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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. -
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. -
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. -
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.
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Building the Base of the Community: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Zahra Ugas Farah of Somalia
Carmen Dyck
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.
Zahra Ugas Farah is a founding member and director of the Family Economy Rehabilitation Organization (FERO), originally created in 1992 to meet the basic survival needs of people suffering from the violent civil war in Somalia. Within a year of its founding, FERO was appointed deputy head of food distribution, working directly with the World Food Program. The organization has since expanded its work to include HIV/AIDS awareness; the elimination of the practice of female genital mutilation; the empowerment of women through education, income-generating projects and skills building; and incorporating women into capacity building and decision making at the local and national levels. When government and Ethiopian troops battled Islamic insurgents in 2006 and 2007, re-igniting pronounced violent conflict in the country, FERO mobilized women’s groups in Mogadishu and called on the warring sides to observe international human rights standards; the organization also continued their humanitarian work to save lives during the height of the fighting.
The daughter of a clan chief and a devout Muslim, Farah has been participating in the Somali peace process as a key civil society leader. At the Somali Reconciliation Conference in 2002, Farah served as a member of the Committee on Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation, and later was nominated to chair meetings of the Leaders Committee composed of rival warlords attempting to communicate and find resolution to the conflict. FERO has hosted hundreds of events to educate local communities on Somali women’s role in reconciliation and peace processes. However, as the quota of women holding government positions in Somalia is not being filled, Farah and her colleagues are using forums and declarations to revitalize the call for and realization of women’s rights and representation.
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Color from Shadows: A Narrative of the Life and Work of Hyun-Sook Lee Kim of Korea
Allison J. Meeks
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.
Currently the executive director of the Women's Forum for Peace and Diplomacy, Lee was raised in post-World War II Korea in a Confucian society marked by extreme poverty, heightened tension and militarization due to the political division between the North and South. As a student at the Hanshin Theological Seminary, Lee studied globally conscious theology which focused on politics and international affairs. She is the youngest member of the Presidential Advisory Committee for Reunification and the chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Reunification Ministry.
Through her work as chief of the Women's Desk at the Korea Christian Academy, Lee, in collaboration with her colleagues, was responsible for initiating a program aimed at raising awareness and eradicating domestic violence in South Korea. The Korea Women's Hotline provides guidance and support to victims of domestic violence and has served as a catalyst for the progressive women's movement in Korea. The hotline was instrumental in establishing domestic and sexual violence as criminal acts in South Korea.
As co-founder and former executive director of Women Making Peace, an NGO established in 1997, with the goal of creating a culture of peace on the Korean peninsula, Lee has helped to open the door between the two Koreas by getting humanitarian aid to the North and encouraging the first people-to-people visits. Women Making Peace is a multi-dimensional organization that views gender equality, demilitarization, denuclearization, respect for human rights and the eventual reunification of North and South Korea as several of the necessary steps to making peace a reality. In the 10 years since its inception, Women Making Peace has forged new ground by bringing peace, gender and reunification issues to the forefront of Korean society.
Lee served until 2008 as the vice president of the Korean Red Cross, where she engaged in humanitarian activities, which included her participation in the reunion of separated families across the divide of the peninsula. Inspired by her time at the IPJ, Lee recently initiated a 1325 Peace Club, which works toward implementing in Korea the agreed-upon commitments as outlined by the U.N. Security Council Resolution. The 1325 Peace Club activities also include visits to training centers for defectors from North Korea, of which approximately 70 percent are women, and the submission of recommendations to the minister of unification and related officials on appropriate measures for the successful resettlement of women. Lee has received the prestigious National Reconciliation Award from the Korean Council of Reconciliation and Cooperation, made up of leaders from NGOs and government, and a National Decoration from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.
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