Women, Peace and Security
From May 2015 to February 2016 the fund “Sukhumi” together implemented a project: “Strengthening of women’s voices in the process of conflict transformation”.
The work was carried out with support of Federal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.
In frames of the project several activities were implemented. At the end of the project, there was printed a bulletin in Georgian and Russian Languages, which implied impressions and opinions of project participants.
The reader can have a full picture of interesting activities and what were the results, how did the project influence on participants.
When fund "Sukhumi” started to work on the stories of women peacemakers within the framework of Georgian-Abkhaz women’s joint peacemaking project, we were not fully aware how to form it. One thing we knew for sure – they would not be dry and impersonal stories about women and women’s organizations fighting for peace. Our main target was not only the provision of information, but also the motivation of new women groups to increase the rows of peacemakers.
As it turned out, there are numerous examples of confrontations, bloodshed and destruction. We see split-up societies, millions of refugee families. It is rather hard to find true life stories of women behind the dry reports of historians, Human Rights’ Defenders, and International Institution.
Gradually, we started collecting the stories.
The first one was the story of Malala Yusufzai- a girl from Pakistan, whom Thalibs tried to kill because of her thirst to freedom.
Then there was Sharm Thong from Burma – a sixteen year-old girl, whose evaluations were heard from the high UN tribune by the world authorities.
Mother Hawa from Galkayo was an ardent defender of refugee women.
Visaka Dharmadasa, whose story might be Familiar to mother, who lost their kids.
. . . And other names, who were defined by the one of the authors as "women, fighting until their last breath”.
This collection consists of only eight stories, different eight problems, faced by women of different age, social status, and race.
Our beneficiaries, groups of refugee women, had the possibility of getting acquainted with the collected stories. At one of our meetings, the oldest participant lady expressed the common idea, "Today I made sure that women all over the world are united by the similar problems. I have seen myself in these stories many times-I recognized my pain, my dreams. Honestly I felt envious toward the women who are brave, so true to their own nation.”
We hope that this spirit will be shared by those, who will read our collection of stories. It is only the first collection of women-peacemakers stories that will be enriched with new names and experiences.