World People's Blog

familiarly known as Zézé Motta

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

Maria José (Zézé) Motta de Oliveira, conhecida como Zezé Motta (Campos dos Goitacases, 27 de junho de 1944) é uma atriz e cantora brasileira … (full text).

Zezé Motta (1944) had always been involved with art: since her childhood, in a private school, until becoming a professional in a theatre course, in which she was discovered for the production of a musical. Her mother is a dressmaker and her father a musician. Actress, singer and director of a non-governmental organization that supports young Afro-Brazilian in the tough task of becoming actors, Zezé has helped to value the Afro-Brazilian woman through memorable characters. In her teenage years, when she used to help her mother with her sewing, Zezé Motta spent the days listening to the radio. It was her father who noticed that on the third time that she heard a song she was able to sing it perfectly. “He discovered my vocation to be a singer”, she says. Zezé started her acting career in a musical. She was chosen after a closing ceremony of a theatre course, which she paid for with the salary she earned working as an employee of a Pharmaceutical laboratory. She says: “Peace is human rights being taken seriously. It is being able to decrease inequalities in all senses. Inequality creates a revolted atmosphere” … (full text 1/2 on 1000peacewomen).

Zézé Motta on Answers.com.

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Maria José Mota – Brazil

Hear her song on this video: Zezé Motta canta “Fim de Caso” (Dolores Duran), 3.15 min, February 14, 2008.

She works for the Centro Brasileiro de Informação e Documentação do Artista Negro (Center of Information and Documentation of the Afro-Brazilian Artist) – named in Enciclopédia brasileira da diáspora africana, By Nei Lopes.

Find in portugese:

• Canal Brasil programa mostra especial da atriz Zezé Motta, Nov. 1, 2008;
• Elke Maravilha e Zezé Motta celebram 32 anos do filme Xica da Silva, Nov. 6, 2008;
• … Compondo a mesa de entrevistas estão o jornalista Arthur Xexéo, os também cineastas Gustavo Dahl e Walter Salles e a atriz Zezé Motta, que prometem relembrar os momentos mais marcantes da vida e carreira deste importante cineasta brasileiro … (full text, Nov. 25, 2008);
• Cineclube do IAP exibe filme de Arnaldo Jabor … Produzido em 1979, “Tudo bem” traz no elenco Fernanda Montenegro, Paulo Gracindo, Zezé Motta, Stênio Garcia e José Dumont, entre outros … (full text, Nov. 24, 2008);
• … Este abaixo assinado conta com apoio de mais de 15 mil assinantes, incluindo o governador de SP, Franco Montoro, Ulisses Guimarães, Darcy Ribeiro, Agnaldo Timóteo, Ivete Vargas, Carlos Imperial, Eduardo Suplicy, Ruth Escobar, Mario Covas, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Fernando Gabeira, Zezé Motta, etc. (full text, Nov. 24, 2008);
• De muletas, Daiane dos Santos recebe ‘Oscar’ da comunidade negra, Nov. 17, 2008;
• Zezé Motta ganha homenagem do Canal Brasil, Nov. 5, 2008 … and many more …

Zézé Motta Lyrics.

Find her and her publications (mostly as Zezé Motta) on Fandango /Filmography; on hollywood.com; on adoro cinéma; on e-bay /movies DVD; on IMDb /Filmography; on Google Video-search; on Google Images-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Zezé concluded Elementary School in an experimental school founded by progressist sectors of the Catholic Church inside a poor community in Rio. She started to make contact with the theatre. And with the racism, that was also manifested very early. From a neighbor she heard: “Do you have to study theatre to play the role of a maid?” The question, which seemed inappropriate to someone who had great career plans, reappeared in her life when Zezé started to receive invitations to work on TV. The only role available was as maid. Protagonist of the slave Chica da Silva in a movie named after this character, Zezé divides life between before and after this character that projected her allover Brazil and overseas. The question of where Afro-Brazilians belonged in Brazilian society led Zezé to the Afro-Brazilian movement and to the foundation of a NGO: Cidan – Centre of Information and Documentation of the Afro-Brazilian Artist. In the militancy for more space for the Afro-Brazilians in the movies, theatre and television, she noticed that there was a lack of opportunities, which was a consequence of the lack of qualification of young actors. “I noticed that it was necessary to stop complaining about prejudice and start doing something about it”, she says. Zezé Motta played important Afro-Brazilian characters such as the slaves Chica da Silva and Dandara (of the movie “Quilombo”). In her work of qualifying actors, she has provided around 400 young and poor Afro-Brazilians with an artistic and cultural qualification. (full text 2/2 on 1000peacewomen).

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Linked with A Papuan woman fighting for human and environmental rights, and with Working toward sustainable Development.

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

Yosepha Alomang (born 1950) is a true human rights defender who fights for the right of indigenous peoples to reclaim the titles of their land in Timika from Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., a multinational mining company. Human rights violations are rampant in Timika and Yosepha has been detained several times for protesting either against the mining company or the military that backs it up. She chairs the Mama Yosepha Center, which provides counseling to women and empowers women’s groups … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

Yosepha Alomang (Mama Yosepha) is from the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya (West Papua), one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet. She was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2001, for her efforts on organizing her community to resist the mining company Freeport-McMoRan’s mining practices over three decades that have destroyed rainforests, polluted rivers, and displaced communities. (on wikipedia).

More Bios on SourceWatch; on Political Heroes.

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Yosepha Alomang – Papua, Indonesia

She works for Yahamak (named on Mines and Communities).

She says: “Many people speak of freedom. But what is freedom for Papuans? Freedom is when people are educated, when people are free from poverty and sufferings. That is freedom in our language” … and: “They took our land. They didn’t even ask our permission. I was just a young girl. I remember my father gave them the land” … and: “One day, a group of men came to our house. They talked with my parents. I hardly remember their conversation. They were warning my father to follow the company’s request. They said if we wanted to eat well, we had to make sure that they could eat well also” … (1000peacewomen).

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, Washington, D.C. 20549, FORM 8-K, CURRENT REPORT, Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The book: Yosepha Alomang: Pergulatan Seorang Perempuan, Papua Melawan Penindasan, by Benny Giay and Yafet Kambai, ISBN: 9789799744029.

Find her and her publications on ; on the Austin Chronicle; on pipl; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Yosepha Alomang, pergulatan seorang perempuan Papua melawan penindasan.

Yosepha Alomang – yang lebih banyak dikenal melalui panggilan kesayangannya Mama Yosepha – adalah seorang perempuan tokoh Amungme, Papua. Ia terkenal kaerna perjuangannya membela hak-hak asasi manusia, khususnya masyarakat di sekitar PT Freeport Indonesia … (full text).

… Mama Yosepha has now focused her passion for promoting human rights on an organization she manages in Timika named YAHAMAK, an Indonesian abbreviation for the “Foundation for Human Rights and Anti-Violence.” YAHAMAK focuses on improving the human rights conditions for Papuan women and their children. In Timika, YAHAMAK’s work complements that of Thom Beanal’s LEMASA (Amungme foundation), which is establishing the LEMASA HAM (human rights) Center. Thom Beanal is the key local Amungme tribal leader. In concurrence with our company’s commitment to human rights, PT Freeport Indonesia has been fully supporting the establishment of both human rights centers … (full text).

… Mama Yosepha really opposed the attitude of glorifying men, while women were held in a lower position. So her emancipation was very evident. She challenged cultural currents that demeaned the dignity and position of women. Maybe this wouldn’t be a problem in another tribe, but here this was not allowed at all. And Yosepha challenged all this openly – she is a very strong woman. (p.xv). (full text).

Ternyata, dia perempuan yang sederhana berusia setengah baya, dengan postur mungil yang sekilas nampak lemah, tapi dengan garis wajah yang tegas. Perempuan mungil tapi perkasa itu adalah Yosepha Alomang, perempuan suku Amungme yang berasal dari lembah Tsinga, yang mendapatkan Yap Thiam Hien Award dan Goldman Environment Award karena perjuangannya untuk hak-hak asasi masyarakat asli Papua yang terampas oleh Freeport dan aktif melakukan advokasi issu-issu lingkungan terkait kegiatan penambangan yang dilakukan Freeport … (full text).

… In 2002, we helped establish and provided support to a Center for Women and Children in Papua, operated by an indigenous Papuan organization, to meet the special human rights needs of women and children. The center now has 28 programs for women and children. (See insert, “Local Human Rights Centers Thrive,” p. 6-7) Also, human rights training, which began with our security and social development departments, continued throughout our operations in 2002 … (full text).

… Among Yosepha’s many protests against the company and the military security guards in its pay, was an attempt to bring some benefits to local people. Assisted by the church, Yosepha and several other women set up a cooperative, called Kulalok, to market their fruit and vegetables. Yosepha felt that Freeport should support the local people by buying from them, but the company imported these goods from outside Papua, flying them into Timika airport. So the women planned a way of drawing Freeport’s attention to their group by destroying the imported fruit and vegetables. With the money earned from the co-op, the women paid for homes built with batako (concrete bricks) and supplied with electricity … (full text).

(1000peacewomen 2/2): … Yosepha Alomang is a simple woman from the Mimika district in Papua, where her Amungme tribes people live. She is physically small, but she has bravely stood up to powerful interest groups in defense of her people’s right to their land. Yosepha lived with her family in Tsinga village, Tembagapura, Mimika, a hillside area, until the mid-1950s, when a local church that provided health and education in the remote areas of Papua encouraged them to move near the south coast.

As a little girl, Yosepha went to elementary school, but she dropped out in the fourth grade after the death of her parents. She recalls her first encounter with Freeport McMoran, the world’s biggest gold mine, located in Timika.

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

Komal Srivastava (born 1960 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh) into a middleclass family of modest means but high ideals. She is the third of five sisters. Her father was an officer in the Survey of India, her mother taught Hindi at a government school. Komal studied at the MGD School in Jaipur, and went on to complete her Masters in 1981 in geography from Rajasthan University.

(She) set up the Rajasthan chapter of the Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (India Knowledge and Science Center, BGVS) in 1992. Since then, she has convinced the state government of the need for a people-centered, democratic approach to literacy, and set up Samata, a women’s forum for equality, education, and peace, which was very important for developing women’s leadership within BGVS. Komal’s single-minded commitment to social equality and her persuasive and principled leadership have changed Rajasthan … Komal has inverted the top-down approach to the development of the dispossessed, moving beyond rhetoric and devising innovations that have broken ground in equity and participation.

She grew up a quiet, reflective woman who worked hard at her academics and her responsibilities at home. Her first engagement with social activism came in 1981, while she was still doing her Masters. The Rajasthan University Women’s Organization (RUWA) had organized a meeting for women on their growing insecurity on the campus, and on the exigency for an effective women’s organization. … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

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Sorry, no copy-able photo found for Komal Srivastava – India (but see such a Pic on ioa.ac.uk)

She is member of Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti BGVS.

See also the Community based Monitoring of Health services under NRHM, where she is CSO Representation (Komal Srivastava, Member BGVS, Jaipur).

… Interestingly, all the five chosen women are sisters-in-arms, joining the struggles and common issues from the time of Deorala sati in the late eighties in Rajasthan. In fact Ms.Roy, Ginni, Kavita and Komal made a formidable team during the past two decades fighting oppression and injustice, never resorting to violence – both physical and verbal … (full text).

Find her and her publications on Google Book-search, and on LinkedIn.

Press Note: Rajasthan High Court Accepts Sati Writ Petitions – Issues Notices. The 12 petitioner organisations are: All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Women’s Rehabilitation Group (WRG), Rajasthan University Women’s Association (RUWA), National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), Vividha: Womenís Documentation and Resource Center, National Muslim Women’s Welfare Society (NMWS), Women’s Cell, All India State Employees Federation, All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), Vishakha: Women’s Education and Resource Group (VWERG), Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Rajasthan (BGVS), Academy of Socio Legal Studies, Jaipur (ASLS), Peopleís Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan (PUCL) … (full text, Jaipur, 6th August, 2004).

… As you know the starvation and drought situation in Baran district in Rajasthan is very bad. We have a proposal from Komal Srivastava from BGVS Rajasthan and are in touch with her. BGVS, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Sankalp Sansthan, another NGO had done a study of the situation and sent their demands to the chief minister. While they are demanding effective govt. programmes, BGVS itself is also planning to set up some relief programme. They have currently asked for Rs.1 lakh for immediate relief from AID … (full text, November 08, 2002).

Attack on Freedom of Speech and ex-pression in Rajasthan, (by Ranbir Singh, Surendra Joshi, Prem Krishna Sharma, Dilip Singh, Vidya Sagar Upadhaya, Sabir Khan, Rajendra Saiwal, Om Prakash Mathur, Komal Chand Jain, Dr. Narendra Gupta, Mamta Jaitly, Vakar-Ul-Ahad, Nishat Hussein, Komal Srivastava, Sumitra Chopra, Shri Prakash, Rajaram Bhadu, Sunil Ghildiyal, Ajay Jain, Ashish Maharishi, Teesta Setalvad ,Kapil, Manish, Ishwar, Lokesh, Kavita Srivastava and many others), February, 2004.

(1000peacewomen 2/2): … When a student of the university was killed for dowry by her in-laws, Komal took part in the protest rally. Although she has since been involved with the women’s movement in Rajasthan, her activism became truly serious only after a sati (outlawed self-immolation on a husband’s pyre) occurred in 1987.

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Linked with Naral Pro-Choice America,

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

In 2005, Kate Michelman announced that she was stepping down as president of Naral Pro-Choice America in order to help elect a pro-choice president of the USA. Under her leadership, Naral has become the nation’s premier reproductive rights group. Kate’s more than 20 years of advocacy have led to legalization of abortion and access to birth control information and devices. As she educates women about their bodies, Kate also awakens in them their right to autonomy and their right to live in a peaceful world, inspiring countless young women to join the struggle worldwide for women’s rights … She says: “I decided that one of the most important ways I could contribute to healthier children and families was to empower women to bring children into the world under circumstances of their own choosing” … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

Kate Michelman (born 1942) is an American political activist known for her involvement in the pro-choice movement. She served as president of NARAL from 1985 to 2004, and testified against Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in their respective confirmation hearings. She wrote her memoirs in With Liberty and Justice for All: A Life Spent Protecting the Right to Choose (2006). (wikipedia).

