Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

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  HARMONY IN THE GARDEN: The Life and Work of Rubina Feroze Bhatti of Pakistan

  Kaitlin Barker

  In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.

  Rubina Feroze Bhatti, born into a Christian family in the majority Muslim country of Pakistan, protects the rights of women who are targets of honor killings, acid attacks and other forms of violence. She is a founding member and general secretary of Taangh Wasaib Organization (TWO), a rights-based development group working for communal harmony and equality through its many programs addressing issues of violence against women, religious intolerance and sectarianism and discriminatory laws and policies against women and minorities. Bhatti trains women’s groups to report on violence against women, supports victims with counseling and legal aid and works with media to bring attention to these issues.

  Bhatti’s peacemaking story began when she wrote an article condemning the imprisonment and torture of a Christian Pakistani man unjustly accused of blasphemy. Her words inspired human rights activists all over the country to raise their voices against the sentence, and Bhatti joined them in creating a campaign that ultimately saved the man’s life. She has since devoted her energy to human rights activism in various forms.

  With TWO, Bhatti works to abolish separate electorates which prevent non-Muslims from voting. In 2000 and 2001, the organization launched a massive campaign for religious minorities to boycott local elections. The campaign was successful and the government restored the joint electorate system. Bhatti also has established educational and health care facilities for children working in Pakistan’s carpet- weaving industry, written scripts for theater productions on human rights and peace issues that were performed throughout the Punjab and North West Frontier Provinces, and been selected as one of the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. As a woman in the religious minority who lives in the rural and underdeveloped city of Sargodha, Bhatti and her work challenge the traditions and rituals shaped by a patriarchal society.

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  BEING PEACE: The Life and Work of Marta Benavides of El Salvador

  Leigh Fenly

  In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.

  Marta Benavides of El Salvador is one of the surviving activists from the original group of human rights and peace advocates who began their work during the 1970s and the rising climate of repression. A leader of an ecumenical revolution focused on bringing peace to her country, the ordained pastor who chose “to live and not die for the revolution” has been bringing people at all levels – politics, the arts, law enforcement, religious, cultural, gender, agriculture and labor – together to defend human rights and develop a culture of peace.

  During the early 1980s, Benavides was head of the Ecumenical Committee for Humanitarian Aid (CEAH), a group sponsored by her close friend Archbishop Óscar Romero to support victims of violence. With the committee, she established the first refugee centers for people displaced by the violence. Almost two years after Romero’s assassination, Benavides went into exile and worked for the next decade from Mexico and the United States to bring an end to the war in her home country. With Ecumenical Ministries for Development and Peace, she developed programs to promote understanding and reconciliation among peoples and groups and end intra- and inter-family violence. She also built networks of international solidarity for a negotiated peaceful political solution to the conflict in El Salvador.

  In 1992 after the peace accords were signed, Benavides returned home and founded the International Institute for Cooperation Amongst Peoples, also known as the Institute for the 23rd Century, which promotes the values of a culture of peace through a variety of programs. She established community training centers and continues to travel throughout the country conducting workshops on, among other topics, sustainable agriculture, human rights and the prevention of community and family violence, particularly violence against women and children. Her efforts have led to extensive collaboration with the United Nations, the World Council of Churches and numerous other partners, and in 2005 she was one of the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Benavides has dedicated her life to rebuilding communities devastated by war and has brought renewal, both figurative and literal, to formerly scorched earth.

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  A VIEW THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS: The Peacebuilding Work of Zeinab Mohamed Blandia in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan

  Jennifer Freeman

  In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.

  Zeinab Mohamed Blandia, a Muslim peacemaker from Sudan, has been described as a “point person” for creating community and maintaining peace in the Nuba Mountains, one of the most conflict-affected and neglected regions of the world. She is the founder and director of Ruya, or “Vision,” an organization based both in Kadugli in the middle west region and Omdurman in the north, where she trains and cultivates fellow “women peace ambassadors.”

  Uprooted from her home in the 1980s because of the war between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), Blandia lived among other displaced people in Omdurman, across the Nile River from Khartoum. There, the displaced from opposing sides of the conflict often became “next-door neighbors,” which prompted Blandia to establish the Tabag Alsalam, or “Tray of Peace,” where women from different regions and diverse cultures prepared traditional meals and invited other groups to eat and “debate peacefully” the issues that were being fought over in the distant battlefield. The initial small group of women grew to include 45 groups from across Sudan.

  Blandia has since taken her skills in community conflict resolution and dialogue back to the Nuba Mountains and expanded the work of Ruya. Ruya’s Women’s Solidarity Fund Groups develop the economic skills of women through traditional group activities and contemporary modes such as savings accounts. The solidarity groups include Trust Committees which identify conflict issues and engage in peacebuilding at the community level. Blandia also initiated the program “Women Bridging,” which involves exchange visits between communities in government-controlled and SPLA/M- controlled areas in Southern Kordofan State. The latest Ruya project involves training illiterate women in solar engineering and transferring that technology to other regions of Sudan that are outside the reach of government electricity services. With other women and men in the rugged terrain of the Nuba Mountains, Blandia is leading the renewal of civil society and indigenous conflict resolution methods, as well as the quest for reconciliation.

