Catégorie : 1000 women Peace Nobel 2005

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Gege Katana Bukuru (44) is called the “Iron lady” in Uvira, South Kivu province, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She earned this name for her courageous activism for women’s rights and the rights of other oppressed people. She has been imprisoned several times and witnessed others being tortured. Despite the pain of being betrayed, Gege will not abandon her people …

She says: « What gives me energy is the success in the setting-up of peace centers in villages: our principle of non-violence in action ».

She says also: … « Among the constraints and the threats I have faced are torture and intimidation, and lack of freedom of movement from 1996 to 2003 … and: « there has been high treaso” by other women whose ambitions were to divide and rule through ethnic divisions. Other colleagues, friends and neighbors abandoned me for fear of threats by different armed groups” … (1000peacewomen 1/2)

Lives blown apart: Despite the desperate situation in DRC much good work goes on. Gégé Katana Bukuru has set up an organisation for training women activists and helping people stand up for their rights.

Watch a video of an interview with Gégé Katana Bukuru, Sofad.

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Gege Katana Bukuru – Dem. Rep. Congo

She works for the Solidarity of Activist Women for Human Rights SOFAD.

… She has lived through robbery, systematic looting of her belongings and trauma. Despite the pain and the odds, Gege picks herself up, forgives and continues to unite people. She is driven by a desire to serve her people.

She is the eldest daughter of a traditional chief, Katana, who instilled in her a strong conscience of her responsibilities toward her people.Gege is religious, though not very verbal about it. Her deep spiritual life enables her to sacrifice even when others abandon her. Her belief in God helps her focus on her tasks despite her personal shortcomings. She can identify people and circumstances that are resourceful for her activities. Her ability to express herself clearly and simply earns her the respect of even her opponents. Her frail appearance hides her perseverance and the strong will that has earned her the nickname “Iron Lady”.

Gege holds a degree from the National University. She was trained in the Pedro Freire Method in Mauritius in 1983 and has attended group advisor training at the Iwacu centre in Rwanda in 1990. In 1991 she attended training at the Pan African Institute. She has also conducted research and participatory training in ARDI in Kigali and rural mobilization from the Study, Research and Documentation Centre in 1992. She has been involved in the defense and protection of human rights since 1981. Gege’s other activities involve the structuring the rural environment, providing adult education and promoting community development.

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She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Venantie Bisimwa Nabintu (45) is the executive secretary of Women’s Network for Justice and Peace (Rfdp) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since 1992, Rfdp has fought against all forms of discrimination and violence against women and other vulnerable members of society. She is a human rights activist and she mobilizes women to repel violence.

She says: « In our discriminative societies there are women, including traditional ones, who have become role models because they manage public property in a satisfactory manner ».

She adds: « With sustained hope any action, however small, towards building a just society, will give chances to women. That society will already have sown seeds for needed change ».

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Sorry, I found no photo of Venantie Bisimwa Nabintu – Dem. Republic of the Congo

She works for Women Network for Justice, Rfdp (no website). She works also as executive secretary for the Réseau des Femmes pour la Défense des Droits et la Paix.

Venantie Bisimwa (45) is convinced that the world was created for men and women and she should not have to ask for permission to live better. She is a human rights activist and the Executive Secretary of Women Network for Justice and Peace (RFPD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

A married mother of three, Venantie holds a university degree. Her professional experience helps her encourage other women, who in her opinion, benefit the society and must therefore be valued. She notes: “In our discriminative societies there are women, including traditional ones who became role models because they managed public property in a satisfactory manner.” These examples she says impelled her to form two women NGOs.

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All these four last chinese women are a part of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005. Unfortuntely there were provided only some few lines about their work and biography. Regardless here the few we may know:
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1. Xuan Wang – China

She says: « The bacteriological warfare of the Japanese army was not only a crime on the Chinese people, it was a war crime against humanity ».

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In 1995, Wang Xuan joined the Japanese bacteriological warfare fact-finding mission. After a lawsuit of seven years, the Japanese court for the first time admitted the fact that Japan had used bacteriological weapons on the Chinese people during its invasion of China in Word War II. With her mission Wang Xuan upholds the dignity of victims, lives and the pride of the Chinese nation. (1000PeaceWomen).

any links: There are links with this name in the internet, but obviously not concerning our peacewomen.

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2. Yuzhen Yin – China

She says: « I would rather die of fatigue from fighting the sand than be bullied by the sand and wind ».

