Catégorie : 1000 women Peace Nobel 2005

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

Guo Jianmei was born in 1961, and has been engaged in the protection of women’s rights, and related research. In 1995 she initiated the establishment of the Center for Women’s Law Studies and Legal Services of Peking University. This center provides free legal aid, and endeavors to develop the protection of the rights of women in need in China. It has contributed greatly to the progress made by lawyers and NGO’s working for civil rights.

She asks: « If laws cannot protect poor and helpless persons like my litigant, why should we lawyers exist? »

GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY: HOW WOMEN ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE, THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE WOMEN’S FORUM ASIA, Shanghai, the Pudong Shangri La hotel, 15-17 May 2008: confirmed speakers, and public program.

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Jianmei Guo – China

She works for the Center for Women’s Law Studies and Legal Services of Peking University.

After she became a lawyer for public legal aid, the first case that Guo Jianmei took was of a woman trying to pursue a lawsuit for her son; on her way to Beijing, a car knocked her down, causing damage in the clavicle and lumbar regions and blinding her in one eye. According to all relevant departments, the other party in the accident should have taken full responsibility but they paid merely 30 thousand yuan, which was a pittance – an artificial eye would have cost 100 thousand yuan. To make matters worse, the 30 thousand yuan was later stolen. Guo was devoted to the case. The procurator script was over 10 thousand characters and Guo gave it her best, debating vigorously in court.

This was the first case that Guo took up after the establishment of the Women’s Laws Research and Service Center in the Law School of Peking University. And it was during the proceedings of this case that she became determined to be a lawyer for public legal aid.

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Linked with SEARCH.org.

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

Rani Bang’s work in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra has changed the face of the tribal pockets in the area. Where healthcare was once nonexistent, there are now a friendly hospital, experienced healthworkers, and trained traditional birth attendants. Rani also worked actively towards reviving traditional medicine, realizing that community mobilization combined with the optimum use of existing facilities is the only way to solve the crises in the interior areas, largely overlooked by policy and planners alike. (1000peacewomen).

She says: « Rani Bang’s forte is her responsiveness to what the people identify as priority areas of concern. She uses research to understand their needs, and then uses community-based solutions to solve them ».

National Award for Women’s Development through application of Science & Technology Conferred on Dr. Rani Bang.

Like many great medical breakthroughs, Drs. Abhay and Rani Bang’s discovery of how to reduce child deaths in the developing world as much as 75% came from a deceptively simple premise … (full text).

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Abhay and Rani Bang – India

She works for the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (Search).

Two hundred kilometers to the south of Nagpur lies Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra. It is located on the borders of Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. This area is known to be one of the most backward regions of Maharashtra. In this forlorn place, a brilliant doctor couple, in their fifties, has been working for over two decades, taking medical care to the poor people … (full text).

Her profile on Ashoka.
Dr. Rani Bang comes from a family with strong commitment to medical and public service. She is also the daughter-in-law of well-known Gandhian Takurdas Bang. She completed her medical degree in India with several gold medals, and went on to Johns Hopkins University in the US for a Masters in Public Health.

Having obtained the degree, Rani returned to India. In the early 1980s, she and her husband, Dr. Abhay Bang, decided to relocate to the internal tribal pockets of Maharashtra. Abhay and Rani set up the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) to provide community healthcare to the tribes in Gadchiroli district.

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Linked with my today’s comment on the China-Occident/France relation: China versus Occident/France = the WE versus the I.

And, to increase the awarness of the big variation of all chinese people, please go also to the China country’s sumary of this blog (scroll down to China).

All five 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. Xiaoliang Li – China

She says: « Only by understanding why people do certain things, and with their genuine needs as the point of departure, can we change behavior and thinking, and effectively contain the spread of Aids ».

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She works for the Yunnan Medical University.

Li Xiaoliang is Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine at Junming Medical College, and a specialist at the Yunnan Health and Development Research Center. From 1989 she has been giving extensive training on the prevention and control of Aids. Not only has she worked on training materials for teachers, she has also developed peer training for young people, and aroused much public concern on issues of health and sexuality. Such work represents is a breakthrough in a society where sex and Aids are taboo subjects. (1000PeaceWomen).

any links:

HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Yunnan, 26 pages;

There are links with this name for Machine Intelligence, specific Software, chinese language, maternal health, music … etc.