Her Bio also on the Harry Walker Agency; and on Source Watch.

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Kate Michelman – USA

She works for Naral Pro-Choice America.

Listen her video: Kate Michelman and Cate Edwards – Women’s Forum Webcast, 23 min, Nov 11, 2007.

Kate Michelman, The Public Face Of a Woman’s Right to Privacy, January 12, 2006.

Find her and her publications on think/exist.com with her quotes; on amazon; on Harry Walker Agency Inc.; on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

She says also: … “They threaten women’s rights to reproductive freedom and choice. And they threaten the practice of medicine because they criminalize the doctor’s work” … and: “Bush uses often the slogan of compassionate conservative to describe himself. But it hardly describes the record he has compiled as governor when it comes to ensuring women’s reproductive health and rights. Last year alone, Governor Bush signed seven measures restricting rights, adding to the 11 provisions enacted in previous years” … (full text).

Fmr. NARAL Head Kate Michelman on Alito and Her Own Pre-Roe v Wade Experience Getting an Abortion and Consent From the Husband Who Abandoned Her, January 09, 2006.

Long ‘Roe’ to Hoe, By Frances Kissling & Kate Michelman, January 17, 2008.

And she says: … “The question I have been asking myself is how do we best bring America together in shared purpose, prosperity and, especially, equality. Barack Obama is also calling our nation to the greatness that we all want but that we’re uncertain we can still achieve. Many who had given up on politics are re-engaging. Many who had grown tolerant of the intolerable are now ready to demand more ­ and not just from themselves but others” … (full text, 3 Nov 2008).

She writes: … Senator Obama is not just prepared to lead ­ as our beloved Teddy and Caroline Kennedy have said, he is prepared to lead in a way different than we have seen for decades. Not out in front with us behind him, but rather with us beside him. And that difference is all the difference. That difference separates just any president from a great president; and right now, we need a great president. Barack Obama will be that great president. He will bring us all together. And together, we will change our country. During these past many years, we have lost the sense of what we could do together, who we could be, what was possible. That’s changing. And Barack Obama is the one changing that. With him, greatness is again within reach. (full text).

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Linked with The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan MKSS, India, with the National Campaign For People’s Right To Information NCPRI, India, and with The idea of India.

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

Through struggles for the right to minimum wages and employment, Aruna Roy (born 1946) united the people of central Rajasthan under the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). In 1994, the MKSS began the Right to Information movement. What started as a local intervention against corruption now stands as a national movement that has won freedom of information laws in ten states and at the center. The way in which Aruna bridged the interests of the middle class and the impoverished is remarkable. She says: “While the right to information in India is logical, it is conspicuous in its absence in the quotidian workings of the establishment. The sufferers are the impoverished” … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

Aruna Roy is an Indian political and social activist. She served as a civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service from 1968-1975. She is best-known for her campaigns to better the lives of the rural poor in Rajasthan … (full text on wikipedia).  And: Career; Personal Life.

This year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership and International Understanding has been bestowed on J Arputham, President, National Slumdwellers’ Federation and Aruna Roy, Sept. 2000 … (full text).

She is also a Better World Heroe.

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Aruna Roy – India

Watch these videos:

• Aruna Roy – The Initial Findings of the Jury, 10 min, Jan 22, 2008;
• Aruna Roy speaks on NREGA – National consutation 2008, 2 min, May 8, 2008.

She works for Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan MKSS.

RTI: Aruna Roy for another campaign, to implement the act, 11/3/2008.

RTI Act yet to make impact in villages, say policymakers, Nov. 6, 2008.

She says also: … “Many collectives of the poor people struggling for change gave us the ideas and the commitment to bring about meaningful change. In fact, this has been one of the outstanding lessons of my 25 years of work in rural Rajasthan. I owe my ideas to the clarity of others; my courage to being with people who confront injustice with fearlessness and equanimity; my hope to the persistence and resilience of men and women struggling to get themselves heard; my generosity to the poor family that shared its last roti (bread) with me and my sense of well being to the many who have supported me in difficult moments of my life” … (full interview text).

Desert Storm: Saathin Solidarity, September 11, 2004.

Find her and her publications on Google Book-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Another Interview With Aruna Roy: Janadesh 2007, by Santosh H K Narayan.

And she says: … “The pity is that there is no accountability in the present system of governance. All human rights depend on the basic right to know, to demand accountability. In India, the feudal social fabric has exploited the formal democratic system to its advantage because the literate are too busy building careers and empires to bother about social inadequacies. That’s why RTI has a widespread appeal for everyone. Every citizen of the state has a fundamental right to say: “You are spending my money. Render me the accounts.” But most people are unaware of this power and suffer as a result their inaction and ignorance” … (full interview text).

Aruna Roy is a recipient of Magsaysay award – valued as the Asian Nobel prize – for community leadership and international understanding. Aruna Roy was an IAS officer until 1974. She resigned from the IAS to join the Social Work and Research Center in Tilonia, Rajasthan, which had been set up by her husband Sanjit Roy. She worked at the SWRC until 1983, then moved to Devdoondri in 1990 and set up the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana, a group which is a working example of a transparent organization. She is a strong supporter of the movement for Right to Information, which succeeded in getting the Rajasthan Right to Information Bill passed … (full text).

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Linked with Rosie’s place, and with Why are people homeless. Added Nov. 16, 2008: and linked with Poor People’s United Fund PPUF.

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

At a time when society believed that women’s place was in the home, Kip Tiernan reached out to those women who had no home. In 1974, she founded Rosie’s Place, the United States’ first drop-in, emergency shelter for women. Kip has been at the center of the fight for economic and social justice for nearly three decades, advocating and lobbying for affordable and accessible housing, health care, education, jobs, civil rights, and peace. She currently serves as codirector of the Poor People’s United Fund, which she founded … She says: “If we care enough to take the risk of being human, together we can change the world”. (On 1000peacewomen).

Kip Tiernan is an American activist who may be best known as founder of Rosie’s Place. She has been an advocate for economic and social justice for nearly three decades. Tiernan has protested and lobbied for affordable and accessible housing, health care and education as well as jobs, civil rights and peace. Drawing from her early roots in the radical Catholic left movement, Tiernan encourages people “to take the risk of being human” … // … Tiernan was also a founder of the Boston Food Bank (see the Greather Boston Food Bank) and co-founder of the Boston Women’s Fund, Health Care for the Homeless and Community Works (see Police and Community Youth Club). In 1980 she co-founded the Poor People’s United Fund, a “spare change” funding source for grass roots community groups involved in issues of homelessness, hunger and access to justice, and she currently serves as the co-director. In 1990 she established the Ethical Policy Institute, a multi-disciplinary community of people engaged in political analysis, economics and community activism. Tiernan also teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts. A popular public speaker and social commentator, Tiernan has lectured at hundreds of high schools, colleges, churches and conferences and written articles in local as well as national publications … (full text).

Her Bio on Rosie’s Place.

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Kip Tiernan – USA (left)

She works for Rosie’s Place, for the (Greather) Boston Food Bank, and for the Poor People’s United Fund PPUF.

When has anything that Kip Tiernan and Fran Froelich done been conventional? Last night in a program sponsored by the Women’s Resource Center and campus volunteer programs, the pair referred to as “the conscience of Boston” spoke about their outsider political theology in their book, Urban Meditations. (on BCHEIGHTS.com, a Bostons’ students paper).

… Kip is a native of Connecticut who was orphaned as a child and raised by her grandmother. Always unorthodox, by the time she was 16 she was taking flying lessons and playing jazz piano … (full text).

She says also: (Alice) … “taught me patience, kindness, street smarts… I still miss her more than I can say.”

One of the very first people I ever heard challenge homeless advocates to go beyond services to structural solutions was Kip Tiernan, a Boston activist out of the Catholic Worker mold. Kip is still around and at 77 continues to direct Boston’s Poor People’s United Fund with her longtime associate Fran Froelich … (full text).

Find her and her publications on ; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Provides a $40,000 stipend and benefit package for one year to a woman, over 21 years of age, so that she can develop and carry out a special project that will further the mission of Rosie’s Place anywhere in New England … (full text).

Rosie’s Place Spring Gala: On 5/2, more than 200 guests gathered at the Channel 5 studios in Needham to mark the 80th birthday of social justice activist and Rosie’s Place founder Kip Tiernan. The event featured cuisine from celebrity chefs and a live auction, raising more than $350,000 for Rosie’s Place, a shelter for poor and homeless women. (Boston Magazine).

More than three decades after publication of the taboo-shattering book on female health, “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” activists are still struggling to bring attention to women’s health issues amid the national debate over medical insurance coverage, said one of the book’s authors and feminist pioneer Judy Norsigian … // … The discussion was moderated by Kip Tiernan, co-founder of Community Works in Boston, an organization supported through Harvard’s Community Gifts program (see box). (A scheduled participant, Byllye Avery, founder of the Black Women’s Health Imperative, was not able to attend due to a family health matter) … (full text).

Kip created a sanctuary of love when she opened the doors to Rosie’s Place 33 years ago and we continue to provide a community of support and hope for our most vulnerable sisters. With meals, groceries from our food pantry, advocacy services, emergency shelter, adult education, permanent housing, and more, Rosie’s Place has created a critical set of services that help all women make real and lasting changes and reach for their dreams. The following examples highlight some of our achievements across the organization this past year: … (full text).

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

Sister Brigitta was born in Langgur, Southeast Maluku on October 7, 1953. She wanted to be a nun since she was a little girl. As a teenager, she sang in a band, was a swimming champion and dated boys. But when a man proposed to her, she declined and instead entered the religious life. She graduated from the Fajar Langgur Teacher’s College in 1973. After finishing teacher’s college, she took her vows as a nun of the order of the Sacred Heart of Princess Mary and devoted herself to guiding the youth. With the outbreak of violence in Maluku, she focused her efforts on women and established the Forum for Women’s Welfare Gerakan Perempuan Peduli (GPP) in 1999, and she worked in Soya, Ambon, at a camp for internally displaced persons. Working with refugees, Brigitta has met people at their most vulnerable. She is acknowledged as a counselor, teacher and mediator.  Sister Brigitta Renyaan is a nun from the order of the Sacred Heart of Princess Mary or Putri Bunda Hati Kudus (PBHK). She is well known as at teacher of thousands of children at Xaverius Catholic School, which she founded.The sister’s determination emanates from a gentle heart. She says she was inspired by her late father, Ernest Renyaan, a teacher who was educated in colonial Dutch and Japanese schools. When the Japanese government summoned Ernest to go to Papua in the 1940s, he refused, choosing to quit his teaching job so he could remain in his native Maluku, where he worked as a farmer, carpenter and grassroots teacher … (on 1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “I will continue to defend the children and women, in war or in peace” … and: “We decided to form a foundation, I represented the Moslem women and children, because they were still in an alert situation. I counselled the Moslem children and helped them gather in Air Kuning, even though at the time we had no guarantee of protection” … and: She recalls, “That evening some of the orphans wearing their veils were ready at the 733rd army dorm. But people surrounded the area from everywhere, so they had to be picked up by an armed vehicle and dropped off at the monastery’s front door” … and: “I am not a teacher of religion, but a general teacher who tries to support children’s development and creativity according to their respective religious values, I am glad to see the parents support this” … (on 1000peacewomen).

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Brigitta Renyaan Sr. – Indonesia … click on the picture for greather size

She works for Gerakan Perempuan Peduli GPP (existing on yahoo groups, and named on Geocities), and for the Putri Bunda Hati Kudus–Order of the Sacred Heart of Princess Mary (no website found).

THE SITUATION IN AMBON / MOLUCCAS: Report 310, Aug 19, 2002; and Report 317, September 11, 2002.

Find her and her publications on Google Blog-search (4 results in Indonesian language).

Indonesian texts: on apakabar.ws; Geocities.com, Oct. 29, 2001; on Kontras.org, Dec. 26, 2002; another on Kontras.org, 28 Agustus 2006.

From here all text from 1000peacewomen 2/2: … The story of her father’s rebellion inspired Brigitta, who heard the story told over and over again. She says that her father’s discipline and attitude inspired her to become a nun. A dynamic church community also formed her and provided her with the opportunity to join social movements and become an activist. The outbreak of violence in Maluku in 1999 was her first experience in emergency work, counselling and working with victims of violence, especially marginalized groups. That same year, she formed the Gerakan Perempuan Peduli (The Forum for Women’s Welfare) in Maluku, which focused on women’s issues, gender awareness and child education.

The conflict in Maluku worsened with the deployment of military troops. Maluku was declared unsafe, and many people were evacuated. Sister Brigitta refused the suggestion by the church to evacuate from Maluku, choosing to stay with the people affected by the conflict, especially the women and children. During the conflict, the economy in Maluku turned into a nightmare. Life was very difficult for the community, especially the women who had to make sure they could feed their families. In camps for internally displaced persons (IDP), women and children had to live with poor sanitation, poor health, lack of education, lack of nutritious food, lack of love, not to mention sexual violence, sniper attacks, bombs, and other problems.

The women’s lives were changed forever. The faced the risk of losing their family members, of physical violence, the lack of political participation, and libel. In some instances, women had to resort to prostitution in order to feed their children. With most of the men out fighting, the women were left to keep the family together. But it was not safe for the women to walk in the streets. Many women, who got up early to go to the market before sunrise, were not safe from snipers.

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Linked with Where was the Color in Seattle?