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Yin Yuzhen has worked with an indomitable spirit for years, turning desert area into an oasis with more than 300,000 trees over nearly 10,000 acres. Seeking expert advice, with various other resources and by holding family symposiums, she created a scientific method for effective sand area restoration. (1000PeaceWomen).

any links: no, beside being mentioned in the 1000 peacewomen-project

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3. Guimei Zhang – China

She says: « The children gave me the honor of being a teacher, the consolation of being a mother, and the happiness of being a woman. My life is in my teaching ».

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She works for the Minzhu Middle School (?), and for the Hua Ping Children’s Home.

Zhang Guimei is a teacher working in a destitute ethnic minority region. Regardless of the difficulties and sorrow of losing her husband and being ill herself, she has brought up and educated 54 orphans. Her students have not quit school and neither have they suffered from poverty. (1000PeaceWomen).

any Links: There are links with this name in the internet, but not sure if concerning our peacewomen.

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4. Fenglan Liu – China

She says: « Villagers’ rights are not given, but gained through struggle. Benefits cannot be protected by relying on others, but by being active ».

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Liu Fenglan, an ordinary woman from Baishihang Village, Zhaoyuan City, Shangdong Province, has spent virtually her entire life in the service of others, offering and giving help whenever she can. She shares her gains and experiences without reserve because her dream is to live in a world that is full of love, and where life is peaceful and serene. (1000PeaceWomen).

any links: There are links with this name in the internet, but not sure if concerning our peacewomen.

Linked with Fokupers.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Activist, leader, civil servant, and founder of the women’s organization, Fokupers, Maria Fernandes began her life’s work for human rights and justice for East Timor in high school. She was instrumental in mobilizing the population to vote during the UN-sponsored referendum for independence in 1999 and organized the first National Women’s Congress in 2000 that produced a National Platform for Action. She currently serves as the Director of the Office for the Promotion of Equality and directly advises the Prime Minister on all issues relating to gender equality. Her activism began in high school. She went on to become a prominent leader of the women’s resistance movement against Indonesia’s occupation of Timor-Leste, following the invasion in 1975. (1000peacewomen).

She says: « I feel that this is a big responsibility and I am grateful for the trust given to me, after considering the many opinions and trying to understand better the fight for women’s emancipation » … (full text, 11 October 2001).

Timor-Leste: Humanitarian update, 21 Apr – 09 may 2008.

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Maria Domingas Fernandes Alves – East Timor

She works for Fokupers.

Maria Fernandes was one of the main women leaders organizing resistance activities against Indonesian occupation of Timor Leste, after the invasion in 1975. When her child died, as did hundreds of other children, of a suspected overdose administered in the Indonesian campaign to kill off the Timorese people, Maria and her husband sent information to international organizations to highlight the abuses and try to prevent further deaths.

When her husband was imprisoned by the Indonesian administration, Maria had to raise and provide for her children alone but she continued to support the resistance movement against the Indonesian occupation, and more particularly against the abuses women were suffering.

She helped set up the Popular Organization of Timorese Women (OPMT) and worked as a civil servant in the Department of Industry and Commerce, a dual role that involved many risks to her personal safety.

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Linked with Act Now for Harmony and Democracy ANHAD, and with Campaign Pains.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Shabnam Hashmi (born 1957 in Aligarh, a small town about 80 miles from Delhi) has worked for more than 20 years to combat communalism in India. She was associated with the creation and running of Sahmat, formed by artists and intellectuals in memory of her activist brother, who was murdered while performing a street play in 1989. After the Gujarat carnage, she understood the need for an outfit to systematically counter fascist propaganda, and the NGO Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (Anhad) was born in March 2003. Working voluntarily and without fees and with limited funds, Shabnam has emerged as a single-person pressure group. She was the youngest of five children. Although her family belonged to Delhi, Partition reduced her grandfather’s business to ruin.

She says: « The fascist forces are very organized and gaining ground. It is a battle for the hearts and minds of the people ».

Statement of Facts.

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Shabnam Hashmi – India

She works for Act Now for Harmony and Democracy ANHAD.

While some relatives decided to move to Pakistan, her father, Haneef Hashmi, decided to stay put: he had much at stake, having spent years as a student leader, as well as four years in British jails during the freedom movement. Faced with a deep financial crisis, the family decided to relocate to Aligarh.