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2. Sihai Long – China

She says: « I believe what I have done has changed the way many women and children look at themselves and the world … We can not only master our own fate, we can also change the environment in which we live … ”.

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She works in the Bureau of Justice in Yunnan province.

Her work on advocacy of legal rights led her to set up a support center for women and children of ethnic minorities – particularly those who are abducted or suffering from Aids in southwest China. Long Sihai also organizes touring programs aimed at working to prevent abduction. These involve not only the support center, but also the Bureau of Justice, education departments, the Office of Legal Advocacy, provincial television stations, and arts troupes of the Dai national minority. (1000PeaceWomen).

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

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3. Lihong Shi – China

She says: « All people have ideals. Daring or not daring to realize their ideals is the vital difference between idealists and idle dreamers. In this sense, I am an idealist daring to realize my own ideal ».

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She works for the Global Environment Institute,
and for the Green Plateau Institute.

Shi Lihong, an environmental activist, is responsible for the Global Environment Institute and is executive director of Wild China. She is very active in nongovernmental environmental protection. One of the ways she contributes to the campaign for environmental protection is by making documentary films on the subject. (1000PeaceWomen).

Any Links:

Festival of Nature.org, 2007;

wild screen festival 2008;

There are many texts with the name Lihong Shi, but none seems to fit with our peacewomen.

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4. Zhongxun Liu – China

She says: « If we do not fight for our rights, we can never get them ».

.. sorry, there exists no photo of Zhongxun Liu, China. Click on the rose for greater size.

Born in 1971, Liu Zhongxun grew up in a village beside the Yangtze river. She fights to protect her rights and dignity as a citizen. She resists the unreasonable rules and regulations made by local governments, and brings the local cadres who tyrannize peasants to court. She has no fear of threats, and with law and perseverance, she wins trials. She speaks from a sense of justice for the villagers, and does her best to disseminate knowledge about laws. (1000PeaceWomen).

any links: no.

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5. Xiuyun Shang – China

She says: « Transforming one more person means some more peace for society. This will benefit generations today and in the future. I must commit all my strength and my heart ».

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She works for the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing

Shang Xiuyun (62) is a communist party member and Deputy Presiding Judge of the second court in the People’s Court of Haidian District, Beijing. Known as ‘Mother Judge’, she has transformed a large number of juvenile delinquents, encouraging them to study and take part in ordinary activities. (1000PeaceWomen).

any links:

Juvenile delinquency sparks concern;

Judge Mother Shang Xiuyun;

Experts call for more Internet laws to protect teenagers.

Linked with Articles for Indigenous Peoples on our blogs, with UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

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

Educator Concita Maia (1951) is the founder and president of the Articulated Movement of Women from the Amazon (Mama), a feminist and environmental NGO that unites and strengthens women from the Legal Amazon, a region formed by nine states and with an area of five million square kilometers. There are 117 indigenous, Afro-Brazilian and Caucasian groups with whom Concita discusses themes such as female health, education, violence, environment and income generation.

She says: « Working as a network strengthens us and gives us conditions to propose public policies that contemplate our reality, our Amazonic cultural diversity and our dreams ».

Concita Maia anda toda a razão de tanta satisfação é que esse mês ela é destaque na revista “Naturamov” como uma das 51 brasileira que estão concorrendo coletivamente, juntamente com mulheres de 152 paises, ao Nobel da Paz, o mais importante prêmio do mundo concedido a pessoas que se destacam nas áreas de economia, química, medicina, literatura, física e paz. (UOL.com).

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Concita Maia – Brazil

She works for the Movimento Articulado de Mulheres da Amazônia MAMA (named on Associação Brasileira de Organizações não Governamentais ABONG; on CIRADR; on Table of indigenous organizations in Brazil; on Especial Página 20 … and on many more).

Forbidden by her Caucasian mother of talking about her origins, Concita Maia silently held on to the history of her paternal grandmother. She was an indigenous who was hunted down and marked, on her arm, with the letters FC, which are the initials of the man who stole her freedom. Her grandmother was given as a present to another man with whom she had many children, including Concita’s father.

