 the U.S. Institute of Peace's inaugural Women Building Peace Award celebration. We're delighted that you've joined us for this special event honoring the 2020 finalists and announcing the very first recipient of this new award. 25 years ago, the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing resolved to advance the goals of equality, development and peace for all women everywhere in the interest of humanity. Today, we recognize the extraordinary contributions of women pursuing peace in fragile and conflict-affected areas around the world. During these difficult times, when women comprise the majority of frontline healthcare workers and caregivers globally, it is imperative that we recognize the vital role that women play in peacebuilding. We're about to meet 10 exceptional women who have persevered under some of the toughest circumstances and share their wisdom and their plans for creating a more peaceful world. Our finalists are a diverse group of women living and working in eight different countries, spanning the generations, using practical and innovative practices to achieve justice, equality, peace, where before there was injustice and violent conflict. They are inspiring figures, extraordinary models of collaboration, leadership, courage and commitment. At the end of the ceremony, we will announce the recipient of the inaugural 2020 Women Building Peace Award. This individual will receive $10,000 and her name will be inscribed by Zamiah Angelo Peace Terrace at the USIP headquarters on the National Mall in Washington, DC. And now, here is our first finalist. When I was growing up, I really liked life at home. This lovely smiling lady, I really didn't know there was anything that would befall me at some point on October 9th, 1996, things changed. There are lots of resistance from the rebels at our schools, destroying windows, wrapping our hands behind. That is how the 30 of us began our new life that night. We started moving from one place to the other. You're not sure whether there is something to eat or not. I was a software man in December 1996. That was the worst bit of my life. Life in captivity was never easy. But I recovered. I recovered and here I am today. The war in Northern Uganda is gone. The guns are silent. But to be honest, the world should know the women are suffering. Trauma can never go away completely. Gathering of women together to share their stories is an important aspect of beginning to acknowledge the lived experiences. I've worked with the women, under the Women's Advocacy Network in different things like storytelling, how we petitioned the appellment, identifying opportunities that there was need for livelihood. And why is livelihood important? It's just not like give today. I don't believe in it. I know if you provide the skills for individuals, they will be able to do that on their own and they can pass on the skills to their family members. We need sustainable peace in our communities. So it's going to be a journey, but I am determined. I am determined to do what I can with the team and the people around. And of course, for my own country, Uganda, I love it and enough to see something good happen. Peace-building woman is respectable. The whole world has to respect her. I was a child bride. On my wedding day, I didn't know what is happening there, why the people are gathered and why everyone is giving me an importance. But I was very happy for my bride dress and my jewelry. I didn't know that I'm going to have a very tough life in the age of 13. It was too difficult and I raised my four kids by myself. Then later on, for 20 years of such a problematic life, I just divorced him. So I started working in an organization that was a local organization. I used to take the station there and listen to women's problems. So among those problems, like I used to talk to them about peace, that we forgive each other for our mistakes, so it's much better. Nothing could have happened. So I thought in my heart that we should have a platform for women in which we can talk about our problems, how we can talk about our problems. Jirga is a gathering of our elders in which they listen to the decisions of the people and can't reject that decision. And I'm against it. Why can't they reject their decision? So I tried to make my own Jirga, my own platform. And I made it and I'm successful in that platform. It was a milestone in the history of Pakistan and the history of Bakhtun culture. It's the aim of my life to God justice for those people, for those women, for those girls who are vulnerable and are not able to get justice or any of their rights. A peace building woman is both a bridge builder and a fierce champion for a better world. In my 30 years of working in and around conflicts around the world, I am continually humbled by the many powerful and inspiring women I meet who are building peace. They raise their voices, they risk their lives, and they find bold ways to build peace from women who formed neighborhood councils in Syria, to grandmothers who ride motorbikes to intervene in neighborhood conflicts in Kenya, to women vying to be at the peace table. Too often their voices aren't heard and they are not seen. We know from considerable research and certainly from experience that women's commitments to peace are invaluable but too often invisible. USIP wants to change that. The Women Building Peace Award recognizes the extraordinary contributions of women working in fragile and conflict-affected countries around the world. We received more than 150 nominations from 51 different countries for this inaugural Women Building Peace Award, and each one came with an inspiring story. This award builds on more than a decade of USIP's work on gender, and we hope that it serves as a guiding light into the future for women peace builders. It has been such a privilege working on this award with our USIP team as well as with the wonderful members of our Women Building Peace Council. As the first woman president of USIP, elevating the work of these remarkable women around the world was both an important opportunity but also a personal responsibility. Given the complex challenges that we face as a world, we cannot afford to neglect or exclude the voice and the power of women peace builders. 