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

Elizabeth “Betita” Martínez (born 1925) is a Chicana feminist and a long-time community organizer, activist,  author, and educator. She has written numerous books and articles on different topics relating to social movements in the Americas. Her best-known work is the bilingual 500 years of Chicano History in Pictures, which later formed the basis for the educational video Viva la Causa! 500 Years of Chicano History. Her work has been hailed by Angela Y. Davis as comprising one of the most important living histories of progressive activism in the contemporary era … [Martínez is] inimitable … irrepressible … indefatigable … (full text).

Her Bio also on South End Press.

… In 1997 she co-founded and currently directs the Institute for MultiRacial Justice in San Francisco, a resource center that aims “aims to strengthen the struggle against white supremacy by serving as a resource center to help build alliances among peoples of color and combat divisions”. Most recently, Betita was named as one of the 1000 women from 150 countries (40 from the U.S.) who have been nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. (full text).

She says: “If being a writer implies sensitivity to the complex reality of human existence, then how can one not seek to end the conditions that suffocate all but a tiny number of those who walk this earth?”(1000peacewomen).

Listen the videos: Elizabeth Betita Martinez, 2.59 min, Sept. 24, 2008; and: Elizabeth Betita Martinez’ Message About Efren Paredes, Jr., 1.33 min, April 23, 2008.

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Elizabeth Betita Martinez – USA

She works for War Times-Tiempo de Guerras; for the Institute for Multi-Racial Justice (named on abc otv online); and for the Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

Towards Social Justice: Elizabeth ‘Betita’ Martinez and the Institute for MultiRacial Justice, by Chris Crass, December 24, 2004.

Find her and her publications on allBookstore; on amazon; on wikipedia /selected publications; on Google Video-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

Betita Martinez responded to one of my questions at her Detroit book signing by saying, ¡Vive la mujer radical! (Long live the radical women!). I need to summon her unwavering purpose to keep my energy up! (on a book without cover).

Help for Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez, 10th March 2005.

If ever there has been a chapter of the U.S. left with deep cultural roots in every sense, it is the movimiento of New Mexico. The roots include social relations, economic traditions, political forms, artistic expression, and language—everything that defines peoplehood. They are Native American, Spanish, and Mexican mestizo (mixed) and they go back centuries. Migrant workers of the last 150 years have played a crucial part, but “immigrant” does not describe the totality of those roots … (full text A View from New Mexico: Recollections of the Movimiento Left, by Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez).

… Morales got the idea for the film while interviewing Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez. Perhaps best known for her book “500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures,” Martinez already was politically active in the early 1950s when her daughter was born … (full text, 23 Oct 2008).

… Second, the vital critique of white privilege in the Global Justice movement that was initiated by Elizabeth Betita Martinez in her essay “Where Was the Color in Seattle”.  That essay and others that followed it made race and power burning issues throughout the movement … (full text).

… She’s perhaps best known as the author of the classic 500 Years of Chicano History which remains a profusely illustrated testament to our people’s storied resistance throughout centuries of oppression. Betita, as she prefers to be called, was in town last week, however, to speak to students and people in the community about her latest book 500 Years of Chicana Women’s History. (Rutgers Press).

Starting where her classic text left off, Betita’s newest book is a bilingual historical exhumation of the long obscured stories of Chicana women in resistance. All too often faced with a male dominated triumvirate chorizo-fest image of the Chicano Movement, Betita’s book is a breath of fresh air and further more, an absolute necessity! … (full text).

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

Maria Varela has been a community organizer for nearly 40 years, beginning in 1962 when she joined the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee. Assigned to Selma Alabama, Varela’s job was to teach literacy. Instead she found herself a student of the rich African American culture of the black belt south. Dissatisfied with existing literacy materials, Varela began to create filmstrips and photo books that proved useful both in training community leaders and teaching literacy … (full text).

She says: “Breakthroughs are possible only if we can gather the courage to risk stepping outside our colonized worldviews” … and: … She argues:”Collaboration can provide the opportunity for the kind of cross-cultural communication that is necessary to address social, economic, and environmental problems … But unless the issues of race, class, and culture are faced head-on, I question whether collaboration can make a dent in deeply held ethnocentrism, rooted in still deeper historical legacies. Breakthroughs are possible, but only if we can gather the courage to risk stepping outside our colonized worldviews” … (both on 1000peacewomen).

Her profile on LinkedIn.

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Maria Varela – USA

She works for Rural Resources Group.

… TOPPENISH – The Yakima Valley’s economic future does not rest on the shoulders of farmers, ranchers or tourism developers. National rural resources expert Maria Varela says it rests, instead, in each Valley community’s ability to teach a diverse population the ABCs of economic literacy. The lessons are worthy of people of all ages and cultures, and could start being taught as early as middle school or junior high, she adds. Varela’s message was directed to the graduating class of Heritage College last weekend. In an interview, Varela says she gained as much from the graduates as they might have gained from her … (full text).

The book: Rural Environmental Planning for Sustainable Communities, by Frederic Sargent, Paul Lusk, Jose Rivera, Maria Varela.

Find her and her publications on amazon; on Google Book-search; on Google Group-search.

The Google download-books:

Women of Color, By Lillian Comas-Díaz, Beverly Greene, 1994, 518 pages;

Encyclopedia of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, By Matt S. Meier, Margo Gutiérrez, 2000, 293 pages.

… As a community organizer, Maria Varela specializes in small miracles. “What I do is to unlock people’s hopes and abilities,” she says of her part in the work of establishing a series of successful self-help ventures that have improved the lives of the people of her community without compromising their cherished rural traditions. While Varela prefers to go about her business without fanfare, her efforts have not gone unnoticed. Last summer she was honored with a prestigious MacArthur Foundation fellowship, a so-called genius award with a $305,000 no-strings-attached stipend that left her flustered and—no use denying it—thrilled. “I was stunned that they chose a community organizer, because community work is not often recognized” … (full text).

She writes: Definitions by Maria Varela:

• 5. nikojunkie – One smitten with, obsessed by, in love with Nikolai Fraiture, bass player and god-like beauty, of the Strokes. NOT me…  Jun 23, 2006
• 4. Paul Banks – Lead singer of dirge band Interpol. Blonde, blue-eyed and beauty marked this man is a Slavic-looking stunner. His v…  Nov 15, 2003
• 3. Julian Casablancas – Incredibly gifted Puerto-Rican looking singer and songwriter for NY band the Strokes. His dad was a creep; he’s not….  Nov 15, 2003
• 2. the libertines – Ostensibly an English band comprised of four members but only two are ever seen: look up Carlos Barat and Pete Dohert…  Nov 15, 2003
• 1. nikolai fraiture – Franco-Russian soft-haired and soft-spoken bassist for the Strokes. Often found in the background of photos and obsc

… (on Urban Dictionary).

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

Barbara Smith is an author, activist, and independent scholar who has played a groundbreaking role in opening up a national dialogue about the intersections of race, class, sexuality, and gender. She was among the first to define an African American women’s literary tradition and to build black women’s studies and black feminism in the United States. She has been politically active in many movements for social justice since the 1960s. Currently, her focus is on neighborhood and community organizing, especially regarding youth issues, in the poor black community where she resides. She says: “We are not hated and abused because there is something wrong with us, but our treatment is absolutely prescribed by the racist, misogynistic system under which we live”.  (on 1000peacewomen).

Barbara Smith (born December 16, 1946) in Cleveland is an American, lesbian feminist who has played a significant role in building and sustaining Black Feminism in the United States. Since the early 1970s she has been active as an innovative critic, teacher, lecturer, author, independent scholar, and publisher of Black feminist thought. She has also taught at numerous colleges and universities over the last twenty five years. Smith’s essays, reviews, articles, short stories and literary criticism have appeared in a range of publications, including The New York Times Book Review, The Black Scholar, Ms., Gay Community News, The Guardian, The Village Voice, Conditions (magazine) and The Nation. Barbara has a twin sister, Beverly Smith, who is also a lesbian feminist activist and writer … (full text).

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Barbara Smith – USA

She works for:

• Albany’s Stand for Peace Antiracism Committee SPARC,(no own website, but named on RJ911 /racial justice, on Metroland online, on ColorLines, on all4all.org, and on University at Albany /Social Justice Activism);
• for the Coalition for Accountable Police and Government (no own website, but the key words of this titles are somewhat named on: scroll down and see under links /Not a solution … );
• and for Justice for Diallo Committee (no own site, but named on DemocracyNow, on workers.org, on Times Union, on PBS.org, on NY Times, and on CNN.com).

History and activism.

Her Bio on NOW.org.

She is one of the 37 Women Named Bunting Institute Fellows for ‘96-97.

She is also a Betterworld Heroe, see Her Bio.

Some of the Google download-books she authored or co-authored:

• Home Girls, By Barbara Smith, 2000, 364 pages;
• All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave, By Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell-Scott, Barbara Smith, 1982, 401 pages;
• The Truth That Never Hurts, By Barbara Smith, 2000, 240 pages;
• Leadership by Example, By Janet Corrigan, Jill Eden, Barbara M. Smith, 2003, 183 pages;
• The Reader’s Companion to U. S. Women’s History, By Mankiller, Wilma P. Mankiller, edited by … and Barbara Smith, 1999, 720 pages.

She says also: “What I really feel is radical is trying to make coalitions with people who are different from you. I feel it is radical to be dealing with race and sex and class and sexual identity all at one time. I think that is really radical because it has never been done before”. (on Betterworld Heroes).

Find her and her publications on wikipedia /writings; on inauthor Google-search; and on Google Blog-search.

Many persons have the same name, disambiguations are often uncertain.

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Linked with Mobility International USA, MIUSA, with Access for All: USAID’s Commitment to Accessible Programs, and with Resources for Disabled Travelers.

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

Susan Sygall is an internationally recognized expert in leadership programs and international educational exchange for persons with disabilities, with a particular emphasis on women. From her wheelchair, Susan inspires people to achieve more than they–and society–thought possible. She has changed the lives of countless women, often in the most isolated parts of the world. She cofounded Disabled Women’s Coalition, the Berkeley Outreach Recreation Program, and Mobility International USA, where she serves as executive director. She says: “Personally, I’ve been unbelievably fortunate. Amazing things have happened in my life that have allowed me to do work that I’m passionate about and that has made an impact”. (1000peacewomen).

… Ms. Sygall, CEO and co-founder of Mobility International USA, serves as a trainer, presenter and consultant throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia on a variety of topics related to leadership, international exchange, inclusion and services for people with disabilities. Ms. Sygall has conducted leadership trainings with people with disabilities, educators and policy makers in Vietnam, Micronesia, Bosnia, Brazil and Mexico. Most recently, Ms. Sygall co-led MIUSA’s third international Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD), which brought together 30 grassroots women leaders with disabilities from 30 countries. Ms. Sygall has co-authored a long series of publications and materials, including: Building Bridges: A Manual for Including Persons with Disabilities in International Exchange Programs (4th edition), and Building an Inclusive Development Community: A Manual on Including People with Disabilities in International Development Programs and has contributed her extensive experience to the publication Survival Strategies for Going Abroad: A Guide for People with Disabilities … (full Bio).

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Susan Sygall – USA

She works for Mobility International USA, MIUSA, for the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchanges, and for the Disabled Women’s Coalition (named on disability history, see on 1974: Disabled Women’s Coalition founded at UC Berkeley by Susan Sygall and Deborah Kaplan. Other women involved include Kitty Cone, Corbett O’Toole, and Susan Schapiro. The coalition ran support groups, held disabled women’s retreats, wrote for feminist publications, and lectured on women and disability).

Women Who Light the Dark: Michael Krasny speaks with an array of women who are actively and innovatively progressing communities around the world … also with Susan Sygall, CEO and co-founder of Mobility International USA and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Oct 8, 2007: download the AUDIO on KQED radio.

Building an Inclusive Development Community: A Manual on Including People With Disabilities in International Development Programs; Author(s): Heinicke-motsch, Karen; Sygall, Susan.

She writes:

… The goal is to cultivate leadership among these young people and find ways of broadening their lives, according to Susan Sygall, co-founder of MIUSA.  Since 1981, the nonprofit organization has coordinated exchange programs for people with and without disabilities from more than 90 countries …
(full text).

Sports Programs Where a Disability Is No Barrier to Having Fun, Last in a four-part series on life for people with disabilities in the US, April 1, 2007: Download context with windows media player, or Download its pdf-transcript,  both in different languages possible, on VOICE ONE … (full text).

The Google download-books:

Gender, Development, and Diversity, by Caroline Sweetman, 2004, 90 pages;

Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door 2008, by Rick Steves, 2007, 676 pages.

She says also: “I believe that all people with disabilities are members of a global family. Working together across borders is our most powerful way of effecting changes”. (on MIUSA/about).

Find her and her publications on amazon; on SourceWatch; on bookfinder.com; on allBookstores.com; on Bancroft Library, Berkeley; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

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Linked with INCITE – Women of Color Against Violence, and with Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools. Added Nov. 2, 2008: also linked with the Boarding School Healing Project, (on Oct. 03) with INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND BOARDING SCHOOLS, and with American Indian Boarding School Experiences: Recent Studies from Native Perspectives.

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

Andrea Smith combines intellectual study, professional skill, and personal passion to shed light on violence against women of color in the USA. The violence comes from many corners of society, including family members, immigration officials, police, and employers. Andrea began her advocacy work as a rape crisis counselor with Chicago Women of All Red Nations. She co-founded INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, a national organization that uses direct action, dialogue, and grassroots organizing to end violence against women of color. Andrea teaches at the University of Michigan. She says: “It is futile to try to combat interpersonal violence without addressing the fact that we live in a world structured by violence”. (1000peacewomen).

Andrea Lee Smith is a Cherokee intellectual, feminist, and anti-violence activist. Smith’s work focuses on issues of violence against women of color and their communities, specifically Native American women. A co-founder of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, the Boarding School Healing Project, and the Chicago chapter of Women of All Red Nations, Smith centers the experiences of women of color in both her activism and her scholarship. She is currently a professor of American Culture and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI … (full text).

