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Announcing Delegation – Women Forging Peace, Liberia 2013

We are very excited to invite you to join us online from January 19 – 24  as the Nobel Women’s Initiative travels to Liberia to meet with women who are at the forefront of working for peace and reconciliation in the region.  Follow along with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our blog as the delegation – led by Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee and including her sister Laureates Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, and Mairead Maguire – meets with extraordinary women grassroots leaders in Liberia who played a key role in helping stop the violence unleashed by years of brutal civil war in the country.

Tired of witnessing the violence and brutality during years of civil war, Leymah Gbowee mobilized women across religious and ethnic divides in the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement. The women’s efforts, under Leymah’s leadership, forced warlord President Charles Taylor into exile and paved the way for the election of Africa’s first female head of state, fellow Peace Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The country still has a long way to go to reconcile the past and build a sustainable, peaceful future. The women of Liberia have been at the forefront in the transition to democracy. It is now essential to ensure their voices are heard in the peace and reconciliation processes currently taking place.

Leymah and her Gbowee Peace Foundation of Africa will host the delegation in Liberia. The delegation is comprised of highly-respected women journalists, Nobel Peace Laureates, businesswomen, philanthropists and grassroots women’s rights advocates from the US and Canada.

The Nobel Women will bear witness and provide support to women activists – spotlighting their work and amplifying their messages by sharing what we learn with decision-makers in Liberia and at the African Union, as well in the international community. Our goal is to to support real change, grounded in experiences and perspectives of women, by ensuring that what we learn is communicated directly to those making decisions that shape women’s lives in the region.

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