“My mom denied my indigenous background. It did not matter. It runs in my blood”. Popular education was the means that Concita found to take women like her grandmother away from “invisibility”. “Women who live in the depths of the forest and who are not even a part of the population data of the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics)”. In the 80’s, as a graduate and postgraduate in pedagogy, Concita moved to a tribe located along the border with Peru, where she implanted Acre’s first indigenous school.

One year later, when she returned to the capital, Rio Branco, she widened the militancy for the fight for the rights of women from the Amazon.

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(Seems the following statement concerns ‘our’ Rose Chiwambo, Malawi: … ‘last night they spelt veteran politician Rose Chibambo’s name as Chiwambo. Any editor worth his or her salt would know that is incorrect … Austin Madinga, Malawi, Oct. 9, 2007, on his blog … ‘.

This is correct: there are texts about Rose Chibambo in the internet).

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

Rose Chiwambo (77) was born in Kafukule in Mzimba District. She is the first Malawian woman to hold a cabinet post. She was appointed Deputy Minister of Community and Social Development in 1963 after winning the Mzimba South seat. She began mobilizing Malawian women in 1952 into a political force. She fled the country in 1964 following a cabinet crisis. She stayed in exile for 30 years, until her return in 1993 at the advent of multi-party politics. She is now settled in Mzuzu doing charity work, concentrating on HIV/Aids prevention.

She says: « I don’t believe in putting children in orphanages. You alienate them from the protective environment of the family. Giving orphans some sense of hope is worth every energy and time ».

She says also: “It’s pathetic, especially here in Mzuzu where traditional practices worsen the irresponsible ‘city life. People need education on the impact of HIV and AIDS. Behavioral change must be seriously addressed because closing down the dozens of ‘rest houses’ is not a solution. Alongside promiscuity, there are traditional practices including circumcision, polygamy, ear-piercing and tattooing, widow inheritance, forced marriages that must be tackled ».

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Sorry, I can not find any photo of Rose Chiwambo (Chibambo), Malawi in the internet.

She works for Church Action Relief Development Card.

When Mzuzu town, the only major town in the northern region of Malawi, was raised from town to city status in 1985, northerners thought it a big joke. In hushed voices, away from strangers, they quipped that their president had a sense of humor. “How can a town with a population of 50,000 with only one-storey buildings and a main street of 300 meters of tarmac be a city!” they asked. The ‘Dead North’ as the region was described in the colonial era, changed very little during Banda’s rule. Twenty years into independence, little had changed, except for a Chinese-built referral hospital and a university.

With the advent of pluralism in 1994 and liberalized trade, Mzuzu’s population was transformed. The opening of the ‘Northern Corridor’ – a modern tarmac road that connects the country to the important port of Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean in Tanzania, has seen Mzuzu become an important transit city. Huge trucks, laden with goods rumble through it day and night headed to and fro the capital city, Blantyre, 200 miles south. Tanzanians and other regional citizens trade cheap goods and wares from Dar es Salaam along the border for retailing in Mzuzu.

Entrepreneurs from Blantyre, Lilongwe and other towns converge in Mzuzu to buy goods that from clothes, hardware to cosmetics. The market square is called ‘Taifa Market’ so dubbed due to the hundreds of Tanzanian women who trade here. Taifa means nation in Tanzania’s national language, Kiswahili. The economic boom, however, has brought its vices. There are no official statistics, but the high prevalence on HIV and AIDS is attributed to the city’s prosperity. Like other parts of Malawi, HIV/AIDS has wrought havoc in communities, leaving behind thousands of destitute orphans, widows, widowers and old people.

Unfortunately, the family’s breadwinner is usually the victim.

Continuer la lecture de « Rose Chiwambo (Chibambo) – Malawi »

She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
Violet Chavula is the women’s coordinator with the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (Ccap), in charge of Blantyre presbytery. After living in London for several years, she moved to a remote village in Malawi. She is engaged in advocacy for the rights of girls and women and the protection of orphans.

She says: « Influencing age-old tradition requires one’s patience and perseverance. You must be humble, use tact and respect their beliefs ».

She says also: « When you educate a man you educate an individual, when you educate a woman you educate a whole family », Charles D. McIver’s words epitomize Violet Chavula’s passion.