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Betty Williams said at best, the voice of women has a special role and a special soul force in the struggle for a nonviolent world. Peace Building Women is someone extremely creative, extremely optimistic, and extremely sensitive. My name is Rosemilia Salamanca. I come from Colombia. I was adopted by a very incredible family. They were so generous with me that they taught me to be generous with others. We have had so many years of violence here in Colombia. The world doesn't know what happened to all the women. They were slaves, they were sexually abused. So many things happened with women and now they are speaking the truth. We are a feminist institution that has men and women inside. We are working with grassroots organizations and we also have a strong international program. We really believe that every brick, small stone, whatever we do together will bring a little bit closer to the idea of peace building. I am proud of that. So many women moving forward from everywhere. We are not alone. We are also part of a global, incredible movement, so diverse, so incredible generous that I think that we are doing something that is so important because we are not only changing our countries, we are trying to change the world. Peace Building Women is a woman involved in protection, in prevention and in building a peaceful community. My name is Odette Habonimana. I'm from Burundi. I grew up in low income family in 1993 during the first political crisis that I needed. I saw my mother convincing all the men in the village not to commit crimes and they listened to her. I advised young boys not to take arms and kill other people and they listened to her. I grew up with that spirit that women have the power to change situations. That showed me that if all mothers were like my mother there would be less crime and crisis. Most of women in Burundi are illiterate. They are rural. I was among the first ladies in my village to attend the university. I had to go back to my home village. I created a women empowerment program for rural women because rural women are the foundation of life. They are a foundation of everything. I see my mother like a great leader for me and I wanted to empower other women just to look like my mother and then build a better future. A future without poverty, without exposure, without violence. A woman peace builder is the person who runs to some of the world's most difficult problems when others are either running away from them or creating those problems. In the 20 years that I've been in this field this is one of the things that I've always noticed that when wars break out there are a handful of extraordinary women who have the courage and the compassion to stand up to demand ceasefires to put their own lives on the line for the betterment of their own communities. These are women peace builders and they need to be recognized and the 10 women that we're honoring today are amongst this extraordinary community of modern-day superheroes. It's a particular honor for me to be doing this this year because 20 years ago I was involved in advocating for what became Resolution 1325 at the UN Security Council as part of a campaign then that was called Women Building Peace from the Village Council to the negotiating table. We've been saying these things for 20 years around the world and we have to look and see what have we achieved. We have 80 countries that have national action plans. We have laws that have been passed in this country and other countries. We have global networks of women peace builders all over the world and yet as we speak here today Afghan women are still having to struggle to get to the peace table. Yemeni women peace builders are still being left outside of the realms where their future is being negotiated. It's time it's time for the world to take responsibility to recognize that women who become peace builders who who are acting in the midst of conflict not with violence but with their words and their hearts have a right to be at the tables of negotiation where their future is being discussed. So stand with me today stand with women peace builders and join us in honoring these extraordinary women. The woman who builds peace is the key and it's the justice and it's the mother. The woman is considered as the pillar of the community. When the dignity of this woman is really humble, humble, choosified, it's all the community that is affected by it. When I saw women with children in the street, without assistance, without culture, without life, without anything at all, it hurt me. I woke up in the morning to go to the radio to tell women in the city of Mounia to accept and help the other women without having the point of being seen. If you have food, if you have life, give to the women, welcome the women. And there are