While Haneef joined the university, her mother, Qamar, who came from a highly-educated family of writers and poets, soon found life in Aligarh claustrophobic. The Muslim clerics in the area had started objecting to the fact of her oldest daughter walking around in frocks and skirts. Disgusted, Qamar shifted to Delhi and took up a job as a school principal.

In 1964, she brought her children to Delhi. The family had just about enough wherewithal for three meals a day; all the children went to government schools. In 1969, Haneef also found a job in Delhi as editor of a magazine.

Shabnam was brought up on the stories of the freedom struggle and of World War II and classical literature. The first book that made a deep impression on her, when she was 13 years old, was The Diary of Anne Frank. By the time she finished school, she had read most Soviet, Russian, and English classical literature.

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he is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India exhortation as a youngster, Mrinal Gore (born 1928) chucked in a promising career in medicine to devote herself to organizing the poor and the disenfranchised. For more than half a century, she has been involved with a series of organizations and leading protests both on the streets and in the corridors of power, focusing on women’s rights, civil rights, communal harmony, and trade union activities. She was fortunate to have had extremely enlightened parents: her father was a professor of physics at Mumbai’s Elphinstone College, and her mother came from a family of intellectuals. Of her six other siblings, three went on to become doctors and two engineers … It is said: Mrinal Gore’s sacrifice of her medical career for lifelong social activism was one of a kind with postindependence idealism and the establishment of a democratic superstructure of governance. (1000peacewomen).

Known as a political reformer, Mrnal Gore was a member of the Bombay Municipal Corporation. As a politician, she constantly brought into focus the woes of the common woman, earning the admiration of the masses. For her vociferous protests against water shortages in the city she was called Mumbai’s ‘Paaniwali Bai’. She had won the election with the largest margin of votes ever in Maharashtra. (women in politics online).

A Socialist State leader, (she) was a Member of Parliament, Member of State Legislature and Mumbai Municipal Corporation, uninterruptedly from 1961 to 1990. A staunch supporter for Women’s empowerment and is in public life as a socialist since 1948. (Nagari Nivara Parishad).

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Mrinal Gore – India

She works for Swadhar (named on Gov.India, and on NIC.in ), and for the Keshav Gore Smarak Trust KGST (described on MIT.edu, USA, and on AIDprojects.org, India).

Oral History Recordings, Women In Progressive Movements, Mrinal’s short statement: click on ‘Hear the audio‘.

It was during a family vacation to the nearby town of Palghar that Mrinal came in contact with the Rashtriya Seva Dal RSD (named on UNIFICATION OF HINDUS), a voluntary organization connected with the Indian National Congress. At the time, India’s freedom struggle was at its height, and the atmosphere was charged by Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India exhortation.

Mrinal had taken up medicine for her higher studies, and although a brilliant student, she decided to drop her academic career in favor of devoting herself to organizing the poor and the disenfranchised. She had passed the first MBBS examinations with flying colors, but in 1947, the year of Independence, Mrinal departed medical college, choosing to become a fulltimer with the RSD, organizing housewives for sociopolitical work.

She spent a year with the Congress, leaving in 1948 with a group of Socialist youngsters who decided to form the Socialist Party, which became a critical thorn in the Congress party’s flesh. The same year, Mrinal married Socialist leader Keshav « Bandhu » Gore. The two were from different castes and were breaking the prevalent caste taboo by marrying. The Gores lived and worked in Goregaon, a rural area that has now become part of suburban Mumbai.

In 1950, Mrinal joined the Goregaon Mahila Mandal * as its secretary. The Mahila Mandal worked for the uplift of women in the area; in 1951, the organization put in place the Family Planning Center under Mrinal’s guidance. She was a step ahead of the Indian government, which introduced its family planning programs only in 1952.

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Linked with The Salesian Sisters, and with North Eastern Community Health Association NECHA.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Sister Elizabeth Edattukaran was born in 1938 into a humble Christian family in village Malla, Trichur district, Kerala. She has worked fearlessly and relentlessly under the most trying circumstances, and at considerable personal risk, to provide healthcare and relief to people affected by conflict and violence in northeast India. She has also been instrumental in setting into motion several conflict resolution initiatives, and in providing livelihood options to women affected by ethnic violence. Her deep faith in god and her humane touch have helped dispel much of the fear and distrust that result from endemic conflicts.

It is said: In many, many ways, Sister Elizabeth personifies the words « in the service of God », bringing together two neighboring communities separated by ethnic distrust.

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sorry, we have no photo of Elizabeth Edattukaran, India

She works for the Salesian Sisters.

