Mois : janvier 2007

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

She says: « I always tell my students: Think! Look for peace and beauty everywhere. If you find peace in your soul, if you see the beauty in the world around you, you will be free! I want them to realize that money alone cannot buy happiness. I want them to open the door to something more important, their hearts ».

She says also: « It was not easy at first, so we decided to work out our own democratic rules: togetherness, friendliness, fairness, happiness, empathy and self-esteem. Which in the long run resulted in WE-NESS. We are human beings first, we said, we are boys and girls or other members of the society only secondly ».

And she says: « My life was cut into two parts in April 1986, in BEFORE and in AFTER ».

Tetyana Tkachenko – Ukraine

She works for Women for the Future / Žinky za Majbutnie. This is a political party in the Ukraine. At the last legislative elections, 30 march 2002, the party won 2.1 % of the popular vote and no seats. At the last legislative elections, 26 March 2006, the party was part of the Opposition Bloc « Ne Tak« .

When the nuclear catastrophe took place, it opened her eyes and changed her life. Working in the contaminated area for five years she developed a new child-centered holistic education for peace, democracy, and ecology. Her goal was to save the children and to work for a better world.

Continuer la lecture de « Tetyana Tkachenko – Ukraine »

Linked with .

See also the WSF World Social Forum 2007, Kenya.

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

She says: “In war everybody is a victim. For one to reconcile communities, one needs to rise from being a wounded victim to a wounded healer. I am a wounded healer”. And: “I don’t want my children to suffer the way I saw others suffering”.

She says also: “You wouldn’t think that, for example, Indonesia and Kenya have so much in common. Do you think that people who are refugees or maybe practitioners, if they heard stories from other communities that have begun to process and heal, it would help them to process and heal? It is interesting how healing stories themselves are, no?”.

And she says: “I have committed my life to peace building. To reconcile communities, one needs to rise from being a wounded victim to a wounded healer. I am a wounded healer”.

Tecla Wanjala – Kenja

She works for the Japan International Cooperation Agency JICA, for the Peace and Development Network of the NGO Council PeaceNet, and for the Coalition for Peace in Africa COPA.

Tecla Wanjala, a Kenyan 43-year-old mother of four, has dedicated her work to peace building. The trained social worker holds a master’s degree in conflict resolution. She started working with refugees in 1991 and later with internally displaced persons in her home district in Western Kenya. She initiated reconciliation meetings between opposing ethnic groups. Today, she works on peace building and post-conflict reconstruction from community to national level.

Continuer la lecture de « Tecla Wanjala – Kenja »

Linked with The Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association EWLA.

See also the WSF World Social Forum 2007, Kenya.

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

She says: « My goal is to eradicate all forms of discrimination against women and to ensure equal opportunities for women in education, employment and public spheres ».

She says also: « The position of women (in Ethiopia) is very difficult – economically, politically and socially … They have no voice, they have no economic power, they have no social power, and they are not organised. They cannot put pressure on the government … Uganda is a good place, Tanzania is much better than us, South Africa is much better ». (full text).

Read: BBC, Ethiopia: Revenge of the abducted bride.

Read: Should Women Forge Armed Struggle Against Abduction!? By Selamawit Seyoum.

Read: Advocacy for Legal Reform for Safe Abortion.

Read: Interview with peacewomen.

Meaza Ashenafi – Ethiopia

She works for the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association EWLA,
and for the Ethiopian Constitution Commission of the Interim Government (ECCIG).

Listen to NPR-audio: ‘Fighting for Women’s Rights in Africa‘.

And she says: « There is no specific law talking about domestic violence, so we need laws there; there is no law on workplace sexual harassment. Also, we have a law on affirmative action. There is a provision under the constitution which says that women are entitled to affirmative action, but there are gaps in the law itself …

Continuer la lecture de « Meaza Ashenafi – Ethiopia »

See also the WSF World Social Forum 2007, Kenya.

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

She says: « I receive more than I give. In the hospice I feel God’s presence. I see him in Emmanuel’s smile, feel him at Aimé’s bedside, and recognize him in the gestures of blind Felix. This is my place ».

