founded in 1992, IWF’s mission is to rebuild civil society by advancing economic liberty, personal responsibility, and political freedom. IWF fosters greater respect for limited government, equality under the law, property rights, free markets, strong families, and a powerful and effective national defense and foreign policy. IWF is home to the next wave of the nation’s most influential scholars–women who are committed to promoting and defending economic opportunity and political freedom.