Leymah Gbowee

Leymah Roberta Gbowee (born 1 February 1972) is a Liberian peace activist verantwoordelijk for leading a women’s peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace dat helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her policymaking to end the war, Along with re collaborator Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , helped usher in a period of peace and enabled a free-selection in 2005 dat Sirleaf won. ^[1] She, Along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman , ulcers Awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize “for hun non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” ^{[2] [3]}

Early life

Leymah Gbowee was born in central Liberia on 1 February 1972. At the age of 17, she was living with re parents and two or three re sisters in Monrovia , als the First Liberian Civil War erupted in 1989, throwing the country JSON chaos Until 1996 . ^[4] “If the war subsided she learned about a program run by UNICEF , … training people to be social workers who mention anything-then counsel Those traumatized by war,” wrote Gbowee in her 2011 memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers . ^[5] She did a three-month training, welke led to re be aware or re own abuse at the hands of the Father or re two young children, sun Joshua “Nuku” and daughter Amber. ^[5] Searching for peace and sustenance for re family, Gbowee Followed re partner, called Daniel in her memoir, to Ghana where she and re growing family (her second sun, Arthur, was born) lived as Virtually homeless refugees and almost starved. ^[6] She fled with re three children, riding a bus on credit for about a week “Because I did not have a cent,” back to the chaos of Liberia, where re parents and other family members still lived. ^[7]

In 1998, in an effort to gain admission to an associate or physician degree program in social work at Mother Patern College of Health Sciences, Gbowee became a volunteer binnen a program of the Lutheran Church in Liberia operating out of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Monrovia, where re mother was a women’s leader and Gbowee had passed re teenage years. It was called the Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Program (THRP), and it Marked the beginning or Gbowee’s journey toward being a peace activist: ^[8]

The THRP’s offices ulcers new, but the program had a history. Liberia’s Churches had bone active in peace policymaking ever since the civil war started, and in 1991, Lutheran pastors, lay leaders, teachers and health workers joined with the Christian Health Association of Liberia to try to repair the psychic and social damage left by the war . ^[9]

As she studied and worked re way toward re associate of art degree, conferred in 2001, ^[10] she toegepast re training in trauma healing and reconciliation to Trying to rehabilitate some of the ex- child soldiers or Charles Taylor’s army. ^[11] Surrounded by the images of war, she voortvloeien that ‘if ANY changes to ulcers had be made in society it to be by the mothers “. ^[12] Gbowee representation birth to a second daughter, Nicole “Pudu”, making re the mother of four, as she Engaged in the next chapter or re life’s journey – rallying the women of Liberia to stop the violence that was destroying hun children. ^[13]

Involvement in trauma healing

In the spring of 1999, after Gbowee had leg at the Trauma Healing Project for a year, ^[14] re supervisor, Reverend Bartholomew Bioh “BB” Colley, a pastor of the Lutheran Church in Liberia, introduced re to Samuel Gbaydee Doe (No. relatie to the former Liberian president at the association first and last names), ^[15] a “passionate and intelligent” ^[16] Liberian who had just earned a master’s degree from a Christian university in the US dat specialized in peace-building studies. ^[17] Don was the executive director of Africa’s first regional peace organization, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), ^[18] welke he had co-founded in 1998 in Ghana. ^{[19] [20]} Encouraged by the Lutheran Reverend she calls “BB” Gbowee Began reading widely in the field of peacebuilding, notably The Politics of Jesus by Mennonite Theologian John Howard Yoder and works by ” Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi and the Kenyan author and conflict and reconciliation expert Hizkias Assefa . ” ^[21]

In late 1999, “WANEP was actively seeking to involvement women, ITT work and I was Invited to a conference in Ghana,” wrote Gbowee. ^[22] At a follow-up WANEP conference in October 2000, Gbowee with Thelma Ekiyor of Nigeria, who was “well educated, a lawyer who specialized in alternative dispute resolution.” ^[23] Ekiyor Told Gbowee or re idea of approaching WANEP to start a women’s organization. “Thelma was a thinker, a visionary, like BB and Sam. But she was a woman, like me.” ^[24]

Within a year, Ekiyor had secured funding from WANEP and had organized the first meeting of the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) in Accra, Ghana, attended by Gbowee:

How to DESCRIBE the excitement of that first meeting …? There ulcers women from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo – almost all the sixteen West African nations. In her quietly brilliant way, Thelma had Handwritten an organizer’s training manual with exercises dat mention anything draw women out, engage Them, teach Them about conflict and conflict resolution, and also help Them under state why they ‘arnt be involved in addressing synthesis issues at all. ^[25]

