With laundry and commuting, endless meetings, Board papers to write, teams to motivate, projects to be delivered, the husband loved, friendships nurtured, trying to stay informed about worldly affairs and remain upright in pretty shoes all day, I find it utterly overwhelming to think about what I am contributing to world peace.
That there is only one award for peace in the known universe is kind of tragic; that the Nobel Peace Prize has only ever been awarded to 15 women in 110 years, is bloody crazy. But this week three women: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian social worker turned peace campaigner, and Tawakkul Karman, a journalist and pro-democracy activist in Yemen shared the £950,000 prize. They were chosen ‘for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work’.
If you find that you are not the first female President of your country, you can help women and girls all over the world. Have you heard of the Girl Effect? This fabulously simple idea is that you can change the world by educating a girl. Cows are also involved. Whats not to love? You can: give directly, learn about and share the girl effect idea.
My sister-from-another-mister, Lisa Field-Elliot, is Founder of the Doorways Project. She recently travelled to Mexico to document midwives and mothers who are working to reduce the highest maternal mortality rates in North America. Through her stunning images and stories, Lisa connects us to women all over the world.
And in the way these things come full circle, she met Leymah Gbowee of the aforementioned Nobel Peace Prize, this week. Awesome.
‘We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society’ ~ Nobel Prize Committee
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