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  KEEPER OF THE SOUL OF THE PEOPLE: The Life and Work of Bae Liza Llesis Saway of the Philippines

  Alicia Simoni

  In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.

  Bae Liza Llesis Saway is an indigenous peacemaker in Mindanao in the Philippines, where Moros (Muslims), Christian settlers and indigenous peoples co-exist amidst several armed groups fighting the government army. She is known as Bae Nanapnay, a name given to the woman leader of the Talaandig indigenous community; her work is based on “the understanding of the harmonious relationships of plants, animals, human beings and the spirits.”

  A founder of Talaandig Mothers for Peace and the wife of a tribal chief, Saway has been leading the quest for the rights of the tribe to self-determination and self-governance in their ancestral domain, where their families have lived for centuries. Through her leadership, the Talaandig women are empowered and have equal opportunities in the decision-making processes of their tribe. The group documents indigenous methods of conflict resolution that have proved effective in settling family and intra-tribal discord. Saway also led the establishment of the Talaandig School for Living Traditions in Bukidnon Province, which promotes indigenous arts, music and dance and where children are taught the values and traditions of the tribe, thus preserving the culture heritage of the Talaandig people.

  Saway has also emerged as one of the key leaders in the interfaith and multiethnic community efforts to move forward the peace processes in Mindanao. She is a council member of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus, composed of grassroots leaders from the Moro, Christian and indigenous communities who are working together for the peaceful resolution of the armed conflicts. As such, she has conducted dialogues with the major actors in the peace process and is an active partner in peace and development campaigns at the grassroots level. Saway bases her peace advocacy campaigns in the Talaandig doctrine of Kinship, as she represents her tribal community’s call for a genuine peace in Mindanao.

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  THE CANDLE OF BANGLADESH: The Life and Work of Shinjita Alam

  Ilze Dzenovska

  In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.

  In one of the poorest countries in the world, Shinjita Alam has dedicated much of her life to highlighting the connection between poverty and conflict, especially regarding the treatment of women in the domestic sphere and its repercussions for development. While studying for a degree in social welfare from the University of Dhaka, Alam worked with impoverished women in the slums of the capital, counseling them and providing primary-level education. She then went on to work for the nongovernmental organization Families for Children, conducting home visits to 100 women marginalized from their communities because they were widowed or divorced. Alam raised their level of education and awareness of their rights as citizens, while also providing skills-building trainings for employment.

  After working for several years in the agricultural and job creation programs for the Bangladesh office of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) – where she managed income-generating projects for women and mediated many domestic disputes within families – Alam initiated and oversaw their peace program, the first of its kind in Bangladesh. The program trained representatives from local organizations in traditional modes of conflict resolution and developed peace education curricula for use in schools across the country. Alam has also worked on behalf of the Garo people of northern Bangladesh, whose culture is distinct from the rest of the Bengali population. The largely Christian Garos often clash with Muslim Bengalis over land rights. With the Garo leadership, Alam formed a peace committee which could identify underlying causes of conflict and formulate how to resolve them. She also organized forums for interfaith dialogue between the Garo and Bengali, and opened lines of communication between the local government and the Garo people for resolution of land disputes.

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  HEALING THE WOUNDS OF WAR: The Peacebuilding Work of Silvie Maunga Mbanga of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

  Jennifer Freeman

  In the following pages, you will find these narrative stories along with supplemental information to provide a deep understanding of the conflict and one person’s journey within it. These supplements include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated by the peacemaker.

  Sylvie Maunga Mbanga, a lawyer by training, works with local organizations in the fight against sexual violence against women in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Formerly coordinator of the program against sexual violence for the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) and Church in Action, as well as the program officer for the peacebuilding and conflict transformation program at the Life and Peace Institute, Mbanga consults for other agencies and groups, providing counseling and legal services to victims of rape and sexual violence. With ICCO, she developed strategic and holistic interventions to assist victims, including the provision of psychological counseling and medical care, legal services and access to the judicial system, and economic support in the form of income-generating activities and skills building. For the Life and Peace Institute, Mbanga was charged with implementing programs on good governance and coordinating research activities.

  Mbanga also works to resolve ethnic conflicts within communities in the provinces of North and South Kivu. She has facilitated dialogue between the Banyamulenge community and other local groups such as the Babembe and Baviro. The dialogue sessions and subsequent cultural exchanges between the groups led to the founding of an ethnically mixed organization that raises awareness about the need for further communication and tolerance.

  Mbanga has served as a radio correspondent for the French/Swahili service of Voice of America, covering local women’s peacebuilding initiatives and issues of women’s leadership, and is a member of Synergy for Women Victims of Sexual Violence and Action by Christians Against Torture.

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  PAVING THE PATH TO PEACE: The Life and Work of Olenka Ochoa of Peru

  Bianca Morales-Egan

  In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.