She had six siblings. From her parents, who were both very involved with social service, she absorbed the Christian values of giving and service to society.

Elizabeth is trained to be a nurse and holds a PCBSc degree in nursing. She has also obtained a diploma in administration, and higher training in geriatric nursing. She has worked in Northeast India since 1956, founding the Rapsun School of Nursing in 1979 (which she handed over to the Holy Cross Sisters in 1988).

Since 1984, Elizabeth has been directly involved with providing health services and relief to people affected by violence. The ethnic violence in the Northeast deeply disturbed her: during the eponymous 1984 Nellie massacre of an immigrant community in Assam, she was an important player in healing the wounded and the affected. She was also key in the rehabilitation work that followed an upsurge of ethnic violence in Meghalaya. In 1985, she received a presidential award for her exemplary services.

Since 1991, Elizabeth has been working under very difficult circumstances in Assam’s Kokrajhar district. In 1996, when communal and ethnic violence erupted in the area, she immersed herself completely in providing much-needed medical and emotional support to the broken communities. She is deeply involved in healthcare, with a special focus on reproductive health for the most marginalized tribal communities.

Elizabeth has also been instrumental in setting into motion confidence-building and conflict-resolution initiatives. An intercultural peace meet was organized, with her as a key member of the committee. She played a leadership role in providing basic necessities, healthcare, and trauma-counseling to victims who had witnessed the killings of their dearest ones. Equally remarkable is her work on enhancing skills and providing livelihood options to women affected by ethnic violence.
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Linked with When culture kills – Urvashi Butalia’s View From the South, and with Pratham.org – India.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Urvashi Butalia, born 1952 in Ambala in Punjab, is the face and voice of feminist literature and publishing in India. In 1984, she set up Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house, from a little office in a garage and with almost no funds. Two decades later, Kali has succeeded in bringing to the fore the marginalized voices of Indian women. Her parents, Subhadra and Joginder Butalia, had relocated to what became India after Partition when The Tribune, where Joginder worked, had shifted there. Her mother began as a teacher, and taught both at school and university.

She says: « Early in my life I realized that knowledge is a most powerful weapon, and the silence of women across the world was premised on the denial of knowledge and information ».

Find her on wikipedia.

She is a consultant for Oxfam India.

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Urvashi Butalia – India

She works for Kali for Women (Feminist Publishing in Asia), which is part of Zubaan Books.

The third of two brothers and a sister, Urvashi was brought up to believe in honesty and self-reliance. Her mother worked even as she bore four children, and looked after her own brother and sister, who became refugees after Partition. Urvashi’s parents brought up their children with no thought to gender inequity.

They were all educated in a co-educational school. When her father was offered a job with The Times of India in Delhi, Urvashi and her sister Bela went to a girls’ school where their mother taught, and where education for them was free.

Urvashi earned a Masters in literature from Delhi University in 1973 and a Masters in South Asian Studies in 1977 from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Involved in student politics while at university, she became leader of the students’ union in her college, Miranda House, and worked for women and girl students. She was the vanguard of a campaign for women’s colleges to become members of the Delhi University Students’ Union, until then the preserve of male students.

Urvashi participated in crusades to make the university a safer place for women, for better hostel conditions for girl students, against the commodification of women through beauty contests, and several other campaigns. It was this that led, in the early 1970s, to her involvement in the then nascent women’s movement in India, where she was initially part of a large umbrella group called Samta (Equality), the parent group that founded the journal Manushi.

Urvashi was on the original founding collective of this now-legendary journal.
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Linked with Himmat online.net / the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation CDR, and with the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy PIPFPD.

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

For more than two decades, Sushobha Barve (born 1949) has been working tirelessly, often without any organizational support, to create dialogue and reconciliation in conflict-stricken areas. Her philosophy is based on the need for reconciliation, whether it is in Maharashtra, Bihar, Sri Lanka, or Jammu and Kashmir. Sushobha believes that people do not need state agencies to solve their problems. Born in 1949 in Mumbai, she grew up in a middleclass Maharashtrian- dominated area, the Hindu Colony in Dadar, one of the older parts of the city. Her family encouraged liberal thought and unfettered questioning. Both home and school environments bolstered the spirit of service and social work. The walls of the family sitting-room were adorned with the photographs of the freedom movement’s leaders … It is said: Sushobha’s sensitive and democratic approach to conflict resolution has led to inimical communities accessing each other’s mutual survival desires, and to building bridges over choppy waters. (1000peacewomen).

