Mois : juin 2007

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

She says: «  »My motto is: If My people will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them and will forgive their sin and heal their land ».

Béatrice Félicité Bobo – Central African Republic

She works for the Mission d’Evangélisation pour la Repetance MER, and for Ouvre Socio – Humanitaire en Faveur des Enfants de la Rue OSHFER (both have no reference in the internet).

Street children benefit from Béatrice Bobo’s care, stop taking drugs and are freed from sex slavery, before returning to their homes. Since 1997, this 39-year-old single mother has been raising three children, a niece and sheltering street children in her house, where she founded an evangelical mission. She does all her work at an individual level through counseling and intercession, door-to-door visits, audiovisual media and public speaking. She also reaches out and evangelizes to the political authorities in the Central Africa Republic.

Beatrice Felicite Bobo was a successful Central African businesswoman and journalist. She had an impressive professional career before becoming a courageous missionary, although in the 1980s, she declined a German scholarship in order to take care of her brothers, because her only surviving parent, her father, had died. Hence, she did not acquire a university education. She trained on-the-job as a journalist with a national newspaper in 1987. She went through the ranks, becoming the business director in charge of public relations, subscription and advertising, and one of the few businesswomen of the Central Africa Republic in the 1990s. In 1994 she became a formal business owner, with a building and employees, engaged in importing and exporting fabrics for her interior decorating business.

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Linked with Action for Reach out.

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

She says: « These women live at the margin of society. In trying to accompany them, I too have experienced being pushed onto the margins and felt a strong sense of the need for solidarity among women » … and: « Ever since arriving in Hong Kong, I have wanted to work with this group of women. I see they are the outcasts of a society in which it is acceptable for a man to go to a prostitute but not for a woman to be a prostitute. They are looked on as the lowest of the low. After listening to some of their stories, I am often filled with admiration for them. Many are married with children, often divorced or separated, struggling to support not only their own children but children of relatives as well as elderly parents ».

She says also: « These women live at the margin of society. In trying to accompany them in their struggle, I too have experienced being pushed onto the margins of society as I come face to face with the refusal of officials at various levels to address their problems. To my surprise and deep gratitude, this has developed in me a strong sense of the need for solidarity among women ».

Elizabeth Ann Gray – Hong Kong SAR

She works for Action for Reach out.

Elizabeth Ann Gray (53) is a Columban Sister from Scotland. She is one of the founding members of Action for Reach out, the first NGO that provides support and services to sex workers in Hong Kong. As a foreigner, Ann not only has to overcome the language barrier, but also other social and cultural boundaries in working frontline with these women, who are being looked upon as outcasts and considered immoral.

Over the past 13 years, Ann has serviced and empowered this stigmatized and marginalized group, fostering their self-esteem, and promoting and protecting their basic human rights.

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

She says: « Il faut toujours avoir du coeur pour les autres / one must always have a heart for others ».

… Ces femmes concourent ensemble. Si ce prix leur est accordé, il leur serait attribué solidairement. Parmi ces 1000 femmes, on retrouve 137 Africaines issues de 34 pays. Sur cette liste on retrouve trois Camerounaises. Ce sont, Marie-Béatrice Kenfack Tolevi, Téclaire Ntomp et Hedwig Vinyou … (full text).

Sorry, I can not find any photo of Marie Béatrice Kenfack Tolevi, Cameroon (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).

She works for the Organisation for Health, Food Security and Development OFSAD.
(Named as; ‘INSTITUTE FOR FOOD AND DEVELOPMENT POLICY – FOOD FIRST, Anuradha MITTAL, Policy Director, Oakland, California, U.S.A.’, page 13/30, not dated; on: OBSERVERS FROM NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS / OBSERVATEURS DES ORGANISATIONS NON GOUVERNEMENTALES / OBSERVADORES DE LAS ORGANIZACIONES NO-GUBERNAMENTALES’, on a page of FAO.org.
And also named on: World Food Summit, 13-17 November 1996, Rome, Italy, also on a page of FAO.org).

Marie Béatrice Kenfack Tolevi, a Cameroonian, founded a NGO in 1992 that focuses on reproductive health, food and nutrition, human rights and equity. The Center listens and counsels the youth and teenagers.

It also has a clinic for adults to seek reproductive health advice.

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Linked with Radio Isanganiro .

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

Her mother said: « You are half Hutu and half Tutsi. If you identify yourselves as Hutus, then you must hate me, and if you identify yourself as Tutsi, then it is as if you killed your father a second time ».

Jeannine Nahigombeye, Director, Radio Isanganiro: Jeannine Nahigombeye has worked since 1997, when she joined Studio Ijambo in Bujumbura, Burundi. Studio Ijambo, a project of Search for Common Ground (headquartered in Washington, DC), produces radio programming designed to promote interethnic harmony and cooperative problem solving. She also worked as a stringer for the Voice of America and Canal Afrique (South Africa). During Ms. Nahigombeye’s four and half years at, Studio Ijambo, she initiated several programs, including programs on AIDS and vox-pop (popular voice), and co-produced programs on justice, truth and reconciliation, political and social programs, and human rights. In November of 2002, Ms. Nahigombeye was elected by her peers as director of Radio Isanganiro a new independent radio station created by the journalists of Studio Ijambo. (full text, scroll down).

Jeannine Nahigombeye – Burundi

She works for Radio Isanganiro.