  An activist for human rights and women’s rights during the brutal civil war in the 1980s and throughout the authoritarian presidency of Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s, Olenka Ochoa continues to fight violence and discrimination against women in Peru. As a university student when the Shining Path rebels began their insurgency, Ochoa organized activities to promote and defend human rights in local shantytowns and, with political groups and nongovernmental organizations, sheltered fellow women leaders resisting both the insurgents and the armed forces. In Villa El Salvador, a village to the south of Lima, she worked on the promotion of women’s rights and organized political activities with local leaders such as Maria Elena Moyano, who was assassinated by the Shining Path for her community organizing.

  In 1992, Ochoa joined the nongovernmental Research and Training Institute for Family and Women, which works primarily in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho, a destination for domestic migrants from Andean villages and an area hard-hit by the war. She worked with grassroots organizations and local women leaders in founding the first shelter for battered women in the district and later designed the innovative project “Peace Keepers,” which involved at-risk youth in combating violence and discrimination and won a national contest sponsored by the World Bank in 2001.

  On the governmental level, Ochoa has helped formulate new approaches to combating violence against women. In 1996, she founded the municipal program “Jacaranda” in Miraflores, which won the first U.N. Latin American Contest for Women’s Rights in 1998. From 1999 to 2002 she served as an elected member of the Metropolitan Lima Municipal Council, developing alternative security strategies to protect women and founding the first commission of women in the municipality. Ochoa contributed to the design of a law for equal opportunities for women and men, which was signed into national law in March 2007. She is also a board member of the Federation of Municipal Women of Latin America and the Caribbean and of the Huairou Commission, a global network of community development organizations.

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  DEEPENING THE PEACE: Zandile Nhlengetwa’s Grassroots Peacebuilding in South Africa

  Alicia Simoni

  In the following pages, you will find narrative stories along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of the conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during their time at the IPJ.

  A survivor of the political violence that affected her home province of KwaZulu-Natal, Zandile Nhlengetwa is known in her community for her ability to bring calm and stability to potentially volatile situations. She is a community project coordinator for the organization Survivors of Violence, where she designs peacebuilding intervention strategies for communities that have experienced high levels of violence, both during apartheid and now in the post-conflict era when criminal violence is prevalent. Her work includes conducting trauma-healing workshops for survivors and developing income-generating programs to alleviate the effects of poverty as well as facilitating dialogue with traditional leaders to promote development in the province.

  After the loss of family members to violent incidents, Nhlengetwa has reached out to young men in prison to help them break the cycle of violence. She and a network of families that have children in prison conduct campaigns to raise awareness about youth violence and drug abuse, and advocate for sentence reductions for convicted youth. She also joined with other women who lost husbands during violent conflict to form the Harambe Women’s Forum. The group initially supported one another financially and emotionally; today their activities encompass community-healing forums and the development of community-based structures to prevent violence and promote reconciliation.

  After the end of apartheid, Nhlengetwa assisted in the successes of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by counseling victims before and after they testified and setting up community assistance programs to support victims. A teacher by profession, Nhlengetwa also developed education and counseling programs for street children through the Department of Specialized Education at the University of Witwatersrand, and worked with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency to assist community members living with HIV/AIDS.

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  “THEY NEVER LEFT, THEY NEVER ARRIVED”: The Life and Work of Samia Bamieh of Palestine

  Theresa de Langis

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Samia Bamieh is a founding member and respected leader of the International Women's Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace (IWC) and chairperson of its Palestinian Steering Committee. Bamieh, one of the experts who helped formulate the Palestinian government’s Plan of Action on gender after the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, was the director of gender policies and training in the Palestinian Directorate of Gender and Development of the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. She then served in the same ministry as director of U.N. and International Organizations and director general of European Affairs, and was a member of the committee assigned to draft a Palestinian constitution under Minister Nabeel Shaath.

  Bamieh, a mother of two, has been involved for over 30 years in promoting women’s rights and roles in politics and decision making. Her civil society activism includes being a member of Jerusalem Link, the coordinating body of two independent women’s organizations (the Jerusalem Center for Women on the Palestinian side and the Jerusalem Women’s Action Center on the Israeli side) that promote a shared set of political principles for coexistence and the resolution of the conflict. Bamieh continues to be engaged in efforts to build a civil, political society for a future Palestinian state on two interdependent fronts: the establishment of an independent democratic state with a constitution that acknowledges pluralism and non-discrimination, and the expansion and defense of achievements of Palestinian women in their political and legal struggles. In spite of having suffered from war, occupation and disappointing peace efforts, Bamieh has chosen to take paths that allow her to support and inform new ways of thinking about the conflict and how peace and communities might be restored.

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  DISPLACED, BUT NOT DESTROYED: The Life and Work of Irina Yanovskaya of South Ossetia

  Devon Haynie

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Irina Yanovskaya, of South Ossetia in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict zone, is a journalist, lawyer, chair of the NGO Journalists for Human Rights, children’s advocate focused on post-conflict healing and peace education for children, as well as the mother of four, grandmother of one and a singer in her church choir. Devoted to resolving the conflict between Ossetians and Georgians that began with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, she is an outspoken critic of media that abuses and distorts public opinion.