Conference on JK calls for ‘truth commission’, May 7, 2008.

THE India-Pakistan peace process has been stalled for almost a year now. Its negative impact is seen most in Jammu and Kashmir where people feel discouraged and disheartened about their problem ever being resolved. It was against this gloomy backdrop that the first intra-Kashmir women’s conference, ‘Connecting women across the Line of Control’, was held in Srinagar recently. It helped to lift spirits and revive hope … (full long text).

Her book: Healing Streams: Bringing Hope in the Aftermath of Violence, by Sushobha Barve, 30 May 2003.

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Sushobha Barve – India

She works for the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation CDR (a project of Himmat online.net).

New Delhi, May 06: A conference on Kashmir has been conducted quietly for the past two days at a resort near Mehrauli off MG Road, which connects New Delhi to Gurgaon.Thirty-eight leaders from Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK), Gilgit-Balwaristan and Jammu and Kashmir are attending this meet. At the end of the first two days of deliberations, the message that has emerged is that if something concrete is not done to resolve the Kashmir dispute soon, the Valley could see another violent uprising. The strictly “closed-door” conference, organised Sushobha Barve of the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation … (full text, May 6, 2008).

Her book in Roupies.

Sushobha Barve demonstrates that communal conflict in India can be addressed through dialogue. Working in the most violence-ridden regions of her country, she engineers conversations that involve all parties in an exploration of the social and economic factors that led to their conflict, and leads them toward practical solutions. Paying no heed to those who doubt the power of discussion, she has helped feuding groups make and implement strong plans to end violence, recover from it, and avert it in the future … Sushobha plans to apply the systems and techniques she developed through years of work in hot spots like Kashmir, Malegaon and the slums of Mumbai to communal conflict in the whole of South Asia. She is now spreading her methods through programs for teachers, community leaders, police, and citizens throughout the region. (full text on ASHOKA Changemaker).

Forging New Paths in Peacemaking in Times of Conflict and Violence.
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Veteran Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande passed away in the national capital early on Thursday morning. She was 79 … (New Delhi, May 1, 2008).

Linked with Remembering Nirmala Deshpande: South Asia has lost a great crusader of peace,

She was one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Nirmila Deshpande, a well known peace crusader of India, died on May 1, 2008, after a long period of illness. She was 79-years-old and left behind so many followers who like her, wanted peace. From her early years she was a Gandhian and an enlightened person whose only aim in life was to work for the cause of humanity … Didi will be remembered for her time as a peace crusader in a region which is on the verge of self destruction by racing to acquire nuclear arms over the importance of feeding millions of poverty ridden people (full text).

She said: « Nirmala is a pioneer of peace work, especially in terms of mobilizing women and girls to engage in establishing pacifism-and the subcontinent is the net gainer » … (1000peacewomen).

She received the National Communal Harmony Award 2004.

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Veteran Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande – India (1929 – 2008)

Her official Website.

Listen her video: Nirmala Deshpande: Limitation, Complexity and Interdependenc, 5 min, June 25, 2007.

She said also: « Gandhi belongs to the world ».

She worked for All-India Harijan Sevak Sangh AIHSS (named on blogs about Harijan Sevak Sangh), for Akhil Bharat Rachanatmak Samaj ABRS, (named on her official website), and for the National Centre for Rural Development NCRD.

She helped also the Association of Peoples of Asia, the Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia WIPSA (scroll down), the Adhyatma Jagaran Manch (named on her website), and the Peoples Integration Council (named on AICC.org).

She was Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) (Nominated twice): First term from 1997-1999, Second term from 2004 onwards. (on her website).

Photo-Gallery.

(From 1000peacewomen): Nirmala Deshpande (born on 17 October 1929) was the quiet, reflectiv face of Gandhianism in a world torn apart by strife and communal hatred. A pioneer of peace work, Nirmala has been especially successful in mobilizing women and girls, founding several organizations that function as platforms for people who believe in peace and nonviolence to come together.

Also crucial were her numerous Track II initiatives to establish peace with Pakistan at a people-to-people level. To the many people whose lives she’s touched, Nirmala was known as just didi (elder sister).

She was born to P.Y. Deshpande and Vimlabhai Deshpande in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Her father, a Member of Parliament, brought her up in an open and free environment, encouraging her to take up higher studies. Nirmala did her Masters in political science, and then worked as a lecturer at Morris College, Nagpur.
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