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Andrea Smith – USA

She works for INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence.

Listen her video: Andrea Smith: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide, 76.30 min, 20 janv. 2007:
In this lecture, author, scholar, and activist Andrea Smith of INCITE! Women of Color against Violence discussed sexual violence in American Indian communities and the role of sexual violence in genocide. Smith argues hat sexual violence is an inherent part of the colonial project. She also asserts that sexual violence – as a weapon of both patriarchy and colonialism – must be approached from an anti-colonial perspective. Finally, she shares her thoughts on organizing against sexual violence and argues for a “mass movement” against sexual violence that exists outside of current non-profit structures.

Smith’s book sheds light on the inherently oppressive definitions of sexual violence, especially towards indigenous women. Sexual violence is a tool. It can be traced back to colonial times. It enforces the patriarchy and colonial goals, of exploration of the Native community … (full text, oct. 6, 2008).

The Google download books:

• Conquest, by Andrea Smith, 2005, 246 pages;
• Native Americans and the Christian Right, by Andrea Smith, 2008, 356 pages.
  

Find her and her publications on wikipedia /Selected publications; (as her name is very current, there are other persons than our peacewomen mixed up in all these Google-search-results): on Google Video-search; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search. (Same mix-up with other persons): on amazon.

Andrea Smith of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence spoke of these connections when she described how “hetereo [sexual] patriarchy is fundamental to empire because patriarchy is what naturalizes social hierarchy, the idea that men naturally rule over women, that elites naturally rule over everyone else.  In the history of Indian genocide, the first task that colonists took on was to integrate patriarchy into native communities who wouldn’t accept colonial domination until native men started treating native women the way that white men treat women.”  Smith noted that sexual violence against native women served as a “primary tool” for colonialism and white supremacy “by rendering women inherently rapable, our land inherently invadable and our resources inherently extractable” (radio feminista.net).

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Linked with Land to the tillers, and with Land for Tillers Freedom LAFTI.

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

… Early lives (1930-1950): Krishnammal Jagannathan was born to a landless Dalit family in 1926. Despite her family’s poverty, she obtained university level education and was soon committed to the Gandhian Sarvodaya Movement, through which she met her husband, Sankaralingam Jagannathan (born in 1912), also a noted Gandhian. Sankaralingam Jagannathan came from a rich family but gave up his college studies in 1930 in response to Gandhi’s call for non-cooperation and disobedience. He joined the Quit India Movement in 1942 and spent three and a half years in jail before India gained its independence in 1947. During this time he already had considerable impact as campaigner on behalf of the poor. Sankaralingam and Krishnammal married in 1950, having decided only to marry in independent India … // … Further achievements and honours: In their lives, Sankaralingam Jagannathan and Krishnammal Jagannathan, either independently or together, have established a total of seven non-governmental institutions for the poor. Besides this, Krishnammal Jagannathan has also played an active role in wider public life: she has been a Senate member of the Gandhigram Trust and University and of Madurai University; a member of a number of local and state social welfare committees; and a member of the National Committee on Education, the Land Reform Committee and the Planning Committee. These activities have gained for the Jagannathans a high profile in India and they have won many prestigious Awards: the Swami Pranavananda Peace Award (1987); the Jamnalal Bajaj Award (1988) and Padma Shri in 1989. In 1996 the couple received the Bhagavan Mahaveer Award “for propagating non-violence.” In 1999 Krishnammal was awarded a Summit Foundation Award (Switzerland), and in 2008 an ‘Opus Prize’ given by the University of Seattle … (full text right livelihood).

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Krishnammal Jagannaathan – India

She works for Land for Tillers Freedom LAFTI.

Listen her video: Krishnammal Jagannaathan, Founder of LAFTI, 9.21 min.

She says: “I realized then that being a peasant woman was hard enough, but to be a Harijan woman was harder still” … and: “Father disciplined us with corporal punishment,” she remembers. “We simply weren’t allowed to mingle with village children. Mostly, we were taken outside the village during the day and brought back home only at night” … and: “Those were three memorable days,” says Krishnammal. “Gandhi and many of us went around collecting money for the cause of the Untouchables” … and: Of her mother, she recalls, “Mother had no knowledge of the outside world. During the day, she used to work very hard under the hot sun in the paddy fields, and at night she used to pound and husk the paddy with her own hands to sell in the market” … (1000peacewomen).

… As a young student, Jagannathan worked with Mohandas Gahndhi and later with Vinobha Bhave to help untouchable bonded laborers. Krishnammal will receive an Opus Prize Award in a ceremony at Seattle University on November 18. She will travel to Sweden in December to receive the Right Livelihood Award at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament … (full text).

Sankaralingam Jagannathan and Krishnammal Jagannathan believed that one of the key requirements for achieving a Gandhian society is by empowering the rural poor through redistribution of land to the landless. For two years between 1950 and 1952 Sankaralingam Jagannathan was with Vinoba Bhave in Northern India on his Bhoodan (land-gift) Padayatra (pilgrimage on foot), the march appealing to landlords to give one sixth of their land to the landless. Mean while Krishnammal completed her teacher-training course in Madras (now renamed Chennai). When Sankaralingam returned to Tamil Nadu to start the Bhoodhan movement the couple, until 1968, worked for land redistribution through Vinoba Bhave’s Gramdan movement (Village Gift, the next phase of the land-gift movement), and through Satyagraha (non-violent resistance). Sankaralingam Jagannathan was imprisoned many times for this work. Between 1953 and 1967, the couple played an active role in the Bhoodhan movement spearheaded by Vinoba Bhave, through which about 4 million acres of land were distributed to thousands of landless poor across several Indian states … (full long text).

Find her and her publications on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.

(1000peacewomen): Freedom-fighter and Dalit activist Krishnammal Jagannaathan (born on 16 June 1926) is often referred to as India’s Joan of Arc. Krishnammal believes in a participatory approach, motivating people to change their own lives. In 1981, she cofounded Land for Tillers Freedom (LAFTI) to facilitate the distribution of land to landless peasants. LAFTI takes bank loans to buy land; the peasants pay the organization back over time. She has also mobilized women on many issues, including wages, land, housing, and sexual harassment, and encouraged many of them to better their own lives.

Born into a Dalit family in a village near Batlagundu, Tamil Nadu, her earliest memories are of segregation.

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Linked with The Women of Color Resource Center, and with The Great Unmasking.

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

Linda Burnham has been an organizer and a human rights activist for her entire life. In 1990, she founded the Women of Color Resource Center, which organizes and trains women of color to work on social justice issues. In 1995, Linda led a delegation to the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing and a delegation in 1999 to the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. She has worked locally and nationally with coalitions that oppose war, as well as groups that protect civil liberties and immigrant rights.  She says: “If you’re still moaning, time to get up. There are war crimes being committed in Fallujah as we speak. We have a domestic agenda without end. We have work to do. Get up off of the moaning bench”. (1000peacewomen).

… Burnham has written extensively on topics of Black politics and women’s rights. She was the first editor of Race File, a publication that compiles and analyzes articles highlighting key trends in communities of color. Currently Burnham is an editor of Crossroads, a magazine that promotes dialogue and debate on the left side of the political spectrum. The numerous articles she’s published include: “Has Poverty Been Feminized in Black America,” “Race and Gender: Analogous or Not,” “A Sledgehammer Message from L.A.,” and “Recruiting for the FBI: Reflections on The Bell Curve” … (full text).

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Linda Burnham – USA

She works for for the Women of Color Resource Center, for the Third World Women’s Alliance (named on Women of Color Resource Center/article), and on Duke University Libraries); for the Alliance Against Women’s Oppression (named on Journal for the Study of Radicalism 1.1 (2007) 135-137, reviewing the book: Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968–1980, by Kimberly Springer, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005. 240 pp., ISBN 0-8223-3493-3).

Obama’s Candidacy: The Advent of Post-Racial America and the End of Black Politics?

The Google download book: African Americans in the U.S. Economy, page 309: Racism in US Welfare Policy.

She writes: Talk about an election that has had it all: complicated conflicts over race, gender, age, generational transition, religion and more – all against the backdrop of a sinking economy and a couple of raging wars. I didn’t think the presidential campaign could get much more interesting than it was during the primaries when a hundred mini- dramas unfolded within the frame of a core narrative that was itself  mesmerizing. But it just got more interesting, especially for those who identify as feminists … (full text).

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Linked with Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights UAF.

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

After a rigorous international search, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights (UAF) is pleased to announce its new Executive Director, Terry Greenblatt, a well-respected human rights and transnational peace and justice activist. Terry began working with UAF on June 1, 2008, and officially succeeded co-founder, Julie Shaw, on July 1, 2008 … (full text).

She says: “Borders are no obstacle for women. Led by our feelings and instincts, women will cross them. Even when we are women whose very existence contradicts each other, we will talk; we will not shoot”. Terry Greenblatt, formerly director of Bat Shalom, Israel’s national women’s peace organization, and activist in residence at the Global Fund for Women, has been a women’s rights and antioccupation activist in Israel for the past 20 years. She lectures and lobbies internationally on the enforcement of equal rights for all in Israel and Palestine–Jews and Arabs. She cofounded Kol Ha-Isha (The Women’s Voice) Center of Jerusalem, Shani (Israeli Women Against the Occupation), and the Community School for Women’s Studies and Economic Development.  (1000peacewomen).

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Terry Greenblatt – USA

Terry Greenblatt began working with UAF on June 1, 2008, and officially succeeded co-founder, Julie Shaw, on July 1, 2008.  She worked also for Bat Shalom, for Kol Ha-Isha, and for Shani.

She says also: … We call upon all women and men, young and old, to join us in our sincere quest to preserve life, human dignity and freedom in our region. Dehumanization, hatred, revenge, and oppression contribute nothing to the resolution of a century of conflict. Mutual recognition and respect of each other’s individual and collective rights will pave the way for peace making. (full text, her speak before UN Security Council, May 7, 2002).

We Will Talk, We Will Not Shoot, 25 Feb 2002.

Further she say: … “By including an international constituency, we want to communicate that the international community has responsibility inside of this. People have been calling for years for some sort of international intervention, international participation, to help to resolve the issue because we can identify the international contribution in perpetuating the situation as it has evolved. The initiative for this committee wasn’t only to keep us calm and moving forward. It was also an effort to bring to the table all of the stakeholders in the resolution” … (full text, 9.8.2005).

And she adds: … And lastly, you are mandated to promote social progress and better standards of life, for until you do, until there is the degree of humanitarian aid for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the devastation of Palestine and her people, until the Israeli people can fully trust that international bodies are committed to ensuring our survival, neither nation will be able to begin to address the ultimate challenge of creating a culture of peace in our region … (full long text, before UN Security Council on 2002-05-07).

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Linked with WILPF, with International Peace Research Association IPRA, with the United States Institute of Peace USIP, and with The American Civil Liberties Union ACLU.

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

For more than 50 years, Elise Boulding has helped to create networks of peace. Her work is founded in her Quaker faith and a spirituality that is grounded in listening and sharing. She has a special gift for envisioning a peaceful future and teaching others how to use envisioning to create peace. Elise cofounded the International Peace Research Association with her husband and served as its secretary general. Since its beginning, the organization has held 17 conferences in 16 countries. Elise is also former president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF. She says: “The range of human activity that can be retuned to contribute to peace-building is vast”. (1000peacewomen).

Her book: The Effects of Industrialization on the Participation of Women in Society, by Elise Marie Biorn-Hansen Boulding.

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Elise Marie Biorn-Hansen Boulding – USA

She works for the International Peace Research Association, for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF, United States’ Section, and for the United States’ Institute of Peace.

Find her on Google Book-search.

… Peace is more than the absence of war; it is human security, equality and opportunity. These basic ideals don?t come easily, if at all, to most of the world?s people. The 1,000 brave women being honored spend their lives trying to make the culture of peace a global reality. ?This is a great honor for me, and also for all the women of CODEPINK who’ve been working so hard for peace over the last three years. And this is an amazing opportunity to promote the work of all 1,000 women on this list, who in their own special ways are pushing and striving and protesting for peace and justice,? was Medea?s response after hearing the news. Forty of the 1,000 women nominated are from the US. In addition to Medea, five of the women nominated are contributors to CODEPINK’s newest book Stop The Next War Now, CodepinkAlert, Barbara Lee, Cynthia McKinney, Elise Marie Biorn-Hansen Boulding, Noeleen Heyzer and Holly Near … (full text).

I saw these CODEPINK women protesting in front of the White House and was inspired by their energy, the information in their material and the humor they delivered it with…. Their book has delivered the same. Thoughtful, informative, easy access, well presented, deeply inspiring and heartful. The breadth and depth pulled me in so that I couldn’t put it down. I am ready to Stop the Next War Now! … (full text).

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Linked with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children LSPC.

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

… She is Co-Chair of the National Network for Women in Prison, a US-based coalition of organizations and individuals which sponsors national Roundtables for activists and advocates working with women in prison and women who are formerly incarcerated along with Leadership Training Institutes for formerly incarcerated women by and for women who have done time. Ms. Barry currently works as a consultant on Women and Justice issues. She is a founding member of Critical Resistance, a US-based movement which challenges the growth of the prison industrial complex and its detrimental effect on education, health and human services. She is a former member of the California State Bar Section on the Delivery of Legal Services, past co-chair of the State Bar Committee on Legal Services for Prisoners, and a member of the Statewide Commission on Female Inmates and Parolees (SCR 33 Commission which issued a statewide report on women in California prisons, 1992). She has served as lead counsel or co-counsel on over a dozen class action lawsuits challenging conditions of confinement for women prisoners, pregnant and parenting women in prison, pregnant women and pregnant substance dependent women, and women prisoners denied adequate medical care and programming. She has written and spoken extensively on issues affecting women prisoners, their children and family members. In 1997, she received a Soros Senior Justice Fellowship to work on behalf of women prisoners, their children and family members. In 1998, she was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship … (full text).

