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Women PeaceMakers Program
Made possible by a grant from the Fred J. Hansen Foundation
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice (IPJ) is pleased to announce the 2008 Women PeaceMakers. The four women – from Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Peru – will begin their residency at the IPJ on September 6.
2008 Women PeaceMakers Biographical Abstracts
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Shinjita Alam of Bangladesh
In one of the poorest countries in the world, Shinjita Alam has dedicated much of her life to highlighting the connection between poverty and conflict, especially regarding the treatment of women in the domestic sphere and its repercussions for development. While studying for a degree in Social Welfare from the University of Dhaka, Alam worked with impoverished women in the slums of the capital, counseling them and providing primary-level education. She then went on to work for the nongovernmental organization Families for Children, conducting home visits to 100 women marginalized from their communities because they were widowed or divorced. Alam raised their level of education and awareness of their rights as citizens, while also providing skills-building trainings for employment. After working for several years in the agricultural and job creation programs for the Bangladesh office of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) – where she managed income-generating projects for women and mediated many domestic disputes within families – Alam initiated and oversaw their peace program, the first of its kind in Bangladesh. The program trained representatives from local organizations in traditional modes of conflict resolution and developed peace education curricula for use in schools across the country. Alam has also worked on behalf of the Garo people of northern Bangladesh, whose culture is distinct from the rest of the Bengali population. The largely Christian Garos often clash with Muslim Bengalis over land rights. With the Garo leadership, Alam formed a peace committee which could identify underlying causes of conflict and formulate how to resolve them. She also organized forums for interfaith dialogue between the Garo and Bengali, and opened lines of communication between the local government and the Garo people for resolution of land disputes.
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Sylvie Mbanga Maunga of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Sylvie Mbanga Maunga, a trained lawyer, works with seven local organizations in the fight against sexual violence against women in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As coordinator of the program against sexual violence for the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) and Church in Action, as well as the program officer for the peacebuilding and conflict transformation program at the Life and Peace Institute, Maunga also consults for other agencies and groups, providing counseling and legal services to victims of rape and sexual violence. With ICCO, she develops strategic and holistic interventions to assist victims, including the provision of psychological counseling and medical care, legal services and access to the judicial system, and economic support in the form of income-generating activities and skills building. For the Life and Peace Institute, Maunga is also charged with implementing programs on good governance and coordinating research activities. Maunga works as well among the ethnic conflicts within communities in the province of South Kivu. She has facilitated dialogue between the Banyamulenge community – which identifies as Rwandan rather than Congolese – and other local groups such as the Babembe and Baviro. The dialogue sessions and subsequent cultural exchanges between the groups led to the founding of an ethnically mixed organization that raises awareness about the need for further communication and tolerance. She is now attempting similar projects in North Kivu. Maunga has also served as a radio correspondent for the French/Swahili service of Voice of America, covering local women’s peacebuilding initiatives and issues of women’s leadership, and is a member of Synergy for Women Victims of Sexual Violence and Action by Christians Against Torture.
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Zandile Nhlengetwa of South Africa
A survivor of the political violence that affected her home province of KwaZulu-Natal, Zandile Nhlengetwa is known in her community for her ability to bring calm and stability to potentially volatile situations. She is a community project coordinator for the organization Survivors of Violence, where she designs peacebuilding intervention strategies for communities that have experienced high levels of violence, both during apartheid and now in the post-conflict era when criminal violence is prevalent. Her work includes conducting trauma healing workshops for survivors and developing income-generating programs to alleviate the effects of poverty, as well as facilitating dialogue with traditional leaders to promote development in the province. After the loss of family members to violent incidents, Nhlengetwa has reached out to young men in prison to help them break the cycle of violence. She and a network of families that have children in prison conduct campaigns to raise awareness about youth violence and drug abuse, and advocate for sentence reductions for convicted youth. She also joined with other women who lost husbands during violent conflict to form the Harambe Women’s Forum. The group initially supported one another financially and emotionally; today their activities encompass community healing forums and the development of community-based structures to prevent violence and promote reconciliation. After the end of apartheid, Nhlengetwa assisted in the successes of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by counseling victims before and after they testified and setting up community assistance programs to support victims. A teacher by profession, Nhlengetwa also develops education and counseling programs for street children through the Department of Specialized Education at the University of Witwatersrand, and works with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency to assist community members living with HIV/AIDS.
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Olenka Ochoa of Peru
An activist for human rights and women’s rights during the brutal civil war which began in the 1980s and throughout the authoritarian presidency of Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s, Olenka Ochoa continues to fight violence and discrimination against women in Peru. As a university student when the Shining Path rebels began their insurgency, Ochoa promoted human rights in local shantytowns and, with political groups and NGOs, sheltered fellow women leaders resisting both the insurgents and the armed forces. In Villa El Salvador, a village to the south of Lima, she worked on the promotion of women's rights and organized political activities with local leaders such as Maria Elena Moyano, who was assassinated by the Shining Path for her community organizing. In 1992, Ochoa joined the nongovernmental Research and Training Institute for Family and Women, which works primarily in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho (SJL), a destination for domestic migrants from Andean villages and an area hard-hit by the war. She worked with grassroots organizations in founding the first shelter for battered women in SJL and later designed the innovative project "Keepers of the Peace," which involved at-risk youth in combating violence and discrimination and won a national contest sponsored by the World Bank in 2001. On the governmental level, Ochoa has helped formulate new approaches to combating violence against women. In 1996 she founded the Municipal Program “Jacaranda,” which won the first U.N. Latin American Contest for Women’s Rights in 1998. From 1999 to 2002 she served as an elected member of the Metropolitan Lima Municipal Council, developing alternative security strategies to protect women and founding the first commission of women in the municipality. Ochoa contributed to the design of a law for equal opportunities for women and men, which was signed into national law in March 2007. She is also a board member of the Federation of Municipal Women of Latin America and the Caribbean and of the Huairou Commission, a global network of community development organizations."
Contact Information:
Erika Lopez, MA
Women PeaceMakers Program
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
USA
Fax: 1.619.260.7570
* Alternative fax number: 1.619.260.7809
E-mail: erika.lopez@sandiego.edu
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