The Rebecca Dykes Writing Scholarship to End Violence Against Women and Girls

The Rebecca Dykes Writing Scholarship to End Violence Against Women and Girls was created by author Jane Houng in honor of her daughter, humanitarian Rebecca Dykes, who was raped and murdered by a taxi driver while working for the British Government in Lebanon on projects for refugees and disadvantaged locals.

The scholarship is open to all writers of any genre or level who wish to explore gender-based violence in their work for children or teens, with special attention given to applicants of Middle-Eastern heritage, asylum seekers, and marginalized people.

Since the death of her daughter in 2017, Jane has dedicated her life to fighting gender-based violence, including opening Becky’s Bathhouse, a wellness center for refugee women and children in Lesvos, Greece and creating Becky’s Button, a panic button to be distributed to some of the world’s most vulnerable women.

Jane holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts and it is her belief that sharing stories with young people—her story, Rebecca’s story, and the stories of other women and girls—is the best way to combat the ubiquity of gender-based violence.

Recipients of the Rebecca Dykes Writing Scholarship to End Violence Against Women and Girls will have all workshop tuition, room, board, and travel covered for the Rebecca Dykes Writing Workshop. Our inaugural workshop brought together a diverse group of writers and facilitators to the Highlights Foundation in November 2022. We plan to run this workshop again, and are collaborating with The Well to bring free quarterly online workshops to writers all over the world. Learn more about that here.

We invite you to join our newsletter to be notified when applications for our 2023 scholarship opens and to keep up to date on our special 2024 events.