  Yanovskaya was recognized in 2005 among the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to help war-traumatized children and women to overcome the horrors they witnessed, and for her efforts to reopen doors in mixed communities of Georgian and Ossetian people torn apart by hate and suspicion. She has given seminars and facilitated discussions among various groups within Ossetian and Georgian civil society, created summer camps for Georgian and Ossetian children and works with War Child International in Holland. A primary emphasis in all of Yanovskaya’s work and extensive writing has been to find ways to open minds to peace and respect, especially those of children and young people who have only lived in an environment of conflict and revenge.

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  IFORTI YA KA “UNITY IS POWER”: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Susan Tenjoh-Okwen of Cameroon

  Kathleen Hughart

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Susan Tenjoh-Okwen is a teacher, community peace mediator, facilitator promoting social and economic empowerment and respected gender activist who has peacebuilding experience in two provinces of Cameroon. As technical advisor for women’s affairs in the Ashong Cultural and Development Association of Bamenda, a founding member of the Moghamo Women’s Cultural and Development Association of Cameroon and president of the Moghamo Women’s Association, Tenjoh-Okwen has been working to address causes of long-standing, inter- and intra-tribal conflicts that seldom make international news, but that result in division, displacement and trauma for people in several regions. In uniting and educating women from different villages, she was able to overcome the hostilities of men against men at the peak of a crisis when families were being torn apart.

  A mother of five, Tenjoh-Okwen is also publicity secretary for the Cameroon Association of University Women (affiliated with the International Federation of University Women) and serves on the board of the Fomunyoh Foundation, a charitable organization promoting humanitarian activities and peace. Tenjoh-Okwen teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels, has many published articles on her gender work and has appeared on Cameroon television as a facilitator on peace and gender issues.

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  FEARLESS PURSUIT OF JUSTICE: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Latifah Anum Siregar of Indonesia

  Stelet Kim

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Latifah Anum Siregar is a human rights lawyer, the chairperson of the Alliance for Democracy in Papua (ALDP) and an expert at the Commission for Law and Human Rights of the parliament in Papua Province, Indonesia. Although her family is from a different island, speaks a different language and practices a different religion, Siregar is a trusted, effective advocate for peace, working within the complex tribal and migrant conflicts of Papua communities. Respected for her and ALDP’s call to identify traditional laws, norms and values that could help settle land disputes, she has led the way to articulating these traditions in written law, which the Papuan indigenous people can now use to negotiate with the government and migrants in the search for peaceful solutions to land conflicts. During Siregar’s student days in the early 1990s, she was the first woman chairperson of the Muslim Students Association; later in the decade she served as a member of the regional parliament in Papua Province. From 2003 to 2007 she was on the board of directors of Papua Women Solidarity; and from 2007 to 2011 she is serving as general secretary of the Papua Muslim Assembly.

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  Seeking Freedom Amid Ruins: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Shukrije Gashi of Kosovo

  Jackee Batanda

  Shukrije Gashi lives and works in Prishtina, Kosovo, where she is the director of Partners Center for Conflict Management-Kosova, working within local communities to resolve disputes and build consensus on issues affecting civil society. A lawyer, poet and mediator, Gashi has worked throughout her life on issues of human rights and conflict resolution. As a student in the early 1980s, she was imprisoned for two years for her involvement in the struggle for the recognition of Kosovo Albanian rights in the former Yugoslavia. Following her imprisonment, Gashi worked as a journalist for many years, writing for newspapers such as the New York Times and the Albanian daily newspaper Rilindja. In the 1990s, she helped establish several regional NGOs, including the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms, the Centre for the Protection of Women and Children and Motrat Qiriazi. She was one of the main actors involved in drafting the first mediation law, gender equality draft law, and property and housing legislation in Kosovo. Also throughout the decade, Gashi was involved in the Council of Reconciliation, which brought together Albanians from Kosovo and the diaspora to resolve sometimes decades-old blood feuds (or interfamily revenge killings); she and other mediators in the council adapted traditional conflict resolution practices to modern Albanian culture.

  While working on the development of successful relations between civil society and government, Gashi has been working to raise awareness among women of the importance and advantages of seeking roles in decision-making processes, particularly at the local level. Gashi, recognizing that the healing of divided communities is vital at this stage of Kosovo’s development, has also been focusing on the return of Serb minorities to the largely Albanian Kosovo. Working jointly with programs in Serbia, her efforts aim to reintegrate minorities both physically and mentally and to ensure sustainability of the process.

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  Cradled in Her Arms: Stories of the Life and Work of Palwasha Kakar of Afghanistan

  Heather Farrell

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Palwasha Kakar serves as a deputy minister in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for the government of Afghanistan. Prior to this, Kakar served as program manager in the eastern regional office of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Jalalabad, Nangarhar Province, where she worked toward the protection, promotion and defense of the rights of the Afghan people with a particular focus on women.

  Born to an educated family in eastern Afghanistan, Kakar graduated from the faculty of social sciences at Kabul University and became a teacher. Throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, Kakar and her family were displaced because of the Soviet occupation or fighting among the Mujahedeen. When public teaching became impossible, she joined a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) program working as a social mobilizer and trainer. She went on to create the only home school for girls in the eastern zone during the time of the Taliban. Because of her activities, her husband was briefly jailed and her family later forced into exile in Pakistan. Back in Afghanistan in 2001, Kakar served again as a UNICEF trainer, this time in the western city of Herat, and created the first council of women in the city. For the AIHRC, Kakar served as women’s rights officer and program manager, documenting human rights violations and calling on the government of Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents and international forces to respect and uphold the rights of Afghan citizens.