Nahigombeye, the daughter of an accountant at the Central Bank of Burundi and a schoolteacher, grew up in a family of eight children. On still afternoons, she and her older sisters often listened to the radio, fascinated by a thriller series titled « Anthology of Mysteries. » She taped the program and replayed it time and again, play-acting along with the characters.At 20, she began studying French literature at the University of Burundi and frequently appeared in drama productions. She graduated in 1996. In explaining why she chose journalism as a career, she said: « The fact of talking to people who are listening, registering what you say and do, was an interesting connection. In Africa, you cannot live from theater, but it was a way of communicating. »

In the Great Lakes region of Africa, which includes Burundi, 85 percent of the people rely on radio for news and entertainment. In 1995, Search for Common Ground, a conflict resolution organization based in Washington, established Studio Ijambo, which means « wise words » in the Kirundi language. When the group advertised for female contributors to the independent radio studio, Nahigombeye joined. (full text).

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Linked with F-information – Genève. (Grace Aboh Dotou’s portrait en français), et avec ‘Qui dit mieux?‘.

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

She says: « Our greatest assets are people and our natural resources, which need to be valued more if they are to become competitive ».

The experienced fingers of 20 women crochet strands of plastic into one-of-a-kind gifts in a shop in Porto-Novo, Benin’s capital: These women, led by Grace Dotou-Aboh, began their business, Qui Dit Mieux?, in 1996. They collect plastic bags littering Benin’s streets, clean them and transform them into beautiful purses, bags and dolls. The group has received international recognition for raising environmental awareness and for teaching women skills – and independence. (full text).

Grace Aboh Dotou – Benin

She works for the Association for the Development of the Women of Sédji (not mentionned in the internet).

Madame Dotou Grace Aboh (62) has a lot of expertise in the socio-cultural reintegration of inmates of detention centers which has brought her international fame. This led to her being asked, at an international level, to form and organize women in the African sub-regions of the west, specifically Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger and Guinea Bissau. Her expertise is also sought by Congo, Chad and Cameroon. All these countries have benefited from her know-how in the areas of the promotion of women, the improvement of the environment, the improvement of the living conditions for women and children and, finally, the improvement of the financial capacities of women from portable activities.

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

She says: « I started my career with a dream-that I will work for the people and bring about a change in society. I still believe that change is possible. I work hard for that change » … and: « It was a new country. It was very important to build the nation. We wanted to do something important for the country, » … and: « A group of women will be trained in fixing electric wires, making doors and windows, operating water pumps, and building sanitary latrines. This group will go door-to-door, helping the people. The local people should not wait for the government or NGOs to come and help them ».

She says also: « Every man should think that every woman in society is the equal of his daughter, sister, or mother. If he wants to save his daughter, sister, or mother from injustice or oppression, he has to do the same for other women. Awareness changes a person’s attitude ».

Sorry, I can not get any photo of Sandhya Roy, Bangladesh (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).

Sandhya Roy was only 17 when she left home to help soldiers wounded in the 1971 Bangladesh war. The end of the war found Sandhya far too immersed in her work to return home. Instead, she joined Gonoshasthya Kendra (which means people’s health center-GK), an NGO working to establish a people-centered health system.

For more than 30 years now, she has been challenging gender stereotypes, fighting fundamentalists who wish to keep her down, and working toward her dream of a holistic health system.

Sandhya Roy was born in 1954 into a zamindar (landlord) family in Dhamrai, Dhaka. In 1947, when the subcontinent was partitioned, some of her family members relocated to India. But not Sandhya’s father. But, through the Enemy Property Act, much of the family’s property was appropriated by politically-powerful Muslims.

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Linked with Association Femmes 2000, Burkina Faso.

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

She says: « If we talk of economic growth in Burkina Faso, it is largely down to the fact that women have been put in charge at all levels of the development sector ».

Sorry, I can not get any photo of Chantal Marie Rachelle Ouédraogo, Burkina Faso (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).

She works for the Association Femmes 2000 AF 2000.

Chantal Marie Rachelle Ouédraogo (35) is married and the mother of two girls. She is head of the Association Femmes 2000 (Women’s Association 2000) fighting HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and taking care of persons living with HIV. She was decorated by the Burkina Faso government for service to the nation on 11 December 2003. She was given the Knight of the Order for Merit medal.

Chantal studied up to the level of the BEPC before settling into professional life with the intention of being of service to those around her. This mother is well-known for her courage and willingness to help rural women of her country to get involved in development activities, to promote their rights. She is founder-president of an association of women. She serves as Commercial Agent in a service specializing in the mobilization of public savings to meet the social and economical needs of its members.

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Linked with The African Methodist Episcopal AME Church.

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

She says: « Women spreading bridges of peace, solidarity and fraternity contributes to reaching the supreme values of justice » … and: « I called other women so that they could learn the skills of cake icing and handicraft that I used to make a living ».

Sorry, I can not get any photo of Hazel Magdalene King, Barbados (see also my comment ‘Brave women without photos‘).

She works for Hazel’s School of Arts and Crafts (no website, not named on other websites). She works also for the African Methodist Episcopal AME Church.

She raised her two children alone and took care of her mother while enduring her husband’s abuses. When she was laid off from a restaurant in Bridgetown, Barbados, she understood that her hands could work miracles. Hazel Magdalene King lifted up a flag: self-employment for self-sufficiency. She invited other women, taught them how to make cake icing and handicraft. She underwent radical breast cancer surgery, but she did not stop. She has never stopped. Hazel inspires other women in the Service for the Support for Cancer.

The life of Hazel Magdalene King can be summarized in a word: challenge. Her work in the community was accelerated in 1988 after her mother, who she took care of, died at age 87. When she said ‘enough’ to her husband’s abuse, she intended to recover her life and to maintain her two children by herself. They had already laid her off from a restaurant in Bridgetown.

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