She says also: « It was in Abidjan in 2002. I was sitting in my car, when I felt irritated by a sickly smell, like that of a rotting animal. I got out of the car to find out where the irritating smell was emanating from. I found a man lying in a hole near the street, wrapped in a garbage bag. He was totally dehydrated. Although ants were crawling out of his ears and mouth, he was still breathing. When he finally looked at me I asked him how long he had been lying there, and he answered that he did not know. As I left to get help he whispered, ‘I am Monsieur René.’ The slum dwellers knew that he had been lying there for at least ten days and had occasionally brought him food and water. With their help, we took René to an outpatient clinic, where he stayed for a week. This is what inspired me to set up a hospital for dying Aids victims ».

See her Homepage Lotti Latrous.

See also the Fondation Lotti Latrous.

Lotti Latrous – Côte d’Ivoire

Lotti Latrous was born in 1953. She has lived in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, where she did volunteer work at the local Mother Theresa Hospital. The contrast between the miseries she witnessed in Abidjan and her privileged life inspired her to found an outpatient clinic in Adjouffou, a slum in Abidjan.

Continuer la lecture de « Lotti Latrous – Côte d'Ivoire »

Linked with Twishakira amahoro, and with Search for common ground SFCG.

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

See also the WSF World Social Forum 2007, Kenya.

She says: « I know no greater joy than meeting a friend whom I had believed was dead ».

Léonie Barakomeza – Burundi

She works for Twishakira amahoro, and for Search for Common Ground Burundi.

After civil war had broken out in Burundi, Léonie Barakomeza founded ? together with former Hutu neighbor Yvonne Ryakiye and other women ? the self-help organization Twishakira amahoro, which means ?We want peace?. The women of the peace organisation have helped in reconstructing war-damaged houses.
Over time, the river Kanyosha has dug a deep gorge through the fertile hills of Bujumbura. An equally deep rift of fear and hatred hindered the people living on its banks to use the shallow ford near Busoro.

Continuer la lecture de « Léonie Barakomeza – Burundi »

See also the WSF World Social Forum 2007, Kenya.

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

She says: « We can and must root ourselves on the long tradition of peace making that women have in Africa! »

She says also: « I cannot stand violence, so I have to do something against it. Even as a child I could not tolerate injustice ».

And she says: « It is high time we played down tribal differences, which the colonial powers stressed for their own interest. Tutsis and Hutus lived in peace before and can do it again! »

Colette Samoya Kirura – Burundi

She works for Bangwe and Dialogue, a peace organization.

Colette Samoya Kirura, born 1952, is a pioneer. Politically active even in her student days, she was elected to parliament between 1982 and 1987, one of only two women. From 1992 to 1994 she served as Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, where she dedicated herself to the defence of human rights. She headed the Union des Femmes Burundaises, and in 1998 she founded the peace organization Bangwe and Dialogue. It unites women of Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, strengthening their power in the reconciliation process and providing education, especially for displaced people. Colette does not like to mention her ethnic affiliation.

Continuer la lecture de « Colette Samoya Kirura – Burundi »

Linked with InWEnt.

See also the WSF World Social Forum 2007, Kenya.

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

She says: « My dream is to see all people smiling. Not because they have to, but because it comes from within. »

She says also: « I saw people walking through Kigali, many of them carrying weapons, and I had the impression that they were mummies. Dead. Without any expression in their eyes. They moved like machines, without perceptible feelings ».

And she says: « In Rwanda interpersonal trust was completely destroyed. People could not share their feelings with their neighbors, often not even with their brothers and sisters. So we needed a program in which individuals could open up to a confidant. These should be people with a relationship. For example, friendships exist among classmates; in a group of women who work on the same farm; or in a groups of street children ».

And she laments: « The culture of silence and mistrust is developed from an early age. Alread at two years old children were taught, that they should never say what they were thinking and never show their feelings. This takes away peoples’ ability to think freely ».

Martine Bonny Dikongue – Rwanda

She works for Inser, and for Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung GmbH InWEnt.

Read: Development Partnership with InWEnt.

Martine Bonny Dikongue from Cameroon was born in 1960. She is an economist and trainer for non-violent conflict resolution. She helps traumatized survivors of the Rwanda genocide to re-learn to trust people. She works with teachers and other professionals in a project financed by the German government and the Protestant Church of Rwanda.

Continuer la lecture de « Martine Bonny Dikongue – Rwanda »