Find her on The NY Times.

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Ellen Barry – USA

She works for the Legal Services for Prisoners with Children LSPC,
and for Critical Resistance prison abolition movement.

She says: “I believe that many people are starting to realize that we’ve made some deep, deep mistakes by building prisons to the detriment and exclusion of building up our educational systems”. (1000peacewomen).

Ask Ellen Barry about herself and she’ll invariably tell you about someone else. The celebrated San Francisco-based advocate for women in prison isn’t exactly shy, but she’d much rather talk about her clients. For instance, there’s the story of Delores, a former heroin user who sought to turn her life around a few years ago after learning she was pregnant with her third child. Delores signed up for a drug recovery program and turned herself in for a probation violation … (UTNE Reader).

She says also:  … “I have so much admiration for people who face tremendous odds, who go through a journey to hell and come back” … (on BetterWorldHeroe).

Ellen Barry is a prison rights activist, lawyer, and organizer who speaks out about the crucial issues facing women in US jails and prisons. Ellen founded the Legal Services for Prisoners with Children LSPC and is a central figure in the Critical Resistance prison abolition movement. She has devoted much of her life to challenging the rapidly expanding prison system in the USA; with more than two million prisoners, it is the largest in the world. She has exposed the darkest prison abuses and has helped bring about significant, hard-won improvements to the California state prison system. (1000peacewomen).

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Linked with Ten-Thousand-Villages.

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

Candi Smucker believes the workers of the world deserve to earn a sustaining wage. And she knows that there are many shoppers who want to purchase goods that benefit the people who created them. Her first belief is grounded in humanitarianism; the second comes from solid experience. Her success as a retail manager for bookstores and fair trade gift stores prompted her to begin working with Ten Thousand Villages, a job creation program for third world artisans. She spearheaded the creation of five stores, authored a training manual, and trained 150 ‘Ten-Thousand-Villages’-storeowners. (1000peacewomen).

She says: “Fair trade plays by a different set of rules than normal commerce. Instead of exchanging goods or services based on clout and driving hard bargains, it is based on economic and social justice”.

Sonoma Handcrafts Store has a Gift for Saving Energy, Money and the Environment. Download also the Success Story: Baksheesh – Handcrafted Gifts from the Developing World.

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Candi Smucker – USA

She works for Ten-Thousand-Villages.

She says also: … “The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded for big things and big things are wonderful, but where change really happens is when multiple people do small acts over and over again. This project honors all those small acts. … It is many people doing small things that makes the biggest difference for world peace” … (full text).

Small businesses cut costs by conserving resources.

… Fair trade activist and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Candi Smucker spoke to a group of five students and community members about the importance of fair trade in room 225 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library on Monday … (full text).

Further she says: … Awareness of that potential is crucial, says Candi Smucker, co-owner of Baksheesh fair trade stores in Sonoma and Healdsburg (a St. Helena location opens later this month). “Fair trade” means the weavers, seamstresses and others artisans are guaranteed to earn a living wage in their country. Smucker says it’s possible to develop a healthy fashion conscience in small, do-able increments. “The first step is to just read the label,” Smucker explains. “It doesn’t mean buy it or don’t buy it; it just means educate yourself about where it’s from.” Next, ask the sales clerk what the company’s policy is on clothing made in a particular country. “The clerk won’t know,” Smucker adds wryly. “If you’re really into it, ask who in the company would know. And if you’re really, really into it, don’t buy it” … (full text).

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Linked with The War Resisters League WRL.

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

Kate Donnelly has spent 30 years participating in movements for social change. The focus of her work is teaching about nonviolence, and includes teaching conflict resolution skills, training people to participate in nonviolent direct action, and campaigning against war toys. Her belief in the intelligence and compassion of young people and the efficacy of local, grassroots struggles for social change are the core of her life and work. (1000peacewomen).

She says: “Let’s face it – as without intelligent, compassionate youth, there’s not much hope for our planet, never mind our movement”.

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Kate Donnelly – USA

She works for the War Resisters League WRL. What they do::

• War Tax Resistance: What would you do if someone came to your door with a cup in hand asking for a contribution to help buy guns to kill a group of people they didn’t like? (Wally Nelson). The War Resisters League works with war tax resisters and works with NWTRCC, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, and other war tax resistance groups. We produce the annual “federal budget pie chart,” Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes, the comprehensive book War Tax Resistance: A Guide to Withholding Your Support from the Military, and other war tax resistance resources.
• New Campaign: 2008 War Tax Boycott Redirects over $325,000 from War to Peace!War tax resisters met in Birmingham, Alabama, over the weekend of May 2-4, 2008, and held a press conference at the Greater Birmingham Ministries in downtown Birmingham on May 3. Antor Ndep from the Common Ground Health Clinic in New Orleans was on hand to accept checks and pledges for $50,329.61. Staff members of Direct Aid Iraq who provide health and support services to Iraq Refugees joined the press conference with a live internet hook up. DAI received $44,396.46 and expressed their gratitude for money that was taken from war to care for people. Over 500 people around the U.S. joined the war tax boycott and gave another $232,000 to humanitarian programs of their choice, including food banks, programs for the homeless, books for prisoners, environmental projects, peace groups, and hundreds of other nonprofit organizations.
• A People’s Campaign to Defund the War: For over five years peace activists have voted, lobbied, marched, and taken direct action to first prevent and then end the war in Iraq. Courageous soldiers have refused to fight the war. But Congress repeatedly votes to appropriate billions of dollars to continue the war and appears ready to authorize a future military attack on Iran. It’s time for taxpayers who oppose this war to join together in nonviolent civil disobedience and show Congress how to cut off the funds for this war and redirect resources to the pressing needs of people.
• This campaign to boycott and redirect war taxes was launched in September 2007 as Congress began its consideration of a Bush Administration request for an additional $190 billion appropriation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was begun in the fall, ahead of tax season, so that those who want to refuse to pay for war could explore the options, decide what to do, and prepare to resist well before 2007 taxes are due.
• This campaign was initiated by the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee and is being promoted by Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War Resisters League, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Veterans for Peace, and the Nonviolent Direct Action Working Group of United for Peace and Justice. The campaign is being promoted by peace activists around the country and is partnered with CODEPINK’s “Don’t Buy Bush’s War” campaign.
• Redirection Projects: Refusing to pay taxes because of war is an act of civil disobedience, but it also provides the opportunity to use that money for positive, healing, and rebuilding programs. War tax boycott participants are encouraged to redirect their resisted taxes to a project providing health care among Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria, a health care center in New Orleans providing care to survivors of Katrina, or to a humanitarian project of their own choosing:
  - The 2008 War Tax Boycott and Redirection built toward April 15, 2208, Tax Day. However, if you would like to sign on as a resister or for more information to prepare for Tax Day 2009, please submit the online Registration Form  or download the form here and mail it in;
  - See the list of public signers here;
  - The Getting Started in War Tax Resistance guide will help you prepare to refuse to pay for war, to understand the consequences, and to redirect your war taxes.

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

Barbara Jean Lee (born July 16, 1946), is an American politician, and has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1998, representing California’s 9th congressional district (map). She is the first woman to represent that district. Lee is the First Vice-Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Lee is notable as the only person in either chamber of Congress who voted against the authorization of use of force following the September 11, 2001 attacks. This made her a hero among the anti-war movement (peace movement), but also caused her to receive death threats.[2] Lee has been a vocal critic of the Iraq War and supports legislation creating a Department of Peace … (full text).

She says: “Today we come together to say no to the loss of innocent lives in a war that is totally unnecessary. And we are here to say yes to peace. George Bush has woken a sleeping giant in our country”. (1000peacewomen).

Her bios and actions as representative: on the Federal Election Commission /Barbara Lee, on penSecrets.org, on project vote smart, on the US Congress database /the Washington Post, on her official campaign site, Official web site for (US) Representative Barbara Lee (D – CA).

Her blog: where I stand.

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Barbara Lee – USA

Her issue positions and quotes.

She works for the House International Relations Committee (named on Phil Taylor’s Web Site), for the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and for the Congressional Black Caucus CBC.

The Videos: Barbara Lee from WAR MADE EASY, 1.08 min, added: August 03, 2007, and Rep. Barbara Lee on the Iraqi War, 5.38 min, added January 20, 2007.

… “My favorite brave American, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, has again done a courageous thing: she has written a personal and powerful story about her life … Lee is not only a hero and a champion of the marginalized and under-represented, she is also a marvelous teacher”. (full text, Sept. 13, 2008).

The Californian Partnership, Fall 2006 Newsletter.

Barbara Lee, democratic California congresswoman, gained international attention as the only member of congress to vote against the post-9/11 resolution giving president Bush unbridled power to use military force against anyone suspected of having committed the acts, or intending to do so in the future. She is a leader in promoting policies that foster international peace, security, and human rights, and is at the forefront in promoting legislation to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and promote treatment. She consistently advocates for the most vulnerable, especially women and children. (1000peacewomen).

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Linked with Ka ‘Imi Na ‘auao O Hawai’i Nei.

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

Roselle Bailey’s life work is to teach and preserve Hawai’ian culture. She served as caretaker of one of the most significant sites to hula practitioners and helped to launch the Ka Ipu Kukui leadership training program at Maui Community College. Roselle also founded the halau Ka ‘Imi Na ‘auao o Hawai’i Nei, whose goal is both to maintain traditional Hawai’ian culture and traditions and to heal ethnic and cultural divisions among Hawai’ians and between people of all cultures. (1000peacewomen).

She says: “Not until we lived in Iraq did I begin to take hula and my heritage seriously. It was then that I began to have dreams of home and the Hawai’ian language. It redirected my life–or did it”.

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Roselle Bailey – USA

She works for Ka ‘Imi Na ‘auao O Hawai’i Nei.

A Kaua`i Living Treasure.

… After growing up in Hawaii blessed with a strong Hula influence in her everyday life, for several years Roselle, her husband Jim and their two daughters, Sharon and Pohakalani, lived in the Middle East and then traveled through Europe, where she continued to teach and perform Hula … (full text).

In “The Hula Lesson” we join Hawaiian Hula teacher Roselle Bailey and her halau of multicultural women to find out what hula is, what it means to Hawaii, and why so many non-Hawaiians love it.

… Roselle Bailey, who was raised in Lahaina, is concerned that “developments are being proposed on ag land, when those lands are needed for sustainable agriculture” … (full text).

… Roselle Bailey testified in support of Ka‘anapali 2020 being placed within UGB. “No Ka‘anapali 2020 is a slap in the face for not being placed on the map. Listen to the people, not just what you think,” she said … (full text).

On 21 JULY, 2007, Kaua`i Museum honored its 2007 Kaua`i Living Treasures, among them was Roselle Bailey. Every two or three years, the Museum bestows this title on a small group of people whose service to the community and its culture has been outstanding. Past honorees have included archaeologist Pila Kikuchi, scholar Frances Frazier, musician Jose Bulatao, weaver Esther Makuaole and leimaker Irmalee Pomroy. Roselle came to Kaua`i on 19 May for a photo shoot at the Museum. Ever exuberant Tim Delavega took the pictures, while we took pictures of him taking pictures … (full text).

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Linked with The African American Women’s Institute AAWI, and with NOW and Abortion Rights /Reproductive Issues.

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

Aileen Clarke Hernandez (born 1926) has worked tirelessly for labor rights, women’s rights, and civil rights for US people of color for over 50 years, and sees these issues as ultimately interconnected. Her life of service includes public appointments and innumerable projects at local, state, and national levels. A committed feminist, she was the second national president of the National Organization for Women, and is currently chair of the California Women’s Agenda, a coalition of 600 local women’s organizations. (1000peacewomen).

Find her Biography on Answers.com; on e-notes; on spock; on NWHP; on AAWI.

She says: “Racism and sexism have made it possible to institutionalize mediocrity; by eliminating these evils we can free minds of all women and men to focus on the humane solutions to the world’s problems”.

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Aileen Clarke Hernandez – USA

She works for the California Women’s Agenda.

She is named in the following books : Betty Friedan, 189 pages, 2008; Women’s Issues, 1041 pages, 2008; Black Women in America, 2136 pages, 2006; Great Lives from History, 1961 pages, 27 Dec 2006; and the rest result of Googl’s book-search.

… She is the State Chair of the California Women’s Agenda, a network of 600 organizations serving women and girls; the Coordinator for the Bay Area’s Black Women Stirring the Waters; and Chair of the Coalition for Economic Equity, which advocates for increased contracting opportunities with the private and public sectors for businesses owned by women and minorities.  She was the second national president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and currently serves on the Steering Committee of the California Coalition for Civil Rights and the Board of Directors of the Center for Governmental Studies. In 1995, she was one of the 1000 women globally nominated collectively for the Nobel Peace Prize. (full text).

Feminist Chronicles 1953 – 1993.

She says also: “My comments to the thousands of persons at the peace march [the 1971 Another Mother for Peace march in Los Angeles] were directed not just against the Vietnam War, but against all war, against the masculine mystique which glorifies violence as a solution to problems, and against the vast diverting of American energies and resources from socially needed programs into social destructive wars”, (on feminist.com).

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Linked with Baitul Salaam Network.

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

Hadayai Majeed’s vision is both simple and huge: Give Muslim women the tools to change their climate by changing themselves. A member of a religion that is focused on service, Hadayai was called to reach out to her sisters in 1997, when she founded Baitul Salaam Network, Inc. to help victims of domestic abuse. The goal of the network, headquartered in Georgia, U.S., is to end silence about domestic violence and to help abused Muslim women and children with shelter, food, and clothing. They are taught strategies for self-sufficiency – how to be confident in speech, mannerisms, and body language … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “Just after we opened, a child of one of our residents danced in the middle of the floor, dived head-first into the toy box and squealed with joy. I knew then we were doing the right thing”.