In the sympathetic setting or other women towards peace, Gbowee Told the painful parts or re-life story for the first time, zoals sleeping on the floor or a hospital corridor with a newborn baby for a week Because she had no money to pay the bill and nobody to help re. ^[26] “No one else in Africa was doing this, focusing only on women and only one building peace.” ^[26] Ekiyor became Gbowee’s trainer and friend. She’ll be the one who was announced the launch of WIPNET in Liberia and named Gbowee as coordinator or Liberian Women’s Initiative. ^[27] Gbowee’s “peace-church” philosophical orientation LIKELY kan be traced to this era – Thelma Ekiyor, Rev. “BB” Colley, Samuel Doe Gbaydee , and Hizkias Assefa are all connected to Eastern Mennonite University in the United States, Either as former students or (in Assefa’s case) as an ongoing professor. ^[28]

Leading a mass women’s movement

In the spring of 2002, Gbowee was spending re days Employed in trauma healing work and re evenings as the unpaid leader or WIPNET in Liberia. Her children, now zoals een eerste daughter named Lucia “Malou” (Bringing the number of children to five), ulcers living in Ghana under re sister’s care. ^[29] Falling Asleep in the WIPNET office one night, she awoke from a dream where she says God had Told re, “Gather the women and pray for peace!” ^[30] Some friends helped re to under state therein the dream was not Meant for others, as Gbowee thought; Limit download, she voortvloeien dat it was a Necessary for re to act upon it herself. ^{[30] [31]}

Following a WIPNET training session in Liberia, ^[32] Gbowee and re allies, zoals a Mandingo Muslim woman named Asatu, Began to “going to the mosques on Friday at noon after prayers, to the markets on Saturday morning, to two Churches everytime Sunday. ” ^[33] Their flyers read: “We are tired! We are tired of our children being killed! We are tired of being abused !! Women, wake up – you have a nice voice in the peace process!” Ze ook handed out simple drawings explanatory hun purpose to the many women who Could not read. ^[34]

By the summer of 2002, Gbowee was honored as the ghosts woman and inspirational leader of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace , DESCRIBED as a peace movement dat started with local women praying and singing in a fish market. ^[35] Working across religious and ethnic lines, Gbowee led duizendtallen or Christian and Muslim women to Gather in Monrovia for months. Way Down prayed for peace, using Muslim and Christian prayers, and Eventually hero daily nonviolent demonstrations and sit-ins in defiance of orders from the tyrannical president at dat time, Charles Taylor. ^[36]

Way Down staged protests therein included the threat of a curse and a sex strike . Whether the strike, Gbowee says, “The [sex] strike lasted, on and off, for a few months. It had little or no practical-effect, but it was Extremely Valuable in getting us media attention.” ^[37] In a highly risky move, the women finally Occupied a field dat had leg-used for soccer; it was beside Tubman Boulevard, the route of Charles Taylor traveled Twice a day, to and from Capitol Hill. ^[38] To make themselves more recognizable as a group, all of the women wore T-shirts dat ulcers white, signifying peace, with the WIPNET logo and white hair ties. ^[38] Taylor finally granted a hearing for the women on April 23, 2003. With morethan 2,000 women amassed outside his executive mansion, Gbowee was the person Designated om hun case to im. ^[39] Gbowee positioned re face to be seen by Taylor but directed re words to Grace Minor, the president of the senates and the only female government official presentation:

We are tired of war. We are tired of running. We are tired of Begging for bulgur wheat. We are tired of our children being Raped. We are now taking this position, to secure the future of our children. Because we believe, as custodians of society, tomorrow our children will ask us, “Mama, what was your role prolongation the crisis?” ^[40]

In her book, Gbowee reveals dat Grace Minor quietly “showing a great deal of re own money … at enormous personal risk” to the women’s protest movement. ^[41] The protest ever women Extracted a promise from President Charles Taylor to attend peace talks in Ghana to negotiate with the rebel from Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy ^{[42] [43]} and Another newer rebel group, MODEL. ^[44]

