NoVo Foundation

Move to End Violence is an operational program of the NoVo Foundation. It was launched by NoVo in order to strategically deepen its investment in the U.S.-based movement to end violence against girls and women. MEV directly links to its other grantmaking and advocacy work to end violence against girls and women everywhere. Organizations participating in Move to End Violence may become grantees of the NoVo Foundation for the duration of the two-year cohort.

The NoVo Foundation seeks to foster a transformation in global society from a culture of domination and exploitation to one of equality and partnership. To accomplish this, NoVo unlocks the potential of girls and women to be powerful agents of change and help children grow into caring adults skilled at working cooperatively with each other. NoVo supports the development of capacities in people –- individually and collectively -– to help create a caring and balanced world that operates on the principles of mutual respect, collaboration, and civic participation.

NoVo Foundation’s work centers on the following four initiatives:

• Empowering Adolescent Girls, with an emphasis on building girls’ capacity to reach their full potential, and shifting cultural and social norms to create a positive value of girls.

• Ending Violence Against Girls and Women, by addressing structural inequality and other root causes that lead to violence and the exploitation of girls and women.

• Advancing Social and Emotional Learning, as the missing piece in education - an approach to education that takes into account what we know about how young people learn and develop and teaches the skills they need to truly thrive in school and in their relationships;

• Promoting Local Living Economies, based on relationships in communities and local stewardship of local resources.

NoVo Foundation’s Initiative to End Violence Against Girls and Women works in four strategic areas: ending domestic and sexual violence in the United States, including child sexual abuse; ending violence against girls and women during and after conflict; ending sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation; and achieving economic justice for girls and women. 

As one of the largest private foundations working to end violence against girls and women in the United States and globally, NoVo is committed to engaging other funders to invest in this movement. To learn more about the work of the NoVo Foundation, visit www.NoVoFoundation.org.

Move to End Violence is a program of NoVo’s Initiative to End Violence Against Girls and Women. This program is staffed by:

Pamela Shifman

Pamela Shifman serves as the Director of the Initiatives for Girls and Women. Pamela previously spent 6 years at UNICEF Headquarters, where she led UNICEF’s efforts to end gender-based violence in conflict-affected settings including in Darfur, Eastern Congo, Uganda, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Prior to joining the UN, Pamela served as the Co-Executive Director of Equality Now, where she focused extensively on trafficking of girls and women and convened a coalition of organizations for passage of the first US legislation on trafficking in persons and the UN Transnational Crime Protocol on Trafficking in Persons. From 1996-1998, Pamela served as legal advisor for the ANC Parliamentary Women's Caucus in South Africa where she supported development of South Africa’s first post-apartheid legislation addressing domestic violence, and led a National Campaign on Ending Violence against Women. 

Pamela is the author of several articles on women’s and girls’ rights, including Trafficking and Human Rights in a Globalized World (Oxfam Journal of Gender and Development) and Sexual Violence in Conflict and Post-Conflict: A Need for More Focused Action (Refugee Survey Quarterly). Pamela is the recipient of the 2011 Lucretia Mott Award from Women’s Way and was named as one of the 21 Leaders for the 21^st Century by Women’s e-News.

Pamela has taught Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan and at Hunter College, and she holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.

Puja Dhawan

Puja Dhawan is the Senior Manager for NoVo’s Initiatives for Girls and Women.  Puja was previously the Senior Program Officer for the U.S. Human Rights Fund at Public Interest Projects -– a donor collaborative that provides strategic field-building support to social justice organizations engaged in human rights work within the United States.  Puja joined the U.S. Human Rights Fund when it first launched in 2005, and over the next four years helped build the Fund’s grantmaking, program, and fundraising work. 

Puja has also done consulting work on developing domestic human rights funding and advocacy strategies.  She authored a 2010 report for the Asian Law Caucus on integrating domestic human rights into the Asian American advocacy community, and consulted with the International Human Rights Funders Group. 

After law school, Puja worked as a Staff Attorney at Bay Area Legal Aid, where she represented battered women in their family law proceedings, and worked on gender and caste discrimination in South Asia at Human Rights Watch.  She earned her J.D. from NYU School of Law and a B.A. (honors) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Caitlin Ho

Caitlin Ho is the Associate for NoVo’s Initiatives for Girls and Women. She graduated from Brown University, where she earned a B.A. in Ethnic Studies and Political Science. While on campus, Caitlin was involved with Brown’s Third World Center, where she supported students of color and community building efforts on campus. As an intern for the University of Chicago Medical Center’s Office of Community Affairs, she assisted community outreach initiatives in Chicago’s South Side. Caitlin also spent time in Cambodia researching programs to aid victims of human trafficking and worked with Tiny Toones, a grassroots organization that empowers youth through hip hop.