Her public profile on plaxo.com.

Barack Obama: Hadayai Majeed’s Blog.

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Hadayai Majeed – USA

She works for the Baitul Salaam Network, Inc.

Find her and her publications on BookFinder.com; on Google Group-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Blog-search.

(1000peacewomen 2/2): … Hadayai’s marriage was one of neglect and denigration. But when she sought intervention, counsel, encouragement and financial assistance from Muslim family and friends, she was told she was at fault. The policy of the community’s one shelter was to tell abused women to be quiet and to “move on.” Instead, Hadayai saw a need and she moved to fill it.

Although her mother was a social worker, Hadayai had avoided following in her footsteps, observing its personal demands. But in 1997, she responded to the call of her faith and founded Baitul Salaam Network. The vision of the network is to provide a community in which women are self-empowered through their spiritual beliefs and in which community the liberties and rights of every person are respected.

Hadayai remembers when she first knew she had done the right thing in creating Baitul Salaam: “Just after we opened the shelter in 1999, a child of one of our first residents danced in the middle of the floor, dived head first into the toy box, and squealed with joy.”

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Linked with The International Institute of Concern for Public Health IICPHoct, and added on Nov. 2, 2008: The Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart.

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

Rosalie Bertell has worked for more than 50 years to expose the effects of radiation on the citizens of the world. A member of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart, this “antinuclear nun” is an internationally recognized expert in the field of radiation. A doctorate in biometry gave her the academic background and her faith gave her the spiritual strength for her life’s work–to fight against the earth’s environmental contamination. She is founder and president of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health and editor-in-chief of International Perspectives in Public Health. She says: “We have to be part of something larger than ourselves, because our dreams are often bigger than our lifetimes. Religion has a profound effect on our staying power”. (1000peacewomen).

… The International Institute of Concern for Public Health (IICPH), of which she is Founder and Immediate Past President, opened its doors in 1984 in Toronto Canada and continues to serve as an institutional support for her work. She is also a founding member of the International Commission of Health Professionals, and the International Association of Humanitarian Medicine … (full text).

Dr Rosalie Bertell – MAKE IT VISIBLE- chemtrails, oct. 1, 2008.

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Rosalie Bertell – USA

Watch her video: DEPLETED URANIUM IN THE HUMAN BODY, by Sr Rosalie Bertell, PhD, 10.16 min, July 19, 2007.

More videos about Depleted Uranium, by Google video-search.

… Obviously in such an unbalanced and unfair globalization, there will be a build up of tensions as people become desperate for food, drugs and jobs. The global response to this frustration is the global arms trade, promoting war and violence as the way to obtain the basic necessities of life. This is a clear recipe for global suffering, wars and violence, with children, the elderly and the weak the losers! … (full text).

Find her and her publications on rat haus reality; on amazon; on Google Video-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Blog-search.

She tells: … In Japan, during the occupation after World War II, two grandmothers strongly objected to U.S. military presence and military exercises on the sacred mountain Fuji. The two women had a small camp at the foot of the mountain, and during military exercises they would pop up in front of the guns and cry: Shame on you. You should go home to your Mother. This so unnerved the young men that they could not fight. The police finally came, twelve men with shields and battle armor, to arrest the two old women. Even after the women left, the troops were spooked and could no longer desecrate the sacred mountain with their war games. Life is stronger than death … (full text).

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Linked with Inventing peace.

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

“To have a peaceful population,” says Cora Weiss, “we must teach peace.” This belief is the cornerstone of Cora’s life’s work. As president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, she is leading a campaign dedicated to the abolition of war. She brings her skills as a convener and an educator into diverse venues–from the classroom to the boardroom. She began her work in the early 1960s, when she cofounded Women Strike for Peace, which helped to bring about the end of nuclear testing in the atmosphere. In 1969, she led in organizing the largest protest against the Vietnam war. She says: “You cannot have peace without human rights, democracy, gender equality, and clean water. Look to the root causes of war and you will find, in their reverse, the root foundations of peace”. (1000peacewomen).

Bios: on NNDB; on the Hague Appeal for Peace, on Discover the Networks.org.

She is:

• President of the International Peace Bureau.
• President of the Hague Appeal for Peace.
• Financier and Board member of the Institute for Policy Studies IPS.
• And she works for the Global Campaign for Peace.
• Representative of Peace Action Network PAN – (there exist different PANs: many regional PANs around the world, as the Florida Peace Action Network / then the Student Peace Action Network (also on wikipedia) / also a Network of Peacegroups, the PEACE ACTION NETWORK PAN);
• The United Church of Christ UCC Justice and Peace Action Network JPANet)

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Cora Weiss – USA

Her video: Sari Sansar At The UN 1, 10.01 min, March 8, 2006.

During the Vietnam War, Weiss attempted to coerce the families of American POWs to make pro-communist propaganda by promising them contact with their loved ones in Hanoi. Directed the Disarmament Program at New York’s Riverside Church in New York City … (full text).

TESTIMONY OF CORA WEISS.

Cora Weiss, from the Review.

She is also a BetterWorld Heroe and says: “To have a peaceful population, we must teach peace” … and: “To raise new generations of people with the skills, values and knowledge to create and maintain peace, we need peace education” … and: “I firmly believe that it will be women, acting together, acting strategically, teaching, and organising who will be responsible for enacting the “culture of peace” that will be necessary for the survival of humanity”. (BetterWorldHeroe).

Question on wikiansers.com: When did Cora Weiss give evidence at the Chicago 7 trial?

… In 1963 the Samuel Rubin Foundation created the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), which lays claim to the title of “the nation’s oldest multi-issue progressive think tank.” Samuel Rubin’s daughter, Cora Weiss, was a director of the Rubin Foundation from its inception, and was instrumental in the funding decision to create IPS. Today she is the Foundation’s President. Her husband, Peter Weiss, was the first IPS board chairman and is currently the Rubin Foundation’s Treasurer … (full text).

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Linked with The National Black Justice Coalition NBJC.

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

Mandy Carter has formed connections among a range of issues: opposition to war and violence, support for social and economic justice for people of color, and equal rights for women, lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgender people. She works in grassroots campaigns and national coalitions, especially focused on the religious right’s antigay organizing in black communities. She is a brilliant coalition builder, highly respected by people from diverse backgrounds. Her work has been essential to the inclusion of gay/lesbian issues as social justice issues in the United States. She says: “We get so wrapped up in ‘just us’. The question of the day – this to me is the question of the future – are we about justice or ‘just us”. (1000peacewomen).

Her photo on the National Black Justice Coalition NBJC.

Fellow Durham resident, Nobel Prize nominee and long-time LGBT activist Mandy Carter has been named to the Obama National LGBT Steering and Policy Committee. Mandy Carter has been organizing North Carolina African Americans and LGBT people for years, and has served as a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She co-founded Southerners On New Ground (SONG) in 1993 and was a leader in Harvey Gantt’s two campaigns for U.S. Senate. She has done the hard work of organizing LGBT grassroots networks, especially of people of color, throughout the South. She was a member of Hillary Clinton’s North Carolina LGBT Steering Committee … (full text, Aug 27, 2008).

The video: Mandy Carter Honored, 2.55 min, February 09, 2008.

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2x Mandy Carter – USA

She works for the Southerners On New Ground S.O.N.G., for the National Call to Resist, and for the National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum (named on Idealist.org).

Mandy Carter’s grassroots work on anti-war and social justice fronts is gaining global recognition.

Mandy Carter spoke about the importance of the LGBT vote (I just added that video below the fold). Also, I forgot to mention that we also had one pathetic McCain supporter on the sidelines screaming “McCain, McCain, McCain.” She couldn’t even manage to round up a few friends to make a decent show of things … (An Obama-loathing fundie serves up hellfire on a pizza box at NC Pride, 09/28/2008).

Defending my sista: I have fixed the Mandy Carter, Pepper LaBeija, and Dorian Corey links that weren’t working. I wasn’t aware of it until it was brought to my attention. I also added a new link that gives a list of lgbts of color via wikipedia … (full text).

She says also: … “Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama, and also covers up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on interviews with power brokers like Senator Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict and the “black enough” conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history” … (full interview text).

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Added oct. 07.2008: Linked with World War 4 Report – see also: Subsequent world wars on wikipedia.

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

Elizabeth Teixeira (1925) is a national symbol in the fight for the right to have land. When she was young, she faced prejudice from her father, a small landowner, and she ran away from home to marry a black and poor man. As an adult, mother of 11 children, she took over her husband’s battle when he was murdered by powerful landowners … Elizabeth Teixeira (1925) is a national symbol in the fight for the right to have land. When she was young, she faced prejudice from her father, a small landowner, and she ran away from home to marry a black and poor man. As an adult, mother of 11 children, she took over her husband’s battle when he was murdered by powerful landowners. She says: “To have peace is to be able to see the female rural worker planting and harvesting in her own land, her family healthy and her children at school” … and: “My life is protesting against misery, lack of health and education, and the abandonment of the rural population” … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

3 short Videos en portugese (Adorei as três partes deste vídeo onde esta mulher de muita fibra chamada Elizabeth Teixeira, encanta e emociona a todos):
Depoimento de Elizabeth Teixeira – parte 1: Elizabeth Teixeira é viúva do fundador das Ligas Cam…, 4.19 min;
Depoimento de Elizabeth Teixeira – parte 2: Aos 82 anos de idade, Elizabeth Teixeira fala sobre sua luta …, 9 min;
Depoimento de Elizabeth Teixeira – parte 3: Final, Elizabeth Teixeira no 5° Congresso Nacional do MST em Brasília, 2.40 min.

“Que continuem a luta de João Pedro e a minha”, diz Elizabeth Teixeira, 14/06/2007.

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Elizabeth Teixeira – Brazil

Foto: Maurício R. Martins /Jornal de Limeira /AE: Confronto entre integrantes do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-terra (MST) e a Tropa de Choque da Polícia Militar no acampamento Elizabeth Teixeira, em Limeira … (full text).

MST Moviment dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement).

Interviste : Notizie dal Brasile: “Che continui la lotta“, 22 Giugno 2007.

No último sábado (8) comemorou-se o Dia Internacional da Mulher, dia que poderia ser todos os dias, pois ser mulher neste país, apesar dos avanços, ainda não é uma coisa muito fácil. Estatísticas sobre o comportamento, a saúde, o poder, o mercado de trabalho, a violência e tantas outras foram recorrentes na mídia brasileira nos últimos dias. Belas ou feias a imagem da mulher foi publicizada de várias maneiras, com o intuito de reconhecê-la enquanto ser humano, coisa que Eva tratou de estragar nos últimos milênios. E já que é para homenagear trago uma história que uma mulher que não viveu no paraíso como Eva, nem teve grana para fazer lipoaspiração, colocar silicone e botox na boca, nem muito menos exerce um cargo de renomada importância intelectual ou jurídica. Essa mulher chama-se Elizabeth Teixeira, uma camponesa que lutou em defesa não apenas da mulher, mas o ser humano que busca incessantemente por justiça e dignidade. Leia a matéria: … (full text).

Two pictures: looking at videos with Elizabeth Teixeira.

(1000peacewomen 2/2): … She started to receive threats. Her ten year old son, Paulo, promised to avenge his father’s death, in the future. He was shot in the head and was left with permanent health problems. Policemen once again surrounded her house, this time searching for Elizabeth. When she returned from prison, she found her oldest daughter, Marluce, who, at the time, was 17 years old, dead. “She drank poison.”

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Linked with Global Fund for Women: on December 2006, and on September 2007.

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

Anne Firth Murray, a New Zealander, was educated at the University of California and New York University in economics, political science, and public administration, with a focus on international health policy and women’s reproductive health. She has worked at the United Nations as a writer, taught in Hong Kong and Singapore, and spent several years as an editor with Oxford, Stanford, and Yale University presses … Currently, she is a scholar/activist at the Union Institute and a Consulting Professor in Human Biology at Stanford University … (full text, on her website at Stanford).

Anne Firth Murray, a New Zealander, is the Founding President of The Global Fund for Women,  which provides funds internationally to seed, strengthen and link groups committed to women’s well being … For the past 25 years she has worked in the field of philanthropy, serving as a consultant to many  foundations. Between 1978 and 1987, she directed the environment and international population  programmes of the Hewlett Foundation in California.  She is currently a scholar/activist at the Union Institute and a Consulting Professor in Human Biology at Stanford University. Ms Murray serves on several boards and councils of non-profit organisations, including the African  Women’s Development Fund, Commonwealth, GRACE (a group working on HIV/AIDS in East Africa),  Hesperian Foundation, and UNNITI (a women’s foundation in India) … (full text, Aug. 21, 2006).

Watch her video: Authors – Google Anne Firth Murray, 48.58 min, added March 27, 2007.

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Anne Firth Murray – USA and New Zealand

She works for The Global Fund for Women (in 8 languages).

She says: “I came to understand that ‘what’ we do in our lives is important, but that ‘the way we do our work’ is even more important in transforming our world”. (1000peacewomen).

… “For the past twenty-five years, she has worked in the field of philanthropy, serving as a consultant to many foundations. From 1978 to the end of 1987, she directed the environment and international population programs of the Hewlett Foundation in California. Ms. Murray serves on several boards and councils of non-profit organizations, including the African Women’s Development Fund, Commonweal, GRACE (a group working on HIV/AIDS in East Africa), Hesperian Foundation, and UNNITI (a women’s foundation in India). She is the recipient of many awards and honors for her work on women’s health and philanthropy, and in 2005 she was nominated as one of a group of 1,000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize” … (full text).

Some acticles:

• She is named as BetterWorldHeroe;
• Creating Positive Change – There Is Nothing Too Small;
• Paradigm Found.

