“…These things happened not just because of racism or sexism, but because of ignorance, and [we] help them go beyond that ignorance, to build peace.”
***
Wanjiru Kamau is the founder of the African Refugee and Immigrant Foundation, which facilitates the effective transition of African immigrants to American society and supports their productive, sustainable integration into their new homeland.  She won a 2011 Purpose Prize for her work with the foundation. The Purpose Prize honors someone who made a change late in their career to work for social good.  Prior to moving …

B. Abel Learwellie
Liberia
“During the war, we were running from the fighting and on our way I was arrested from the group. On that day, I was gang raped at the age of fourteen by eight men who went out with me at different intervals, and  then sent me away.  I later became pregnant and give birth to a girl child. How can I tell the story when I can’t remember who has raped me?”
***

I am from Liberia, a country struck by 14 years of civil war which …

Elise Webb
Rwanda/United States
“Patricia was an average woman dressed in a vivid blue t-shirt and yellow skirt. To me, she was just another face in the chaotic crowd, but to them she was a liberator. She was a woman to be trusted, a leader from their own ranks. She stepped forward to calm the throng.”
***
Shouts wafted uphill to where my Rwandan Search for Common Ground (SFCG) colleagues and I were chatting with a group of women outside the office of the Sector Executive Secretary.  They were waiting to be paid …

Emilia Eyo
Nigeria
“I envision a world where every girl born is celebrated as a human being who has lots of potential and possesses talents that will contribute to the positive development of our society.  …  I see a world where women will be encouraged to be inventive and their inventions documented.”
***
I sit at my desk, staring out into the small greenish farm that surrounds my office, and think of what I have always envisioned for my life, my community, and the world.
Is it unnatural for a woman to think this …