If someone asks you, Who is Leymah Gbowee? you might respond, like many others, Who is she? And why should I know her?I was just like you before International Women’s Day 2023… I was looking for women who could represent the fight for women’s rights, and I remembered one who had won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.
Lemay Gbowee was born in Liberia and lived through two brutal wars. She had dreams—she was a good student—but everything was turned upside down. Her family fled and settled in a camp in Ghana.
She fell in love with an older man, but he abused her, and she had six children with him. At 26, she left him with her children to focus on her work as a social worker, a training offered by UNICEF on violence against women and abusive domestic relationships. She became the voice of victims living through the war every day. She returned to her studies, became involved in a trauma-healing project, but above all, she wanted to bring Liberian women together to end the violence, because, in her view :”
«change can come especially from mothers»
extract from the autobiographical book by Leymah Gbowee”Notre force est infinie”
« In 2001, the first meeting of the Women in Peacebuilding Network (WIPNET) was held in Ghana. Women from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Togo attended, including Leymah Gbowee and Thelma Ekiyor, the organizers. Together, they worked to put women at the heart of peace negotiations.»
Exprime Asso, “Leymah Gbowee, travailleuse sociale et prix nobel de la paix”
In summary, Leymah is the founder of a nonviolent movement of Christian and Muslim women known as the “Women in White”, which played a major role in ending the devastating civil war that shook Liberia for 14 years. Today, she is the founder and current president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa (GPFA). She is also the Executive Director of the Women, Peace, and Security Program at the Earth Institute of Columbia University in New York
If we, as women, stand united, we are capable of moving mountains—for ourselves, our children, and our future.
Learn more “education and training“, or the rajart.fr website “women day d day” or the audio article “Leymah Gbowee”