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Sorry, I can not find any photo of Violet Chavula, Malawi in the internet.

She works for the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian Ccap.

Violet, 70, has dedicated her life to empowering women and girls and caring for orphans.

As the women’s coordinator with the Presbyterian Church in Blantyre presbytery, she champions equal rights for girls and women using a holistic approach.

Violet begins by encouraging women in the spiritual walk. From bible studies to women fellowship meetings, “The fear of God,” Violet says, “is the beginning of wisdom.”

Violet runs adult literacy classes for women. Education as a sound foundation for self-growth and community development cannot be emphasized enough.

But without food security, education appears futile. Violet trains women in basic agriculture. “I teach these women how to improve and sustain good harvest using basic agriculture methods like making compost manure. There is enough for the family’s nourishment and the surplus is sold for other household uses”.

Continuer la lecture de « Violet Chavula – Malawi »

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

She was born a peasant and indigenous woman (1952). She tended the sheep and cows and cultivated potatoes and broad beans. She learned to read late. She was a reading promoter. She established Mother’s Clubs where women could be trained. She unified the efforts of different organizations working to support the communities. She was arrested, tortured and was obliged to flee the country. She became a paramedic and returned to help the poor of Bolivia. She is Nicolasa Machaca.

She says: « Beautiful is my land from the outside. Bitter inside with its oppressed children ».

She says also: “Now, we have enough trees in my community. And we know how to take care of them to avoid erosion. We have transplanted some of them onto the river bank”.

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Nicolasa Machaca Alejandro – Bolivia

She works for the Tomás Katari Polytechnic Institute (named on Cambridge Univ.Press), for the Juana Azurduy Center,
and for the Small Milk Producers Association.

And she says: “I worked at a training centre for women directing courses, among other things on dress making and health and gender matters”.

Nicolasa Machaca Alejandro is 15 years old, a little shepherdess in Bolivia. She has woven herself a poncho and her mother has woven a skirt to her. She wears a man’s hat, as is customary for the indigenous women of her land. She is very pretty. She does not know much about the world. She goes to a meeting of the Mother’s Club of the Caritas Catholic Association.

It is 1970. She is not yet a mother, and hardly knows the Lord’s Prayer. But they give courses in reading and this calls out to her.

Now as time goes by, she remembers her childhood in a song:

• “Aquel ranchito donde he nacido en rinconcito
• Pobre he nacido, pobre he crecido con mis ovejitas en aquellas lomitas
• A mi ranchito un día caminito
• Por eso se olvidan de mi existencia
• Por eso se olvidan de mi existencia”.
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She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

Creuza Maria Oliveira (1957) became a domestic worker at age ten. Her first payment, which was worthless, came at 15. As thousands of Brazilian children, she increased the child labor statistics. As not many of them were able to do, she changed her life. President of the National Federation of Domestic Workers FENATRAD, she is currently a national role model in the fight for the rights of her working class, for racial equality and for the elimination of child domestic labor.

She says: « We, women, are responsible for changing this society. How can we live in a country that turns its back on 500.000 children and teenagers being abused”.

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Creuza Maria Oliveira – Brazil

She works for the Federação Nacional das Trabalhadoras Domésticas FENATRAD (named: on Ministerio do Trabalho e Emprego; on ADITAL; on Trabalhadoras Domésticas no Brasil) / (she is President of) the National Federation of Domestic Workers.

In Brazil, half a million kids and teenagers between 5 and 18 years old are domestic workers. They have to leave their toys and books behind, in order to support themselves. Creuza Maria Oliveira is the portrait of something that still happens all over Brazil. “A lot of girls leave school, move out of their families’ house, and lose touch with children of their age and social class. As they grow up, their only role model is their employer.”

Creuza used to live in the countryside in the hinterland of Bahia. There was not enough food for everyone. Her mother sent her to the city. She used to cook, clean and do the laundry seven days a week. This lonely life lasted until she was 26, when she found out, through a radio show, that domestic workers were meeting to discuss their rights.

In 1985, along with her colleagues, she created an association. They joined leaderships from other states and managed to include domestic worker’s rights in the new 1988 Brazilian Constitution. She founded the Union of Domestic Workers of Bahia and she also founded the National Federation of Domestic Workers, presided by her.

