The AwF Women’s Network decided to break with the regular Woman of the Month Award for June and to dedicate the month's award to Paula Kantor, who made the ultimate sacrifice in her untiring efforts with WorldFish on the gender transformative approach, particularly through work in Bangladesh and Zambia.

Ms Kantor died in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the hotel where she was staying in Kabul, Afghanistan, which was stormed by Taliban gunmen, sparking a siege that left 14 people, including nine foreigners, dead.

She worked all over the world gender and development issues and was Kabul to work on a project involving wheat production with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico. Sincere condolences go out to her family, friends and colleagues.

In the words of Stephen Hall, Director General, WorldFish: “Paula’s clear vision was a great driver for the gender transformative approach that remains a key pillar in Worldfish’s work. Her commitment to improving the livelihoods of women in some of the world’s most impoverished regions will be her legacy. Paula’s passing is a loss to the whole development community.”

Ms Kantor was a well-published, established and respected scientist. Among many noteworthy achievements, she mentored an international non-governmental organization in its efforts to deliver gender programming to women fish retailers in Egypt.

Source: Aquaculture without Frontiers