Catégorie : 1000 women Peace Nobel 2005

Linked with The Ajoka Theatre.

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

She says: « By starting Ajoka Theatre during the strictest period of martial law, Madeeha Gauhar created an outlet for human rights activism at a time when other avenues had been blocked ».

She says also: “Some of the other prominent street and stage plays by Ajoka include Kala Qanoon which revolves around the Hudood Ordinance; Kala Meda Bhes which deals with a real-life incident in Sindh where a woman was exchanged for an ox and Dukhini which portrays the practice of women trafficking by deceiving Bangladeshi women living in rural areas to come to Pakistan” … (full text).

Find her on Google blog-search.

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Madeeha Gauhar – Pakistan

She works for the Ajoka Theatre.

If alternative theatre is today a vibrant form of political expression in Pakistan, a large share of the credit goes to Ajoka Theatre and its founder, Madeeha Gauhar, a trained theatre director and human rights activist. Led by Madeeha for over 20 years, Ajoka has been, and continues to be, an integral part of the struggle for a secular, democratic, humane, just, and egalitarian Pakistan.

Madeeha, a lecturer at a girl’s college and an activist for women’s rights, decided to start Ajoka at a time when all avenues for political expression were blocked in Pakistan. The group was born in 1983, during the repressive military regime of Zia-ul-Haq, and began modestly, operating out of the homes of its members and with money raised from personal contributions and donations by activist supporters and audiences.

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Linked with The UK Chagos Support Association, and with the Chagos Refugees Group. Also linked with UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and with Articles for Indigenous Peoples on our blogs.
She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.

She says: « Literacy is important to the people’s struggles but resilience is key for any nation to survive ».

She says also: « Depuis mon arrivée à Maurice, j’ai été de toutes les luttes, manifestations et grèves de la faim… J’ai même fait de la prison. J’ai beaucoup souffert. Mais je ne regrette rien, car aujourd’hui on commence à récolter les fruits de notre lutte ».

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Marie Lisette Talate – Mauritius

She works for the Chagos Refugees Group.

The Chagossians’ journey to Mauritius was brutal and inhuman. They were packed like sardines in a tin. “Their situation seemed to me very similar to that of Africans shipped to America as slaves. There were 150 passengers on a boat meant for fourty to fifty people, with little food or ventilation.

In Mauritius Marie Lisette Talate and her fellow Chagossians lived, and continue to live, in the worst conditions with no sewerage, drainage, electricity and water.

The area is infested with rats, mosquitoes and cockroaches. Survival in Mauritius is extremely difficult for the Chagossians. There have never been jobs, welfare services for them.

Marie Lisette Talate is a stalwart and a front-runner in human rights. She got involved in community mobilization and established community based anti-discrimination demonstrations and campaigns. She fought the British injustices unswervingly from 1973 until 2002. One of the most outstanding protest campaigns that she led was one that took two weeks on Port-Louis Street outside the British High Commission in 2000.

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Linked with the BAYTI Association, and with Interview de Madame Najat M’jid.

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

She says: « I made many personal sacrifices to achieve my life-long goal: the protection of children’s rights. I live in a rented flat and use my old car in order to pay the tuition fees of my daughters ».

She says also: « First of all, I love children. On returning to Morocco after my studies in France, I was walking one day through the streets of Casablanca and I saw a kid who seemed to have spent several days on the streets. I asked him what he was doing there, and was shocked when he replied that he lived on the streets. I did not think that went on in Morocco. A lot of anger welled up inside me and I realised the situation needed to be put right ». (full interview text).

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Najat M’jid – Morocco

She works for the Mother and Child Clinic, and for the BAYTI Association.

Najat M’jid is the drive force of the advocacy for children’s rights in Morocco over the last sixteen years. She has lobbied for and participated in effectuating new legislative reforms in the country, denouncing violations of Children’s Rights and raising awareness of children’s severe vulnerability.

Dr. M’jid has assumed her grassroots work through a number of foundations concerned with children’s welfare, at both national and international levels. She is a consultant for the UNICEF and the State Secretariat for Childhood, NGOs, and is the regional focal point for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), analyzing and evaluating issues regarding children sexual abuse, health, education, poverty and family rejection.

In 2000 Dr. M’jid was awarded a national prize for her work on Human Rights and was nominated for the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor) in France. Najat has worked hard towards the adoption of national rehabilitative plans for vulnerable children and for the establishment of state-run agencies to deal with children’s problems.

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

She says: « I will retire the day when no one fears for their safety ».

Fatimata Touré was born in Gao (the sixth administrative region of Mali) in 1956. She is the leader of the Association of Women for Peace and Development in Northern Mali, an organization that works particularly in the regions of Gao, Tombouctou, and Kidal.

The Association of Women for Peace and Development in the North (AFPDN) has always worked for the awareness, formation, support and research of peace as well as its consolidation. Thanks to these varied efforts, communities have become aware of the necessity of voluntarily collecting weapons. She showed courage in denouncing the outlaws as well as the trafficking of war weapons …

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Fatimata Touré – Mali

She works for the Association des Femmes pour la Paix et le Développement au Nord Mali.

… The association has generated much more participation by women in questions of peace and development in the northern regions in particular and in Mali more generally.