  In her post in the ministry, Kakar has been seeking ways to surmount the challenging patriarchal norms which prevail throughout the nation. With 64 women currently holding seats within parliament, Kakar is battling tokenism and pushing for effective, transformative leadership to ensure that the rights of Afghan women are ingrained within governmental policy. Her work to ascertain the status of Afghan women in remote regions of the country has placed her in life-threatening situations, yet she asserts that the voices of the female population will be heard. Additionally, through this post, Kakar is working toward the creation of environments in which Afghan women may have some reprieve from the constant discrimination and violence they face because of their sex, and is seeking to institutionalize the abolition of violence against women.

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  Out of the Cages: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Svetlana Kijevčanin of Serbia

  Emiko Noma

  Svetlana Kijevcanin currently manages the bachelor of education in community youth work studies for the Swedish NGO Forum Syd Balkans Programme, where she also teaches a course in leadership, youth and development work. After the graduation of her first cohort of students in 2007, she is working to establish similar programs in other universities across the Balkan region.
  
  Kijevcanin was born and still resides in Belgrade, Serbia, part of the former Yugoslavia. As Yugoslavia began its disintegration, Kijevcanin embarked on peace activities with both local and international NGOs, including CARE International and the United Methodist Committee on Relief. She co-founded Group MOST (“Bridge”): Association for Cooperation and Mediation in 1992 and implemented various creative and innovative programs in peace education. During the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, including during the NATO bombing of Serbia and Montenegro in 1999, Kijevcanin continued her peace work, conducting hundreds of trainings, primarily with youth, refugees, psychologists, teachers and NGO activists throughout the Balkans. She has used a variety of media, including a television series on conflict, documentary films on peace studies and print media in the form of drawing books for youth, to explore the potential for conflict transformation and to connect people across national and ethnic lines. Kijevcanin is actively involved in the use of theater-in-education methodology for building tolerance and understanding among youth; her theater troupe recently performed their piece, “The Love Affair of the Sun and the Moon,” at the International Festival of Theater in Education in Mostar, Bosnia and in the province of Vojvodina.

  In 2007, Kijevcanin received a full scholarship to participate in a 10-month, long-distance course at the East Side Institute for Group and Short-Term Psychotherapy in New York, where she will enhance her psychological studies and strengthen the application to her work in education and grassroots activism. Her presentation of her work in reconciliation utilizing theater-in-education methodology at the fourth “Performing the World” Conference coincided with the recent publication of her article, “Reflections on Activism,” in 20 Pieces of Encouragement for Awakening and Change: Peacebuilding in the Region of the Former Yugoslavia, a publication of the Centre for Nonviolent Action. Kijevcanin is married with two children and considers herself a genuine networker and activist because “activism is my only authentic response to the situation in which we are living.”

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  The Sacrifice of Honey: Stories of the Life and Work of Rebecca Joshua Okwaci of Sudan

  Susan Van Schoonhoven

  Rebecca Joshua Okwaci is a journalist by profession and the secretary general of Women Action for Development (WAD) in South Sudan. As a peace advocate, Okwaci co-led the Sudanese delegation to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995 and facilitated dialogue between women from the south and north. Her progressive work to bring the groups together was recognized by international institutions and governments and culminated in the founding of Sudanese Women’s Empowerment for Peace (SuWEP), an organization included in the list of 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She is also a founding member of the Sudanese Women’s Association in Nairobi and Sudanese Women’s Voice for Peace (SWVP), the first grassroots peace organization established by Sudanese women living in exile in Kenya, and she co-led the Sudanese women’s delegation to The Hague Appeal for Peace in 1999. With SWVP, Okwaci carried out the first peacebuilding and conflict resolution programs and trainings in the Shilluk Kingdom in Mid-West Upper Nile in what is now South Sudan.

  In her role as secretary general for WAD, Okwaci strives to educate women and communities in skills necessary to advance the agenda of peace in Sudan and South Sudan. She has conducted several trainings and is assisting in the creation of a WAD office in Juba, the capital of the south. Okwaci recently contributed to the Collo (Shilluk) Conference on Peace and Development with a presentation of her views on women’s roles in peace and development. With successful strides in engendering the government of South Sudan at all levels, Okwaci is still working toward the realization of 25 percent women’s effective representation within South Sudan.
  
  As an executive producer at Sudan Radio Service, Okwaci produces programs targeting women, such as “Our Voices” and “Women’s Corner,” and contributes to programs educating citizens on elements of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005. As the only female member of the Association for Media Development in Southern Sudan, Okwaci has been instrumental in the drafting of three media bills focused on issues of public service broadcasts, access to information and regulation of broadcasts. Additionally, she is contributing to the formation of a code of media ethics and a code of conduct for Sudanese journalists. She is a member of a media council task force designed to guide and support journalists in the proper usage of the code of ethics.