Her book: From Outrage to Courage: The Unjust and Unhealthy Situation of Women in Poor Countries and What They are Doing About It: From sex-selective abortions to millions of girls who are “disappeared,” from 90 million girls who do not go to school to HIV/AIDS spreading fastest among adolescent girls, women face unique health challenges, writes Anne Firth Murray. In this searing cradle-to-grave review, Murray tackles health issues from prenatal care to challenges faced by aging women. Looking at how gender inequality affects basic nutrition, Murray makes clear the issues are political more than they are medical. In an inspiring look, From Outrage to Courage shows how women are organizing the world over. Women’s courage to transform their situations and communities provides inspiration and models for change. From China to India, from Indonesia to Kenya, Anne Firth Murray takes readers on a whirlwind tour of devastation-and resistance. (allStarBooks).

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

If Woody Guthrie were alive today he would be Holly Near. This kind, gentle person is one of the great folk singers, writers, activist and teachers alive. She was the one of the first women to ever create an independent record company called Redwood Records over thirty years ago. She has been a major presence in the LGBT, feminist, peace and justice movements her entire life. When one thinks of champions of civil rights and human rights you think of Holly Near. Most of all, Holly is a brilliant singer and entertainer who has sung in all corners of the world. Coming from a left, feminist and activist viewpoint, we asked her to discuss her support of Obama with us … (full text, Sept. 15, 2008).

She says: “We are a gentle angry people We are a land of many colors We are gay and straight together We are a peaceful loving people And we are singing, singing for our lives”. (1000peacewomen).

Find her personal life on wikipedia.

Some videos of Holly Near singing, on YouTube:

• I am Willing, 2.13 min;
• Language of Your Love, 3.35 min;
• The Gypsy Dances On – Holly Near, 2.55 min;
• Holly Near – Gentle Angry People, 1.42.

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Holly Near – USA

Find her on Redwood Records, with her Art and Activism, her Bio, her photoalbum, her concerts, her discography and with her music.

… Holly Near was a singer and performer from a young age.  She grew up with parents who were passionate about their world and their country.  Holly had many musical experiences, including a time in “Hair” on Broadway.   When she was in her early 20s, she met some of the most well-known political activists and expressed her own anti-war sentiments through her music … (full text).

Comparisons: The most obvious comparisons to Holly Near are her contemporaries: Joan Baez, Janis Ian, Mary Travers, and Joni Mitchell … (full text).

Radical lesbian activist and Vietnam War protester Holly Near has been a respected voice in the women’s folk movement – and the women’s movement itself – since the early 1970s … (full text).

She says also: … “I didn’t work for any of the candidates. I don’t like either party much and have always worked outside of the mainstream political system. But I do vote. Kucinich’s ideas were probably the closest to my own. I have a friend who voted for Edwards by absentee ballot but by the time the actual California Primary happened, he had withdrawn so her vote was wasted. Clinton would have been her second choice. It is crazy her vote didn’t count. We need a new system. I voted for Obama in the primary” … (full text).

Holly Near’s sense of justice, sense of culture, and sense of humor continue to delight and astound. Her new material keeps her solidly positioned as one of the nation’s finest political artists. And she adds surprising renditions of songs by Harry Nilsson, Cheryl Wheeler and Paul Simon! Guest musicians include Michael Manring, June Millington, Alex de Grassi, Jackeline Rago, Mark Ford, Quique Cruz … (full text).

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Linked with the AURAT FOUNDATION.

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

An academic and a social activist, she was a brilliant student who came top of her Masters of economics year in Punjab University and went on to study economics at Cambridge University. She was also a Commonwealth Scholar. While pursuing a career in academia she taught economics for 16 years at the faculty of the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad and was drawn into the struggle of Pakistani women against the anti-women policies of the military dictatorship headed by Zia-ul-Haq. She was a member of the Women’s Action Forum for two years (1983–1985) , the pioneering women’s organization that was formed to protest these political developments … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

Under Nigar’s leadership, the Aurat Foundation has taken up provocative issues, from mobilizing women candidates for local government elections to generating debate on intellectual property rights.

She is named on Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, DEPARTMENT OF ISLAMIC STUDIES.

She is a nominee from Pakistan of the Global Sisterhood-Network.

Find her on inauthor Google-search;

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Sorry, no photo found for Nigar Ahmad – Pakistan

Nigar Ahmad works for the Aurat Foundation: Aurat Foundation is a women’s rights organization based in Islamabad, Pakistan. Aurat Foundation does active lobbying, advocacy on behalf of women. it holds demonstrations and public-awareness campaigns. (wikipedia).

NGOs demand action against rapists: Representatives of NGOs including Ms Katherine of AMEN Society, Bina Qureshi of Hum Log, Nigar Ahmed Aurat Foundation, Farida Shaheed Shirkat Gah, AGHS Shah Taj Qazilbash, Samina Rehman Women Action Forum, Nighat Saeed Asr Resource Centre and Neelum Hussain of C Murgh termed the act ‘the worst of its kind,’ ‘its culprits must not be spared.’ First, they stated, the accused spoiled the honour of the girl and then ruined her life by distorting her face through acid … (full text, Sept. 11, 2008).

1000peacewomen 2/2: Nigar Ahmad (born in 1945) has worked tirelessly for nearly 20 years for the political, social, and economic empowerment of Pakistani women, as executive director of the Aurat Publication and Information Service Foundation. Under her stewardship, the Aurat (woman) Foundation has taken up a range of “provocative” causes, from mobilizing women candidates for local government elections to generating debate across the country about the World Trade Organization and the controversial issue of intellectual property rights …

… Since 1986, Nigar, who now lives in Lahore, has been associated with Aurat, a civil society organization which works for women’s empowerment in tandem with a countrywide of citizens’ groups and civil activists.

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

Ruth Manorama (born 1952) grew up seeing her parents engaged in active social work. She has been consistently associated with a range of issues-the rights of slum dwellers, domestic workers, unorganized labor and Dalits’, and the empowerment of marginalized women. She sees the interconnectedness between these issues, and the common cause that marginalized people share the world over … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

Ruth Manorama (born 1952) is widely known in India for her contributions in mainstreaming Dalit issues, especially the precarious situation of Dalit women in India. Ruth, herself from the Dalit community, calls the women “Dalits among the Dalits”. This has highlighted the plight of Dalit women in the community and the media. Ruth has also contributed enormously to breaking the upper-class, upper-caste image of the women’s movement in India. In 2005, she was one of 1000 nominees for the ‘1000 women for the Nobel Peace Prize’ campaign. In 2006 she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award … (full text).

She says: “I have tremendous confidence in the capacity of the poor to transform not only their own lives but also to build a just, humane, and democratic society”.

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Ruth Manorama – India

She works for the National Alliance of Women, for the National Federation of Dalit Women, and for Women’s Voice (there are different groups in many countries under this name).

Recognition for courage and causes.

She received the Right Livelihood Award, 2006 (also known as the Alternative Nobel). She is India’s most effective organiser of and advocate for Dalit women, belonging to the ’scheduled castes’ sometimes also called ‘untouchables’ … (full text).

Ruth Manorama, voice of Dalits.

… Ruth Manorama , Right Livelihood awardee, said no form of violence is acceptable. She urged the state to provide relief and compensation to victims and book state and non-state perpetrators of violations. Right to employment , food, security and freedom of expression and religion must be protected, she added. (full text, 29 Aug 2008).

Bangalore: Students, Activists, Secular Forces Gather to Protest Orissa Carnage, August 30, 2008.

… Dalit women in India, constituting half of the approximately 200 million dalit population, and 16.3% of the total Indian female population, not only suffer oppression as a result of class and caste, but also from gender inequalities resulting from a patriarchal system. These injustices really make me want to work for their rights and freedom, said Manorama who is involved in several regional and international rights campaigns … (full text).

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Linked with The National Women History Project NWHP.

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

A daughter of Japanese immigrants, Yuri Kochiyama (born 1921) grew up in California. Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her life changed dramatically in 1942 when people of Japanese ancestry in the USA were sent to internment camps. After World War II, she joined movements for civil rights and black liberation in New York City; she opposed US imperialism and supported radical grassroots organizations and political prisoners. She has spoken out for racial justice and human rights for over 40 years. (1000Peacewomen).

She says: “Don’t become too narrow. Live fully. Meet all kinds of people. You’ll learn something from everyone. Follow what you feel in your heart”.

Unitarians schedule Labor Day program: … The civil rights activist, feminist, and author Yuri Kochiyama and her family were among the 120,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast who were rounded up and confined in camps in a wave of anti-Japanese hysteria that followed the bombing of Pearl Harbor … (full text, Aug 29, 2008).

BLACK HISTORY MONTH – Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama, Feb 1, 2007.

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Yuri Kochiyama – USA

She works 1) for the Organization for Afro-American Unity (named on AfricanAmericans.com; on wikipedia; on Answers.com; on Britannica online Encyclopedia; on wordpress.com); 2) for the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (mentionned in the NYT), and 3) for Asian Americans for Action (there exist: Asian American Action Fund and its AAA Fund Blog; Media Action Network for Asian Americans; Asian American Action Figure Home Page; Asian American support for affirmative action).

Recognizing APA Community Organizers: … Yuri Kochiyama, Ling-chi Wang, Thomas Abraham, Gloria Caoile and Sandy Dang are just a few of the community organizers who have made a difference in the lives of the APA community over the last thirty years who have never held elective office … (full text, Sept. 10, 2008).

Asian/ APIA Feminism/ Women’s History Month, March 1, 2008.

Find Yuri Kochiyama on video: Freedom Fighters trailer, 6.31 min, added: February 14, 2007; on the blog Learn to question.com; on the blog 100 voices her video as Freedom Fighter, with transcript in japanese; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search.

… “A story Ms. Kochiyama is often asked to retell is how she first met Malcolm X in Harlem. Ms. Kochiyama had been an admirer of Malcolm X for sometime when she happened to see him walk into a courthouse in Brooklyn, where he was instantly surrounded by people shaking his hand. Ms. Kochiyama was shy at first of approaching him amongst all his African followers, but when he met her eyes she found herself asking if she could shake his hand. “What for?” Malcolm had asked, almost suspiciously. When Ms. Kochiyama finally answered, “You’re giving direction [to your people]”, Malcolm strode out of the crowd with a smile, and shook Ms. Kochiyama’s hand” … (full text).

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

For over 30 years, Vasanth Kannabiran (born 1939) has been closely involved with questions of armed militancy, civil liberties, and the meaning of peace for women in her native state of Andhra Pradesh. She is among the first women in the country to move into feminist activism through the Stree Shakti Sangathana. Ten years ago, she set up a radical women’s collective in Andhra Pradesh called Asmita, which brings diverse groups of women into networks addressing issues spanning conflict, peace, survival, women’s rights, and secularism … For over 30 years, Vasanth Kannabiran has been closely involved with issues of militancy, civil liberties, and the meaning of peace for women in her native Andhra Pradesh state. (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She writes: … The omnipresent phenomenon of globalization has made its impact on women writing as well; with there being some sort of an inverse relationship between the 2: the opening up of the markets has resulted in the closing of individual and cultural spaces. One may argue that women are no more in the ‘clumsy clutches of patriarchy’ and have the freedom to think and do as they please; however in the present times, they will encounter another Hand, ‘not ugly this time, but carefully manicured, that will seat them on cushioned thighs’. Comfortable? It will let them speak out from there; it doesn’t mind that. Lulled by this false sense of security, they might even forget the ever-present grip, but the moment they want to step down, the Hand will ensure they are put back in place … (full text).

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Vasanth Kannabiran – India

She works for the National Alliance for Women NAWO.

Women and words: forging new bonds, with Vasanth Kannabiran, Ritu Menon, Meenakshi Mukherjee and Kalpana Kannabiran.

Comrade Vasanth’s Vision.

The book: Web of Deceit: Devadasi Reform in Colonial India, Kalpana Kannabiran and Vasanth Kannabiran. Reprint. New Delhi, Kali for Women, 2003, x, 217 p., $17. ISBN 81-86706-63-1

Bharati Ray: Women of India … chapter 6: … Citizenship and its Discontents, A Political History of Women in Andhra, by Vasanth Kannabiran and Kalpana Kannabiran … (full text).

… And lastly – the ballet was written by Vasanth Kannabiran – a poet, writer and translator.  Also one of the thousand women world wide nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 … (full text).

India’s intellectual voices condemn Neelan’s assassination … The statement was signed by … Vasanth Kannabiran … (full text).

Find her and her publications on UNjobs.org; on Google Group-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Blog-search.

Vasanth Kannabiran, city-based human rights activist, Mogulamma, a physically challenged woman working for the welfare of the disabled in Kosigi mandal of Mahbubnagar district, and Murari Pramila, a nurse and health worker of Guntur, are among 1,000 women, whose names have been submitted to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee – 2005 … (full text).

(1000peacewomen 2/2) … As a child, Vasanth Kannabiran (born 1939) was taught to question and assert herself, and it is a habit that has stayed with her. Born into a family of first-generation Communist leaders in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Vasanth was an indifferent student but a voracious reader. She secured an M Litt in English Literature from the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages in Hyderabad, the state capital, and went on to teach English at a woman’s college from 1961 to 1985.

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Linked with Mahila Samakhya, all India (Gov), and with Mahila Samakhya in Uttar Pradesh.

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

Janaki (born 1954) is a symbol of power and possibilities for the women in her village. When she started, it was unusual for a woman to engage in developmental work, and she had to face bellicose opposition from her family. Janaki, though, is a determined, remarkably fearless woman: she continued with her mobilization of women, eventually forming a village self-help group. The work done by the group has helped establish its credibility and, today, most disputes in the village are settled in the group’s women’s court … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

Janaki has proved that the capacity to bring about social change is not linked to one’s educational or other qualifications.

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Janaki (Sorry, the photo on 1000peacewomen – showing a small women almost from behind, is not downloadable)

She works for Mahila Samakhya, and for the Women’s self-help group SHG.