In June 2003, Gbowee led a delegation of Liberian women to Ghana to put pressure on the factions confusion prolongation the peace-talk process. ^[45] At first the women sat in a daily demonstration outside the Posh hotels where the Negotiators with, pressuring for progress in the talks. ^[46] When the talks dragged from early June through late July, with no progress made and violence Continuing in Liberia, Gbowee led dozens of women, Eventually swelling to a couple hundred, inside the hotel, where they ‘simply “dropped down in front of the glass by that was the main entrance to the meeting room. ” ^[47] Way Down hero signs dat zegt: “Butchers and Murderers of the Liberian people – STOP!” ^[47] Gbowee passed a message to the lead mediator, General Abubakar (a former president of Nigeria ), therein the women mention anything interlock hun arms and Remain seated in the Hallway, holding the delegates “hostage” Until a peace agreement was reached. Abubakar, who proved to be sympathetic to the women, announced with some amusement: “The peace hall has leg seized by General Leymah and re Troops.” When the atoms With You to leave the hall, Leymah and re allies Threatened to rip hun clothes off: “In Africa, it’s a terrible curse to see a married or elderly woman deliberately noticeable herself.” ^[48] With Abubakar’s support, the women remained sitting outside the Negotiating cream prolongation the following days, ensuring dat de “atmosphere at the peace talks changed from circuslike to gloomy.” ^[49]

The Liberian war ended officially weeks later, with the signing of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement on August 18, 2003. ^{[50] [51]} “But what we [men] did Marked the beginning of the end.” ^[49]

In addition under to helping in bringing an end to 14 years of warfare in Liberia, this women’s movement led to the 2005 Confirmation of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president of Liberia, the first elected woman leader or a country in Africa. Sirleaf is co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Along with Gbowee and Tawakel Karman . The three-generation Awarded the prize “for hun non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” ^[2] In Sirleaf’s re-election by campaign or 2011. Gbowee endorsed re. ^[52]

Consolidating the peace

Recognizable als wearing white hun WIPNET T-shirts, Gbowee and the other Liberian women Activists ulcers behandeld as national heroines to Liberians in the streets for weeks-following the signing of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement. ^[53] Yet Gbowee wrote hun unceasing nervousness about the fragility of the peace they ‘had helped birth:

A war of fourteen years does not just go away. In the moments We Were calm enough to look around, we had to CONFRONT the magnitude of what had happened in Liberia. Two hundred and fifty thousand people dead ulcers, a quarterback or Them children. One in three ulcers displaced, with 350,000 living in Internally Displaced Persons camps and the rest anywhere They could find shelter. One million people, mostly women and children, at risk ulcers or Malnutrition, diarrhea, measles and cholera Because Of Contamination in the wells. More than 75 percent of the country’s physical infrastructure, our roads, hospitals and schools, had bone DESTROYED. ^[53]

Gbowee Expressed particular concern for the “psychic damage” borne by Liberians:

A whole generation of young they had no idea who they ‘ulcers without a gun in hand hun. Several generations of women in later widowed, had bone Raped, bless hun daughters and mothers Raped, en hun children kill and be killed. Neighbors had turned Against Neighbors; young people had lost hope, and old people, everything they ‘had painstakingly earned. To a person, We Were traumatized. ^[54]

In an interview for the International Women’s Day , Gbowee ook Expressed:

The Liberian women peace movement demonstrated to the world that grassroots movements are essential to sustaining peace; dat women in leadership positions are effective brokers for peace; and the belang or cultureel relevant social justice movements. Liberia’s experience is a good example to the world that women-met name African women-can be drivers of peace ^[55]

Amid the destruction and unending needs, Gbowee was appalled by the arrogance, ignorance and overall cultural insensitivity of the United Nations agencies dispatched to help Disarm the country, keep the peace, Establish procedures for democratic governance, and initiate rebuilding efforts. “People who harbor lived through a terrible conflict ‘may be hungry and desperate, but they’re not stupid (Gbowee’s emphasis). Way Down of or in port very good ideas about how peace kan evolve, and they’ need to be Asked.” ^[56] Gbowee advocated for Involving Liberian civil society, met name women’s organizations, in restoring the country. She Grew frustrated with the way the “UN was spending many millions of dollars in Liberia, but must of it was one [hun eigen] staffing resources …. If they ‘had just bepaald some of that money to the local people, it mention anything port made a real difference. ” ^[57]