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  Peace Between Banyan and Kapok Trees: Untangling Cambodia through Thavory Huot’s Life Story

  Ozlem Ezer

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time, or, perhaps, no formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency. Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  A survivor of three decades of civil war, genocide and domestic violence, Thavory Huot, from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, is currently the executive director of the Khmer Ahimsa Organization (KAH), which works to empower communities with conflict resolution skills through informal village structures. Prior to this, she was affiliated with Brahmavihara, the Cambodia AIDS Project, and has been program manager of the Peace Education and Awareness Unit of the Working Group for Weapons Reduction. The group works to reduce weapons; promote peace and non- violent problem solving; and strengthen the capacity of high school teachers, pedagogical trainers, teachers-in-training and Cambodian civil society to build a peaceful and safe country.

  In the 1970s, Huot witnessed the death of most of her family under the Khmer Rouge. During those years, she was forced into manual labor, building dams and irrigation channels, and transplanting, plowing and harvesting rice. After the Vietnamese invasion in 1979, Huot survived by teaching in exchange for food for almost a decade. In the 1990s, she became the project coordinator of the Buddhist Association of Nuns and Lay Women, where she worked to empower women on national reconciliation and heal the wounds of many years of war and genocide.

  Domestic violence, including assaults with a deadly weapon, is common following years of conflict, and Huot has worked in various projects against such violence since 1998. She is the mother of three adult children, two of her own and an adopted nephew, all of whom she says serve as inspiration for her tireless efforts to make peace in her scarred country. She states, “I would never want my children to suffer the way I did.”

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  DARKEST BEFORE DAWN: The Work of Emmaculeta Chiseya of Zimbabwe

  Lucia Gbaya-Kanga

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time, or, perhaps, no formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency. Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Emmaculeta Chiseya, a mother of two from Harare, Zimbabwe has worked to gender- sensitize community development and promote human rights for over 15 years. From 1996 to 2000, Chiseya was responsible for the promotion, protection and defense of human rights under the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association. During an increasingly dangerous period of Zimbabwean history, she has helped pioneer human rights education and civic education curricula in schools throughout the country. As a project officer for the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Chiseya advocates for democracy and electoral education and serves as an election monitor.

  Chiseya has experience educating police and other security forces to desist from torture practices, and has used theater to encourage greater understanding of human rights. In the current dangerous climate in Zimbabwe, with exorbitant inflation and unemployment rates and a nonexistent health care system, the rights which the constitution grants are challenged; politically motivated violence confronts the citizens who are seeking a return to peace. Human rights activists and peacemakers must maneuver carefully simply to assemble. Torture practices by police are on the rise. Chiseya is working to help people negotiate these pitfalls in order to move democratic change and human rights forward. She believes in the right of the people to elect a government of their choice without fear.

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  Born in the Borderlands, Living for Unity: The Story of a Peacebuilder in Northern Uganda

  Emiko Noma

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time, or, perhaps, no formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency. Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  As peacebuilding project officer for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Gulu, Sister Pauline Acayo has been instrumental in helping over 2,000 formerly abducted children reintegrate into their communities through the use of mediation, psychosocial trauma counseling and traditional indigenous ceremonies. Through Acayo’s support of women peace committees in internally displaced peoples’ (IDP) camps and encouragement to participate in peace and reconciliation activities, women are gaining influential roles in northern Ugandan society. She trains women task forces and creates community forums for women to voice their views. These task forces also work in coordination with Acayo and CRS to promote reconciliation and forgiveness in communities torn apart by 20 years of war.

  Throughout the 2006 presidential and parliamentary election process, Acayo was instrumental in ensuring free and fair election processes. Prior to election day, she conducted civic education sessions and pushed for greater women’s representation in government. Acayo is also making strides in coordinating civil society efforts for peacebuilding in Uganda. With the initiation of peace talks in Juba, Sudan between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in 2006, a large number of IDPs and refugees have been returning home. Acayo is engaged with other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in educating the displaced communities on land rights and the land tenure system, hoping to alleviate and prevent land disputes as the people return to their homes.
  
  Together with the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, Acayo and CRS have formed sub-county and district religious leaders’ peace committees to institutionalize the resolution of conflict through dialogue and mediation. Acayo also coordinated with CRS and the Inter-Religious Council of Churches to develop a peace and reconciliation strategy workshop for senior religious leaders in Uganda and the Great Lakes region, effectively sending the voices of religious leaders to the Juba peace talks. Acayo has been honored with a Voices of Courage Certificate of Recognition from the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

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  One Woman’s Life, One Thousand Women’s Voices A Narrative of the Life and Work of Mary Ann Arnado of the Philippines

  Maia Woodward

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time, or, perhaps, no formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency. Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  As a lawyer and for several years the deputy director of Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), a regional institution that promotes solidarity among the peoples of Southeast Asia, Mary Ann Arnado coordinated the grassroots peacebuilding and peace advocacy program in Mindanao, with the goal of promoting the participation of women in the peace process between the government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). In that capacity, Arnado organized the successful Bantay Ceasefire monitoring team, worked directly in zones of conflict to educate warring factions on international humanitarian law and human rights and was appointed by the government peace panel to serve as an official advisor on ancestral domain.
  