Madam Touré Fatimata Touré, as leader of the association of women, has won the favor and confidence of the armed security forces and the communities of the north. She did not want there to be mistrust between the people in charge of security and the communities.

She is also involved in the process of reintegration of the former fighters of the Touareg movements. Three thousand former rebels were absorbed into the Malian army, the French police force and customs authorities. Those who were not employed were helped to find activities allowing them to reintegrate into civilian life.

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

She says: « There is no other time that I feel on the top of the world then when a childless couple conceives after years of trying ».

She says also: “I have kept my vision alive through determination and dependence on God, because it isn’t easy. It’s difficult to deal with people, as there is nothing for free mentality”.

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Felister and Prince Chinthunzi – Malawi

She works for Fasu Consultancy and Maternal Life International (FAMLI).

Felister Chinthunzi (50) is a trainer of trainers in natural family planning, reproductive health and HIV/Aids with FAMLI, a community-based non-governmental organization in Lilongwe. She heads the training service, sensitizing women on sexual abstinence before marriage and fidelity to avoid HIV infection. She is currently organising a community orphan care center for over 60 children.

“A happy family is but an early heaven.” Felister likes to quote John Bowring.

If all families had proper family planning methods and lived happily with each other, she would retire happily. She heads training at FAMLI, an organization that focuses on family planning and marriage counseling in Malawi. Since 1985, she has worked tirelessly in training families in natural family planning methods.

Thousands of women have changed their attitudes towards contraception through her efforts. Felister’s work has turned the misery of marriage and child bearing into healthy and happy homes. In her 20 years of work, Felister places lack of resources as a number one challenge.

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

She says: « We have to work together for a better world » … and she notes: “It has not always been easy, considering the lack of financial support I face in running my organization. The African culture too has been misconstrued to keep women silent about violation of their rights or the defense of her rights when violated by her husband. Society and certain women do not make it easy », she is quoted in ‘Diagnostic’, a UN Newsletter. “Unfortunately we often notice that the worst enemies of the woman are her fellow women. Congolese women do not realize that when they go against other women, they perpetuate their inferior status in society and frustrate efforts to improve their condition.”

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Viviane Bikuba Cibalonza – Dem. Republic of the Congo

She works for Action for Law Education (AED),
and for the Centre d’Assistance Medico-Juridique (CAMEJ).

Viviane Bikuba (36) is a lawyer and founder of Action for Law Education (AED) and Center for Medical-Judicial Assistance (CAMEJ). She defends and promotes human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes Region. She specialized in human rights, pacification and specifically the fight against torture.

She says also: « We realized that violence against women was on the increase and especially in South Kivu. The victims were suffering from medico-sanitary problems that aggravated their trauma. The different forms of violence against women were identified as: violence by fellow women (family members, in-laws or neighbors), domestic rape or forced prostitution, notably from public servants who were no longer receiving their salaries and forced girls into prostitution and sexual harassment ».

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

Albertina Duarte Takiuti (1946) is known as one of the best gynecologists in the country. She participated actively in the implementation of PAISM (Program for Integral Assistance to Female Health) and of the Program for Integral Assistance to Adolescents. Her work has the goal to transform health assistance into a right of all citizens.

She says: « I do not have to sleep to dream; I dream while I am awake ».

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Albertina Duarte Takiuti – Brazil

She works for the Projeto de Apoio à Mulher e ao Adolescente, Secretaria do Estado de Saúde de São Paulo, and for the Centro da Mulher Brasileira.

She was not even ten years old when her parents left Portugal and moved to Brazil. Her parents wanted their children to escape from the Salazar dictatorship and from the war in the African colonies. A cousin of Albertina lost an eye in Angola. He told Albertina that the worst part was the other eye that saw everything.

In Brazil, she would discover other wars: the military dictatorship (1964-1988), childhood mortality, domestic violence and the difficult access to quality health assistance. She participated in the student movement and was almost extradited. She was scared for her children’s safety. In the hospital where she worked, she illegally helped patients who had been exiled from neighboring countries that were also under dictatorship, and Brazilian women who were being persecuted. “One day, cops came looking for a patient and I hid her in the bathroom.”

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

She is a history and cultural history professor at St. Paul’s High School in Timor-Leste, Genoveva Alves is a peace trainer. She led the transformation of St. Paul’s into a school for peace.

When the Ministry of Education under joint United Nations governance and local East Timor self-governance opened schools across the country, there were no desks, chairs, chalkboards or textbooks. The District Education Officer, in cooperation with the Catholic parish, decided to open one secondary school, St. Paul’s High School. Genoveva and others taught there first as volunteers in trying conditions.

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Genoveva Ximenes Alves – East Timor / Timor Leste

She works for the Saint Paul’s High School,
and for the Maryknoll Sisters.

A history and cultural history professor at St. Paul’s High School in Timor-Leste, Genoveva Alves is a peace trainer and founding partner in the transformation of St. Paul’s into a school for peace. She trains, oversees, and assists the students in a peace program that teaches skills in dialogue, negotiation, and mediation.

Prior to that, Genoveva worked in the forest with the East Timor resistance movement to fight the decades-long occupation by the Indonesian government. She played an integral role in the Timor Women’s Organization (OMT) in support of the liberation movement.

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