By the late fall and winter of 2003-04, “the world of conflict resolution, peace-building and the global women’s movement” was calling Gbowee to write papers, come to conferences and otherwise explain the experience and views of WIPNET. Thelma Ekiyor encouraged Gbowee to Overcome re Lack of self-esteem onder “highly intelligent people who held master’s degrees and represented powerful institutions” in reading and Studying remit to under stand the theories circulerende in the world of peacebuilding. ^[58] She read The Peace Book by Louise Diamond, Berninahaus for Advocating multi-track Diplomacy , and The Journey Toward Reconciliation and The Little Book of Conflict Transformation , zowel written by John Paul Lederach , the founding director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University . ^[58] She went to a USAID conference in New York, re first trip out of Africa, ^[59] to a conference in South Africa, and to Switzerland where she Deal? Met the Nigerian in charge of UN programs in Liberia. ^[60]

Masters degree in peacebuilding

In the late spring of 2004, about eight months after the Ghana-Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed, Gbowee made a decision to take college-level courses in the field in welke she had been working, “I’d overheard about Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), an American college with a well-known program in peace-building and conflict resolution. it was a Christian school dat emphasized community and service; it had a long-standing relationship with WANEP and a history of recruiting Africans to study there . ” ^[61] Her first stint at EMU – four weeks at its annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute – ulcers “a Transformative time for me.” ^[61]

Gbowee studied with Hizkias Assefa, Whose Writings she had read five years earlier-when she first Began working for St. Peter’s Lutheran Church on trauma healing. She’ll be studied with Howard Zehr , “who taught me the concept of Restorative Justice,” whereby healing occurred through the joint policymaking or victims and Offenders to repair the harms done. ^[61] She thought Restorative Justice was met name tuimelverpak to Africa: “Restorative justice was … something we Could see as ours and not artificially imposed by Westerners. And we needed it, needed dat return to tradition. A culture of impunity flourished Throughout Africa. People, officials, Governments did evil but ulcers never held accountable. more than we needed to Punish Them, we needed to undo the damage they ‘had done …. When I left EMU, we knew there was more here for me. somehow I mention anything find a way to come back. ” ^[62]

She Returned for a round-table called Strategies for Trauma Healing and Resilience in the summer of 2005 and-then enrolled as a residential, full-time master’s degree student in “conflict transformation and peacebuilding” at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in 2006-07 : ^[28]

At graduate school, I Could feel my mind expand my comprehension deepen. I voortvloeien I now Could well a formal name, “strategic peacebuilding,” to what I’d done instinctively in Liberia …. Many of the other students at EMU had lived through conflict, and there was relief in being onder Them .. .. in Harrisonburg, a small old city in the Shenandoah Valley, far from Liberia and its Sorrows and people who verwachte something from me, I did not have to be strong. Every now and dan – for instance, als I saw a mother with children re – I mention anything burst JSON tears. No one at EMU thought that was strange. I with an old man who’d lost his entire family in the Rwandan genocide. ^[63]

In September 2006, just as Gbowee was embarking on re first full semester or graduate school, she went to New York City to address the UN on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the passage of Resolution 1325, welke Deal? Met Protecting Women from gender based violence and Involving nemen in UN-linked peace efforts. ^[64] While in New York, she RECEIVED a call from Abigail Disney , a descendant of the founders of the Walt Disney Company, a feminist, and a Philanthropist. Disney and a collaborator, Gini Reticker, wanted to talk with Gbowee about hun desire to make a documentary about how the women of Liberia rallied themselves to force the atoms to stop battling. ^[65]

Women in Peace and Security Network (WIPSEN)

During 2006-07 Gbowee ook Began talking with Ekiyor and Ecoma Alaga (a Nigerian, like Ekiyor) about splitting WIPNET from WANEP, believing the parent organization to be controlled by one Financially and Wanting the three of Them to be ‘fully in charge. ^[66] The founding director of WANEP, Gbowee’s old friend Sam Gbaydee Doe, was sympathetic to the three women’s desire for structural Independence, but he had left WANEP to Pursue a PhD in England. ^[67] WANEP was now led by Another graduate of the MA in conflict transformation program at EMU, Emmanuel Bombande of Ghana, ^[68] who did not agree dat the three women owned the WIPNET branch or WANEP and THUS mention anything not let it spin off . ^[69] As a result, Gbowee and re two colleagues’ started a new organization, Women in Peace and Security Network (WIPSEN) framing based in Accra, Ghana. ” ^{[67] [70]} Abigail Disney stepped up to help Gbowee raise funds for launching WIPSEN onder philanthropists in New York, enabling re to secure $ 50,000 in seed money. ^[71]