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

Born in 1939 in Kabul, Benazir Hotaki attended Malalai School in Kabul. After her graduation from high school, she traveled to Australia where she obtained a BA in Education from the University of Queensland. Upon completion of her degree, she returned to Afghanistan and served as an educator in several schools. She is one of the few women who were able to study abroad. Hotaki was also involved in the reconciliation process between the government and different opposition groups in the years 1985-1986 … (1000peacewomen).

She says: « As an advocate of the women’s rights movement in Afghanistan, I am very optimistic about the future of the country ».

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Benazir Hotaki – Afghanistan

She works for the Ministry of Information and Culture MIC. Its contact.

She says also:  » … We’re caged, » says Benazir Hotaki, former principal of a Kabul high school. « All doors are closed to us. All we can do is cook. We’re not human beings any longer. We only eat, drink, and sleep, like animals »… (full long text).

After the completion of her degree, Hotaki returned to Afghanistan and was appointed as a teacher in Malalai School. She also served as the headmistress and principle of several schools in Kabul. During her career as an educator, she was awarded numerous medals of Honor, certificates and commendations, including four times ‘the teacher of the year’ and once ‘the mother of the year’. She also represented Afghanistan on sixteen occasions as the cultural and political emissary of the country.

In 2003 Hotaki represented the Ministry of Information and Culture in an educational seminar in Tokyo, Japan. As a pioneer of women’s movement in the country, she has published extensively in different academic journals. She continued her activities and advocacy of peace and reconciliation between warring factions during the brutal Taliban regime, when women were banned from education and employment. Hotaki was eventually forced to seek refuge in Pakistan, and to continue her activities in exile.

Currently she serves as a member and head of the Council of Media at the Ministry of Information and Culture. Her main aim is to encourage women to take part in the peace efforts and reconstruction process in Afghanistan, two key elements she always emphasizes in workshops and meetings. She also props equal rights of women in both social and political spheres. (1000peacewomen).

… Such plays met with mixed reviews and Benazir Hotaki in the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs remembers that audiences were often loud in their approval or disdain … (full text).

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

Honduras, Tegucigalpa, 1935. A middle-class girl is born. Both her parents are schoolteachers, as were her grandmother and her great-grandmother. As time goes by, she will become a lawyer. But time turns things around and Leticia de Oyuela becomes a historian, which means that, in her own way, she also becomes a teacher. “The greatest richness I have enjoyed has been my childhood”, she says with a smile, sitting in her wheelchair. However, reading her biography, you will think that the greatest richness has been her own life. Because Leticia Silva Rodríguez de Oyuela has arrived at her achievements, honors and titles, through her suffering.

She says: « Nietzsche was right when he said that history is life. History is a civilizing influence » … and: « I was born into a small, bourgeois family. All the women in my family were teachers. I learned to read when I was 4 years old. At 9 I knew almost all the classics. All the reading I did gave me a background that made me feel a little different. The study of Literature is unquestionably a way of seeing history”.

Her book: El NAIF EN HONDURAS, [Novedad Librería Guaymuras] Agosto 2007, Leticia de Oyuela, 2007, ISBN 978-99926-618-5-7, 118 p.: Coedición de la Secretaría de Cultura Artes y Deportes, la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia,y la Cultura (UNESCO),y la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional … (full text).

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Irma Leticia Silva Rodríguez de Oyuela – Honduras

She works for the National Autonomous University of Honduras, for the Center-American Chamber of the Book, and for the International Institute for the Conservation of Monuments.

But we must recognize that the seed of all her aspirations was there when she was a child ». The habit of reading has become her true passion. They lived in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. The house was enormous and they had many relatives who often visited. There were also visits from imaginary friends. Through their books they received visits from Malaysian pirates, and even from captain Nemo who was submerged in the deep seas. The adobe walls of the house with its tiles on the roof, were « wonderful watchtowers ». « How many times we climbed on to the roofs and, evading the vigilance of our parents, we travelled through our neigbourhood looking at the houses and their inhabitants ». The inhabitants, who were in the main hard working women, were remembered by Leticia in her book « Las sin Remedio ».

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