She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
She says: « In Central African Republic during the tribal wars, women, the mothers of humanity, stood up like one person, green leaves in their hands to ask the opposing combatants to stop the bloodshed ».
She says also: “Throughout the world history and in particular in Africa, history has often demonstrated that the woman have been and remain the foundation of peace. If God, the Creator of entire Humanity did not stand to see man die, why does man please himself in the loss of his brethren? In Central African Republic, during the tribal wars, women, the mother of humanity stood up like one person, green leaves in the hands to ask the opposing combatants to cease to spill blood”.
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Sorry, I can not find any photo of Simone Clara Kossianga (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).
She works for the Union of Baptist Churches / Union Fraternelle des Eglises Baptistes Ufeb – mentionned on EBM/MASA – Europäische Baptistische Mission [European Baptist Mission] in Afrika und Lateinamerika, (see also their homepage).
Simone Clara Kossianga (49) leads a religious-based organization, the Union of Baptist Churches (Ufeb). She is a secondary school teacher and helps women to assist one another, gain additional training through religious-based seminars, and thus be peace and reconciliation facilitators in Central Africa. “Being the head of this Women network for Peace, I am sustained by conviction,” says Mrs. Clara Kossianga.
She is well placed to advocate for peace because she has lived through crisis, political disturbances and riots. The search for a long lasting peace has become a daily labor of love. “The courage of the women, their determination enables me to go on fighting to the end”, she says.
Living in a country that has known political and military turmoil, Mrs. Kossianga has had to make a lot of sacrifices to visit local provinces to work with women’s groups. With limited funding, visiting remote areas particularly those beyond 1200km of the Capital is but a labor of love – she often has to use her own resources to do that. Her salary as a school teacher and additional incomes from odd jobs are what enable her to meet the demands of her children including school fees and to supplement the organization as necessary.
She works with more than 10,000 women in the entire country. She encourages women to participate without taking sides, in the national Reconciliation processes in crisis time in order to link them to decision making in churches and the society. She also encourages women to improve their ability to manage themselves and others especially the elderly, orphans and pygmies who are dependent on humanitarian support.
Now, training is oriented to development and capacity building, including HIV/AIDS awareness. She helps women of her organization to participate in income generating activities by initiating micro-projects and micro-credits thus contributing to sustainable development. She helps them in the fight against HIV/ AIDS in the family and religious environments.
For instance after several seminars on HIV/AIDS, women volunteered themselves for testing, and committed to using preventive methods in Christian environment (use of condoms). They realized that with a prevalence level of 15% no one was safe in the country.
The Union is well organized; she has a staff composed of 15 members with whom she holds regular follow up meetings. Once a year, the national conference brings all regions in the capital on a specific theme with the ecclesiastic, administrative authorities and the organizations such as the Women Jurists, Fuap, FAO and Unicef participating.
The lady’s functions have attracted attention in the high places. She is usually requested by the government to participate in preliminary meetings for the National Dialogue as a representative of the civil society, and to prepare for the National Women’s’ Congress linking the government to the International Women Days.
Through the organization, she collaborates with government to educate women on the United Nations Convention on Eradication of all forms of Discrimination Against Women CEDAW. (1000peacewomen).
Le but du Projet ‘Femmes de Paix autour du Monde’ est de rendre visible et de faire reconnaître, mais aussi de protéger les femmes pour leur engagement pour la paix car trop souvent elles y risquent leur propre sécurité. L’un des défis a été de pérenniser le travail de paix réalisé par les femmes. Ainsi, un groupe de chercheurs avait eu à analyser les 1000 biographies de ces femmes et les a fait paraître dans un livre intitulé « 1000 Peace womens across the globe». C’est donc une référence pour les ONGs, organisations humanitaires, réseaux de paix, réseaux de femmes et institutions officielles. Les femmes disposent aujourd’hui d’une plate forme où communiquer avec leurs pairs de partout le monde. Au delà de ces aspects, le Projet « Femmes de Paix Autour du Monde » se propose de présenter à l’occasion de la Journée internationale de la Paix 2007, 1000 nouvelles femmes actives pour la paix. Nous nous donnons rendez vous. (texte entier, Mme. Léontine Fininguinza, dans ‘Le Confident‘).
Sorry, beside more ‘1000peacewomen’-mentions I can’t find other informations about Simone Clara Kossianga in the Internet.