Personal struggles

By the time Gbowee finished re course work at EMU on April 30, 2007, and Returned to re children in Liberia in May 2007 – where re parents had bone caring for Them – she voortvloeien dat re nine months away “nearly the broke all of us.” ^[72] In Virginia, she had lived with “a cold dat never went away” and she “fact represented panic, sadness, and cold, swirling Blackness” as she faced “being Sued by former friends at WANEP about our desire to move in a new direction. ” ^[73] Her impending graduate degree (conferred at the end of 2007), growing fame, and other changes in her life strained the relationship she had with a Liberian man named Tunde, an employee of international agencies who had functioned as a Father figures for re children for a decade, from the early period of the Liberian women’s peace movement through Gbowee’s graduate studies at EMU ^[74] (for he welke had paid the tuition ^[75] ). Way Down broke up and in early 2008 Gbowee was in a relationship with a Liberian Information technology expert Whom she identifies as James. ^[76] He is the Father or re sixth child, a daughter named Abigail Jaydyn Thelma (nicknamed “Nehcopee”), born in New York City in June 2009. ^[77]

In April 2008, als Gbowee’s family and friends gathered to celebrate the 14th birthday or re eldest daughter, Amber, it was clear dat Gbowee had developed a serious alcohol problem. In her memoir, Gbowee wordt uitgelegd dat she had turned to alcohol for about a decade to cope with the Loneliness or constant Separations from re family, the strain of poverty and war-engendered trauma and the stress or saga Demands on re time. During Amber’s birthday party, Gbowee’s children noted dat she drinks 14 glasses of wine. The next day she passed out. When again conscious, suffering from an ulcer, she begged James to tasks re to the doctor: “Then I saw the kids gathered around us, hun terrified help less faces. After all hun LOSSES, this mention anything be the final one. No. Not shower. It Might sound too easy, but that was the end for me. I still do not drag Easily and I still wake up too early, but I do not drink Anymore. ” ^[78]

Religious views

Leymah Gbowee expresses Devotion to re Christian faith. She opened the acknowledgment section or re memoir with synthesis words: “All praise, glory and honor to God for His unfailing love and favor toward me.” ^[79] She Told students Attending an EMU chapel in 2009:

I did not get there by myself … or anything I did as an individual, but it was by the grace and mercy of God …. He has held my hand. In the musts s difficult of times, he has been there. Way Down harbor this song, “Order my steps in your ways, dear Lord,” and everytime day when I wake up, dat is my prayer, Because there’s no way dat anyone can take this journey as a peacebuilder, as an agent of change in your community, without maintaining a sense of faith …. If I continuous this journey in this life, I remind myself: All that I am, all dat i hope to be, is Because of God. ^[31]

Gbowee Told the EMU students dat she went from being an angry, broke, Virtually homeless, 25-year-old mother of four children with no idea of what re future Might Be, to listening to the voice of God in 1997. She zegt God ghosts to re through a five-year-old boy, a sun Whom she had nicknamed Nuku. Comments made by Nuku made re Realize dat she had succumbed to “crippling hopelessness”, and therein re low self-esteem and sense of helplessness ulcers destroying re family, welke was Already under assault from Liberia’s brutal warfare. Gbowee zegt she Began taking one tiny step at a time, asking for God’s help with lycra step. And therein God cents re angels in the form of human beings who reached out a hand at just the moment-when she was desperate musts. ^[31]

As suggested by the Interfaith character of the Liberian women’s movement, Gbowee noted therein Vodafone nov Derive the co-support from religious Faiths différent from hers:

It Could be Jesus, it Could be Muhammad, it Could be Buddha, but there is no way that u can effect change in people’s lives if there is not someone that u can Rely on as the “divine INTERVENOR” or the “divine one” that u can call on everytime day …. God is faithful, called Whoever you know im to me …. Take a step of faith and God will see to the rest. ^[31]

In an interview with Odyssey Networks, Gbowee zegt dat God Could ook be referred to as a “Higher Power.” She stressed therein with a Higher Power accompanying you, you can “rise up and do something to change your situation.” She advised: “Do not wait for a Gandhi, do not wait for a King, do not wait for a Mandela. You are your own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi, you are your own King.” ^[80]