  Arnado is also the secretary-general of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus (MPC), a grassroots network of the Bangsamoro, indigenous peoples and Christian settlers, which seeks to promote indigenous peacemaking mechanisms and facilitate dialogue. During the Buliok War of 2003, Arnado helped mobilize over 10,000 IDPs who were demanding an immediate ceasefire between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the MILF, a demand heeded by both sides. She recently participated in the International Women’s Peace and Solidarity Mission to Basilan to investigate the recurrence of violence and the situation of the displaced in the region.

  Arnado was instrumental in the success of the Basilan incident fact-finding mission, formed in response to the beheading of 14 members of the AFP, and comprised of representatives from the AFP, MILF and Bantay Ceasefire. Her insistence that the investigators visit the actual site of the incident resulted in the correct identification of the offending party. Arnado’s participation in this mission further articulated the need to openly address issues of sexual violence as a result of conflict. With cultural norms dictating otherwise, Arnado is examining avenues to bring this issue to light in order for true root causes and ramifications of conflict to be incorporated into peace processes.

  In 2009 Arnado was awarded the Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Fellowship for Professional Development in Public Service by the U.S. Embassy in Manila, given to Filipinos who have shown courage and commitment to truth in journalism and public service.

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  Pioneering the Restoration of Peace: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Shreen Abdul Saroor of Sri Lanka

  Donna Chung

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Shreen Abdul Saroor is one of the founders of Mannar Women’s Development Federation (MWDF) and Mannar Women for Human Rights and Democracy (MWfHRD) in Sri Lanka. Saroor’s work grew out of her experience of being forcibly displaced, along with all of her family, in 1990 by the militant group fighting for a separate Tamil state. Saroor helped establish MWDF on the understanding that through microcredit and educational programs, Tamil and Muslim women could find common ground to resurrect the past peace in their communities. She assisted in the implementation of the Shakti gender equality program sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency, which aimed to engage both government and nonprofit organizations in development and influence gender-sensitive economic, political and legal policies.
  
  With the descent into deeper violent conflict in Sri Lanka, disappearances and the loss of civilian lives increase on a daily basis. As a result, Saroor has focused most of her recent work on highlighting human rights violations of the Tamil and Muslim minority communities at the regional and international levels. Organization of protests and petitions has become an integral part of her work.

  As an Echoing Green Fellow, Saroor has been working for the establishment of a Model Resettlement Village, which brings together Hindu, Catholic and Muslim women who have become heads of households due to the conflict. With support from MWDF, these women have come together in the building of a new settlement where they can live and demonstrate reconciliation and peaceful coexistence. As children witness their mothers working and living together, they are ingrained with practices which allow for formerly divided communities to live in harmony with one another. The project has also focused on efforts to create community and social cohesion through the collection of stories that express individual and common experiences of living amidst violent conflict and imbue the element of truth-telling into the process. As the war escalates, Saroor and the community are still working toward the creation of the village, although progress has been drastically slowed.

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  A Just Path, A Just Peace: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Luz Méndez of Guatemala

  Sarah Cross

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Luz Méndez of Guatemala is president of the Advisory Board of Unión Nacional de Mujeres Guatemaltecas, which works for gender equality, social justice and peacebuilding. She participated in the table of peace negotiations as part of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity’s delegation, where she dedicated special attention to the incorporation of gender equality commitments in the accords. After the end of the war, she was a member of the National Council for the Implementation of the Peace Accords. She was also the coordinator of the Women Agents for Change Consortium, an alliance of women's and human rights organizations working for the empowerment of women survivors of sexual violence during the armed conflict, seeking justice and reparations. Méndez was a speaker at the first meeting that the U.N. Security Council held with women’s organizations leading up to the passage of resolution 1325 on women, peace and security.

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  THE LATECOMER: The Life and Work of Zarina Salamat of Pakistan

  Kathleen Hughart

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Zarina Salamat was for several years the chairperson of the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) in Islamabad and a leader in the Citizens’ Peace Committee. For most of her life, Salamat had been a social scientist researcher; it was not until the passing of her husband in 1994 that her peace activities began to take center stage. After she joined PIPFPD, India and then Pakistan exploded nuclear devices in May 1998. Salamat organized protests against both, in the midst of great hostility from extremist groups.

  By the end of 1998, Salamat was engaged with the Hiroshima Citizens Group for the Promotion of Peace and traveled to the Japanese city with a peace advocate from India to witness the effects of atomic bombs. Upon their return home, joint efforts for peace on the subcontinent commenced. In her efforts to ban nuclear weapons, Salamat hosted a number of peace missions from Japan to raise awareness in the Pakistani public of the reality and dangers of nuclear weapons. She hosted the visit by the mayor of Hiroshima as part of his worldwide campaign for “Mayors for Peace” and enrolled local mayors to join the movement. With the active assistance of the mayor of Hiroshima, Salamat convinced the government of Pakistan to set up a peace institute and university faculties to introduce peace studies as part of their curricula.

  Salamat’s efforts to create forums for parliamentarians, activists and intellectuals from Pakistan and India to meet are credited with setting the environment for the 2004 visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Pakistan, the first visit in over a decade. Salamat has also arranged for women from India and Pakistan to work together, and for youth between the ages of 15 to 17 to visit Hiroshima so they can witness for themselves the irrevocable impact of nuclear weapons.