Janaki was born in 1954 in the village Ahirwali Tola Barbasaha to farmer parents. Her association with the Mahila Samakhya opened a whole new world of perceptions: the concepts of women’s rights and social development excited and moved the illiterate young woman, who was by then the mother of three boys and a girl.

Janaki first began applying these ideas in her own home, ensuring that all her children, including her daughter, attended school. Later, she was to marry one of her sons to a girl from a poor family with no dowry. Her daughter-in-law goes to school and is in grade VI.

When Janaki started, it was unusual for women to engage in developmental work and awareness generation activities. Janaki’s husband, a physically abusive man, was strongly opposed to her work. Over time, Janaki gathered the courage to resist him, not only preventing him from abusing her, but also exhorting all other women in the village to resist physical violence by their husbands.

Janaki initially began work as a Sakhi (friend). She went on to set up a women’s village self-help group (SHG). The good work that Janaki and her group have done has established their credentials: most disputes in the area now arrive at the SHG’s women’s court for resolution.

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Linked with Women’s Action for New Directions WAND, with Restorative Justice RJ online, with The Women of Color Network WOCN, and with Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center.

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

Alice Ophelia Hyman Lynch (born 1950) is Executive Director of Black, Indian, Hispanic and Asian Women in Action (Biha). She has conducted over 1000 trainings on domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, chemical dependency, and HIV/AIDS, looking specifically at how these issues impact communities of color. Since 1997, Alice has worked to establish restorative justice programs in her own community and across the nation. Through this process she has helped empower communities to take the lead in solving their problems in ways that promote healing and prevent future harm … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “Circles create a sacred space that lifts barriers between people, opening possibilities for collaboration and understanding. Circles provide a safe place to have the difficult conversations”.

She is named as Better World Heroe.

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Alice Ophelia Hyman Lynch – USA

She works for Black, Indian, Hispanic and Asian Women in Action BIHA, for the Women of Color Network on Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault, and for Women’s Action for New Directions WAND.

(1000peacewomen 2/2): … The chairs form a circle in the community center in North Minneapolis. Neighbors have gathered for another in the series of bi-weekly circles that began four months ago with Marcus’ release from prison. Marcus, a 25-year-old African American man, has just completed a seven-year sentence for vehicular manslaughter. But now Marcus’ life has taken a more positive turn. With assistance from a community agency he has his own apartment and is attending Community College. Also, a Restorative Justice Program has recently hired Marcus to facilitate Family Group Conferences. Marcus is doing well.

Alice asks Marcus to tell the circle about the circumstances surrounding his incarceration. Marcus has difficulty sharing the story and later confides to Alice that he was not able to talk about the incident because it had happened on this particular day – this was the anniversary of the accident. He added that it was difficult to talk to the circle because it was focused solely on him and he had not thoroughly worked things out for himself.

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Linked with Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF, and with the Hague Appeal for Peace HAP.

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

Betty Burkes (born 1943) is a lifelong educator and activist, working for a world where all human beings are celebrated for their brilliance and beauty, where people recognize their interconnectedness, where the earth is respected, and justice prevails. She has taught these principles in her Montessori preschool, brought them to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (as President, US section, and longtime board member), and used them in peace education in Albania, Cambodia, Niger, and Peru with the Hague Appeal for Peace/UN Department of Disarmament Affairs … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “We will succeed in building a strong base for transforming the politics of power when together we weave a vision that in practice offers a way of life so alive it is impossible to resist”.

Betty Burkes is the Rethink Curriculum Coordinator and leader of the Elders Circle that provides wisdom and guidance … (full text).

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Betty Burkes – USA

She works for Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF, for the Hague Appeal for Peace HAP, and for the Cambridge Peace Commission.

Listen her video: Women’s Int’l League for Peace & Freedom, Betty Burkes, 9.35 min, 10 min – Feb 12, 2007.

Betty Burkes was born in Malvern, Ohio in 1943. She is African-American, descended from enslaved people and raised by working-class parents and loving grandmothers in the U.S. Midwest. While Betty and her family experienced the racism of exclusion endemic to small American towns in the 1940s and 1950s, her father was a symbol of respect within the community and an oasis for students of color, particularly international students from Africa. Grounded in love and high expectations from her family, Betty attended Ohio State University.

After college, she joined the Peace Corps and worked in Ethiopia as a teacher. She also taught in public schools in California and private schools in England. She founded the Montessori Paradise pre-school on Cape Cod, Massachusetts and directed it for 12 years, offering young children an enriching learning environment where peace-making and social justice mingled with the affirmation of childhood. Betty also co-founded and ran a Summer Arts and Music program on Cape Cod. She is a Trainer and Founding Member of “Transition for the 21st Century,” an association of professionals who design and conduct workshops for groups relating to issues of oppression.

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

Actress, model, and singer Cynthia Basinet understood the power of the internet to connect people when the medium rocketed her song “Santa Baby” around the world. The empowerment and self-determination she experienced prompted her to seek new connections in new ways. In May 2001 she sang for a different audience–refugees living in the western Sahara desert. More than 80 per cent women and children, 200,000 refugees are struggling to survive in the southwest corner of Algeria. Their refusal to return home and their fight for self-determination captured the attention of Cynthia Basinet … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “Displaced societies are of value. Their issues are our issues”.

Find her music on amazon, on Jamendo; her Mini-Bio on IMDb; her songs on Google Video-search; her Interview on 24/7; her name on better world heroes; her thoughts; and also her Homepage.

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Cynthia Basinet – USA

Her song SANTA BABY:

• as: Eartha Kitt Hit Ms. LaREINA, 3.21 min, added October 04, 2007;
• as: Sorry, it was NEVER Marilyn, 3.26 min, added November 22, 2006.

Ten years of being Santa’s Baby.

… Growing up in San Jose, California, Cynthia sang and played the flute and saxophone as a child. Her life has been a succession of journeys. In 1984, she and her infant son left San Francisco and an abusive husband to spend five years in Europe, and it was there that she learned more about world issues. In Paris she learned to speak fluent French, studied cinematography, and became a successful model. She returned to Los Angeles with an expanded vision and a determination to become socially active.

Cynthia established an entirely new channel of distribution for her music by using the Internet to bypass the usual Hollywood and recording industry paths, bringing her releases directly to listeners around the world. She is famous for the song, “Santa Baby.” “That was my gift to the world for the millennium,” she said. “One moment where people from all these countries sing to some silly love song . . .”

Her goal in visiting the Saharawis was to help communicate their value to the world. “We are all linked. The strength and conviction of the Saharawis is something that deserves to be highlighted in the conscience of not only America, but the world. The same issues of power apply to the 85 percent working class that makes up America.

Displaced societies are of value. Their issues are our issues” She was moved by the connection she felt to the Saharawis. “I hit this note, and all the women started warbling. You know, that Arabic sound the women make. It was the most healing moment in my life.” (1000peacewomen 2/2).

An Open Reply to John Simson, August 8, 2008.

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Linked with Soka Gakkai International – SGI-USA, and with Health People NY/USA.

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

Chris Norwood (born 1946) founded Health People, which is located in the South Bronx, New York, and is the largest peer health education and disease prevention organization in the USA. Starting in 1990 as a women’s AIDS prevention program, the organization now provides 3000 people a year in the sickest, poorest area of New York, with men’s, family, and teen HIV programs. It also provides successful asthma, diabetes, and smoking prevention programs, all built by training low-income people affected by chronic disease to become educators and leaders … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “Dig where you stand, and surely you shall find a well”.

… Founder chris Norwood was positively trilled at the response from her friends in the East End Art Community who generously donated art works of which 100% of the sale price was going to her teen-to-teen mentoring program … (full text).

The book: Advice for Life, by Christopher Norwood, Chris Norwood, National Women’s Health Network (U.S.), 178 pages, Published by Pantheon Books, 1987: Explains who the carriers are, what the medical tests show, what realistic precautions can be taken, and what symptoms to watch out for. ISBN 039475428X, 9780394754284

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Chris Norwood – USA

She works for Health People.

In 1985, Chris Norwood was asked by a women’s magazine to write what turned out to be the first American article on women and AIDS. She became haunted by how misunderstood the AIDS epidemic was, “Waking and sleeping, I saw before me an endless picture of the shadows of hundreds of ghostly women which I knew to represent the mammoth future death already inevitable from HIV infections taking place right then.” Chris wrote a book, Advice for Life: A Woman’s Guide to AIDS, and began trying to do her own studies to underscore the seriousness of the women’s epidemic: these included the first study projecting AIDS orphans in New York and a groundbreaking study of the undercounting of women’s AIDS deaths.

When it became obvious that little practical progress or recognition of women’s needs was occurring, Chris decided to start a women’s peer education program and train the women most affected by HIV– the poorest women in the city – to become educators. “Fortunately, I wasn’t daunted because I didn’t know at all how daunting this project was; fortunately, I obtained some small donations to start and focused on the South Bronx. At the time, in 1990, the South Bronx was not only the poorest and sickest area of New York, but shattered by drugs, abandonment and such widespread arson (with owners torching their buildings for the insurance money) that it looked like a bombed area. When New York’s longest and most deadly drug war erupted on the block of our office, we had to literally walk through almost daily gunfire for months.”

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

Madam Henriette Carvalho Kouyate was born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1931. She has spent most of her professional career in the area of health, raising awareness on the problems of female genital mutilation. At 74 years old, Kouyaté Henriette Carvalho, mother of six boys, is a brilliant public health professional in the eyes of all. Henriette also distinguished herself in the treatment of sterile women and victims of female genital mutilation so that they have normal fertility and a happy life in the African context. Kouyaté Henriette Carvalho is also a writer and has published a book on female genital mutilation and sexually transmitted diseases. She has fought a great deal for the protection of woman, children and for reproductive control … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “Seeing a pregnant woman’s luminous smile, hearing the happy cries of children in the playground: that is what drives me”.

Le texte: Kouyaté Carvalho d’Alvarengo, Henriette, “L’excision”. Présence Africaine, no.160, 1999.

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Sorry, no photo found for Henriette Carvalho Kouyate, Mali

Kouyaté also contributed to the struggle in Mali against female genital mutilation. Her contribution ensured national opinion came to understand that female genital mutilation is a public health problem for women everywhere. This resulted in many Malian families abandoning the practice of female circumcision. More and more Malian men and women understand today that this ancestral practice cannot be justified anymore due to its negative effects on maternal health.

This decision of conscience is at the basis of the awareness and claims against female genital mutilation. This will result in the near future to the adoption in Mali of legislation against the practice of female circumcision. We hope these efforts reach this objective. Senegal (Henriette’s country of origin) and Burkina have already taken a positive step towards banning female genital mutilation which underlines the position of Dr Henriette.

Henriette Carvalho regrets, today, that none of her children are doctors, but understands it and does not regret her own daily fight to help infertile couples become fertile. This fight has also helped reduce the mortality rate of women during maternity. To summarise, Ms Kouyaté Henriette Carvalho is a pioneer in female health in our country and in the well-being of women and children. She has given several lectures on the framework of obstetric health and reproduction. In her quiet retirement, she is a counselor to the young in an area that has marked all her professional life as well as that of her life as a writer.  (1000peacewomen 2/2).

… IP Conference Delegates Learn Appropriate Technique for Putting on Sterile Gloves: (Left to right) Col. Lamine Cissé Sarr from Senegal, Dr. Emmanuel Malano from Guinea, and Dr. Henriette Carvalho Kouyate from Senegal play a game of “IP Golf” … (full text).

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

Having suffered Stalin’s deportation of the Chechen people to Central Asia, Maya Shovkhalova (born 1936) returned to Grozny in 1958. She graduated from the Tbilisi Music Conservatory. In the 1990s, she was a member of the Commission on Rehabilitation of Victims of the 1944-1956 Repressions in Chechnya. Since the beginning of the Russian-Chechen armed conflict, Maya has been engaged in anti-war activism, cooperating with international as well as Russian NGOs. She is also head of the NGO Iberia which focuses on the issues of demining and banning of land mines … (1000peacewomen 1/2).

She says: “We condemn acts of terrorism irrespectively of whether they are committed by groups of bandits or by the Russian military.” (From the appeal of Chechen peace advocates to the world community)

She is signing the Public Appeal of Chechen NGOs of Prague Watchdog, 29th 2003,
… and here the appeal on Kafkas Vakfi.

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Sorry, no photo found of Maya Shovkhalova – Russian Federation

She works for Iberia, and for Yaltinskaya initsyativa za mir v Chechnie YIMC.

Maya Shovhalova was born in Grozny in 1936. Having suffered Stalin’s deportation of the Chechen people to Kazakhstan, Maya returned to Grozny in 1958. After graduating from Tbilisi Music Conservatory (Georgia), she worked as a soloist at the theater and the Philharmonic Hall in Grozny. For some time she was engaged in teaching. She was a member of the Commission on Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repressions in Chechnya during 1944-1956. Since the beginning of the Russian-Chechen armed conflict Maya has been taking an active part in human rights advocacy activities.

In February 1944, during the deportation of all the Chechens and Ingushs to Central Asia, staged by the Soviet regime, a horrible tragedy happened: 700 inhabitants of Khaibakh, a high mountain Chechen village, were burnt alive in the building of the local club by a Soviet punitive detachment.

It was not until the 1990s that this barbarous act was investigated. Maya Shovkhalova took an active part in the work of the Investigation Commission on Khaibakh events that made public this and other crimes against humanity at the time of Stalin’s repressions.

The beginning of democratic changes in the Soviet Union and the committed work of human rights activists who revealed the crimes of the communist regime gave hope that such tragedies would never be repeated. But hopes were dashed by the following developments which resulted in the Russian-Chechen armed conflict. During the first military campaign Maya helped the wounded, took part in negotiations between the Chechen president Dudaev’s representatives and the Russian soldiers’ mothers who wanted to return their sons back home. Unfortunately all the efforts of the peace advocates failed to stop the savage war.

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