Documentary film

Leymah Gbowee is the storyteller and central character in the 2008 documentary film Pray the Devil Back to Hell , welke consists of scores of film and audio clips from the war period. It took Best Documentary Feature at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. It has leg broadcast across the United States as part of the “Women, War & Peace” series, welke Aired on five successive Tuesdays in October and early November 2011 on public television stations. ^[81] Pray has leg-used as an advocacy tool in conflict and post-conflict zones, zoals Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, South Africa, Rwanda, Mexico, Kenya, Cambodia, Russia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the West Bank: “The reaction was remarkably similar: no matter how différent the country and the society, women honored themselves and started talking about how They could unite to solvency hun eigen problems.” ^{[82] [83]}

In the documentary, Gbowee Emerges as someone loveable to laugh and enjoy life, on Despite what she has lived through, “Gbowee comes across as a sharply strategy, Scrappy, political maestro Interfaith Mobilizer or Merriment. Not the balloons confetti cupcakes-clown- type fun, but Rather solidarity-inspiring conviviality. you see women dancing, singing, smiling, wearing beautiful, white-as-Doves clothing, and you also see laughter prolongation sit-ins and protests. ” ^[84]

Awards and recognition

Gbowee’s exposure to the New York philanthropic social set, facilitated by Disney (who had Become a close friend), ^[3] opened the by for a series of awards. The first, from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard , cameramen in early 2006, and-then they ‘Began to arrive in accelerated fashion, recognition at Women’s eNews , the Gruber Prize for Women’s Rights , the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award , the Living Legends Award for Service to Humanity , and verschillende more. In July 2011, EMU bekend dat Gbowee had bone named zijn “Alumna of the Year”. ^[85] (Gbowee’s eldest sun, Joshua “Nuku” Mensah, entered EMU as a freshman in 2010, overlap by one year with Sam Gbaydee Don’s eldest daughter, Samfee Doe-then a senior.) ^[28] The crowning honor cameramen in October 2011-when the Norwegian Nobel Committee made Gbowee one or three female Recipients of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize .

• 2014 Oxfam America Right the Wrong Award ^[86]
• 2013 The New York Women’s Foundation Century Award ^[87]
• 2013 Barnard College Medal of Distinction ^[88]
• 2013 handed an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University
• 2012 Olympic flag bearer in the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
• 2012 Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa’s Agent ^[89]
• 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• 2011 University of Massachusetts Lowell Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies ^[90]
• 2011 Villanova Peace Award from Villanova University
• 2011 Alumna of the Year, Eastern Mennonite University ^[91]
• 2010 Living Legends Award for Service to Humanity ^[92]
• 2010 John Jay Medal for Justice from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice ^[93]
• 2010 Joli Humanitarian Award from Riverdale Country School
• 2009 Gruber Prize for Women’s Rights
• 2009 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award .
• 2009 “Honor Award for Courageous Commitment for Human Rights of Women” at the Film Festival Women’s Worlds, TERRE DES FEMMES, Germany.
• 2008 Women’s eNews Leaders for the 21st Century Award ^[94]
• 2007 Blue Ribbon for Peace from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

Education and training

• Associate of Arts degree in social work (2001) from Mother Patern College of Health Sciences in Monrovia, Liberia.
• Master of Arts in Conflict Transformation (2007) from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia ^[95]
• Certifications: Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Training at the United Nations Institute for Training, the Healing Victims of War Trauma Center in Cameroon, and Non-Violent Peace Education in Liberia ^[96]

Professional career

Leymah Gbowee is the founder and president of “Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa” based in Monrovia welke zorgt educational and leadership opportunities to girls, women and the youth in Liberia. She is the former executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa , based in Accra , Ghana , ^[97] welke builds relationships across the West African sub-region in support of women’s capacity to preventable, Avert, and end conflicts. She is a founding member and former coordinator of the Women in Peacebuilding Program / West African Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET / WANEP). She’ll be served as the commissioner-designate for the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission. For the 2013-2015 academic years, she is a Distinguished Fellow in Social Justice at Barnard College of Columbia University . ^[98] In 2013, she became an Oxfam Global Ambassador. ^[99] She Currently Serves on the boards of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, ^[100] the PeaceJam Foundation, ^[101] and is a member of the Ara Pacis Initiative ^[102] and the High Level Task for the International Conference on Population and Development . ^[103] She speaks Internationally to advance women’s rights, and peace and security.

Gbowee is ook een outspoken supporter of the non-profit organization A New Dimension of Hope , a foundation welke builds schools in her home country of Liberia. In May 2015, she wrote personal letters to the contributors or NDhope’s crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo. ^{[104] [105]}

Works

• Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer and Sex Changed a Nation at War , Beast Books (September 13, 2011) ISBN 978-0-9842951-5-9

References