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  Time to Make History, Time to Educate Women: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Christiana Thorpe of Sierra Leone

  Whitney McIntyre

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Christiana Thorpe is the chief electoral commissioner for the National Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone. She is the founding chair and former chief executive officer of the Sierra Leone branch of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE-SL). A former nun, Thorpe left convent life to devote herself to the protection and education of girls. She was appointed deputy minister of education in late 1993 – the only woman in a cabinet of 19 members. After establishing FAWE-SL in 1995, the group created Emergency Camp Schools in the capital, Freetown, for children displaced by the civil war. Unrest in the country forced her into exile in Guinea, where FAWE-SL developed non-formal education programs for children. The organization later counseled and rehabilitated women and girls who had been raped by the fighting forces, particularly those victimized during the rebel attack on Freetown in 1999.

  Through her duties as chief electoral commissioner, Thorpe restructured electoral processes within Sierra Leone for the nation’s second post-conflict presidential and parliamentary elections. Thorpe was responsible for registering political parties and citizen voters and organizing and monitoring the voting process. In addition, she ensured the involvement of all stakeholders including civil society and security forces in the election planning process. She conducted a series of civic education trainings with women’s and youth groups to educate them on election processes. With the successful training of over 8,000 youth, Thorpe employed them to monitor the elections. In a final effort to minimize election-inspired violence, she conducted trainings of peaceful conflict resolution with village chiefs. Thorpe is also a member of the National Security Council, which elevated her capacity to institute free and fair elections within the country.
  
  Thorpe is the recipient of the 2009 German Africa Award, recognized for her role in the peaceful elections in Sierra Leone by the German Africa Foundation. The foundation honors individuals for their commitment to peace, democracy, human rights and a social market economy. Thorpe also received the 2006 Voices of Courage Award from the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the Special Token of Appreciation for Remarkable Services Award of Sierra Leone for her service to humanity.

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  IF YOU SEE SOMETHING WRONG: The Life and Work of Raya Kadyrova of Kyrgyzstan

  Kaitlin Barker

  Women on the frontline of efforts to end violence and secure a just peace seldom record their experiences, activities and insights – as generally there is no time or, perhaps, they do not have formal education that would help them record their stories. The Women PeaceMakers Program is a selective program for leaders who want to document, share and build upon their unique peacemaking stories. Selected peacemakers join the IPJ for an eight-week residency.

  Women PeaceMakers are paired with a Peace Writer to document in written form their story of living in conflict and building peace in their communities and nations. The peacemakers’ stories are also documented on film by the IPJ’s partner organization Sun & Moon Vision Productions. While in residence at the institute, Women PeaceMakers give presentations on their work and the situation in their home countries to the university and San Diego communities.

  Raya Kadyrova is the president and founder of Foundation for Tolerance International (FTI), a nongovernmental organization (NGO) founded in 1998 in Kyrgyzstan that operates in the cross-border communities of the Ferghana Valley in Central Asia. Dedicated to preventing and transforming interethnic conflicts, FTI has developed a reputation as the premier NGO in its region for its ability to bring divided communities together in the spirit of peace and for its efforts to lend a voice to disenfranchised populations.

  After graduating from the University of Bishkek, Kadyrova became a language instructor for the U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers in Kyrgyzstan and later joined the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to implement a tolerance education project, minimizing tensions between Kyrgyz and Tajik students. During incursions into southern Kyrgyzstan by Islamic extremists in 1999 and 2000, known as the Batken War, FTI established camps for internally displaced people and set up Radio Salam and Salam Asia, a radio station and magazine – critical outlets of information for the displaced population. For her and FTI’s efforts in the Batken War, Kadyrova was conferred the title of Honorary Citizen of Batken Oblast by the government of Kyrgyzstan, the only woman among seven recipients.

  Additionally, Kadyrova has strived to make police reform a priority in the country and was one of two civil society representatives in the Government Committee on Police Reform in Kyrgyzstan. She was also civil society representative in the Council on Human Rights of the Kyrgyz Republic and chaired the Civil Society Advisory Board to the United Nations, which institutionalizes cooperation channels between the United Nations and civil society and seeks to improve the efficacy of U.N. activity in Kyrgyzstan.

  While FTI remains focused on its original goals of preventing violent conflict and building peace and justice throughout Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia, it has expanded its efforts from the amelioration of interethnic conflicts in the Ferghana Valley to address a broader range of conflicts, particularly between corrupt governmental authorities and the citizenry of Kyrgyzstan. Kadyrova refers to this shift as a change in focus from horizontal to vertical issues, which is the result of the changing political context within the country. Therefore, FTI has developed programs aimed at developing an effective multiparty democracy, improving the capacity of local government bodies, enhancing democratic decision making at the local level and incorporating women and youth in the peaceful democratic development of Kyrgyzstan.

  In addition, FTI is responsible for the development of the Early Warning for Violence Prevention program, which utilizes constant monitoring processes to raise awareness of potential and actual conflicts throughout Kyrgyzstan; it is the first early warning system in Central Asia. In 2005, Kadyrova was one of the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.