women who are the ones who have given. So it really mobilized me to work on peace. That's how I became really engaged as an activist to help people understand their rights, especially women, but also children, and help to change the conditions of governance in our country. If there is good governance in Congo, we will say okay, let's move forward and that our neighbors can accept to live in peace with us. We have a small step forward. We have changes that are carried out in the villages. The Coutumier chiefs who accept that women can also be in the country's management, in the continued power. The chiefs who name the women as district chiefs, as judges in the Coutumier Tribunal, we work for peace. Peace building women is a need of the globe. My name is Asya Jamim, being born in Ruler area, which is closer to the tribal districts of Pakistan. I had to struggle a lot for my education. I remember I was being threatened to be killed, shot dead by my uncles, because I was not giving up going to school. My greatest support, strongest support was my father. And then my father was shot dead in mosque by his own brothers. I stood in front of every men member of my family, which was so difficult. And I said my brothers are not going to be into all these pharynx and ceiling. My brothers are going to go to schools and I can win everybody to work for peace. There is struggle for education, there is struggle for equality. I see that women are being deprived of their national ID cards. This is a very serious issue for me and I want every woman to have your own identity, know yourself and value yourself. I see that the female characters are always represented as very weak. So, I rewrote the story of Senvila. In my Senvila story, she was from my area. So, I customized the character according to my culture. It turned out to be very impactful in changing the perspective of youth towards accepting women as leaders and peace promoters, you know, and celebrate her wisdom, her intelligence. What inspires me is that, if I, from a ruler area of Pakistan, from a very strict patriarchal society, if I can, anybody can. A peace-building woman is a transformational leader who is forging and sustaining peace and rebuilding her society and mending her community for a better future. Hi, thank you for inviting me to join you today for the Women Building Peace Award. I spent most of my adult life advocating for women and girls to reach their full potential in various ways. I ve had a lot of personal experience seeing the impact film and TV images can have on women and girls shaping cultural norms through the roles that I ve played. So, when my daughter, Alice, was about two, I started watching children s content with her. And because of the spidey sense I developed about how women are portrayed on screen, I was floored that there seemed to be far fewer female characters than male characters and a great deal of stereotyping in media make the youngest of kids. Really? It occurred to me as a mother in the 21st century that surely kids should be seeing boys and girls sharing the sandbox equally. Media images are very powerful. So I founded the Gina Davis Institute on gender and media to help foster on-screen gender balance and to change the way girls see themselves. Our studies have shown that seeing women leaders in popular culture and in the community inspire girls to aim high. Female characters have motivated women to be more ambitious, more successful, and break out of abusive relationships. Our research has even shown that the Hunger Games movie and the film Brave, both of which feature female archers, caused the number of girls participating in competitive archery to double. USIP s 2020 Women Building Peace finalists are hitting a different target, building bridges, negotiating peace deals, and helping to end decades of violent conflict. When so many stories glorify war, these women demonstrate the power and the appeal of peace. The Women Building Peace Award brings the stories of these powerful women to the spotlight. Stories that ignite change. Congratulations to all 10 finalists who are building peace in their communities and serving as role models for the next generation. I am Angela María Escobar. I am from Oriente, Antioquia. For women in Colombia, the armed conflict has been very difficult for us, because the women were the ones in charge of the entire weight of the war. Many women suffer from violent sexual conflict. We suffer from displacement, from starting to look at how we are going to rebuild life with our children, which was never easy. Victim of violent sexual conflict, armed by three members of the paramilitaries. When, after 10 years of being a victim of violent sexual violence, I dared to go to Colombia to report, which I was not very well attended to, and that was what led me to the struggle for justice for victims of sexual violence in armed conflict, and there I began to know many victims of sexual violence, and we began to tell our stories. First, I was able to raise my voice, break the silence. Let's say here in Colombia, there is an 8% of impunity in sexual violence in armed conflict, but we continued to look for that justice, that these crimes are punished, and for it to be punished, so that society, the victim, the family, the institution, will understand that it is a crime that is punished, and to punish, I fight for justice, so that the impunity ends in sexual violence, so that the consequences and impacts caused in our bodies, of the victims of sexual violence, are recognized, I fight for reconciliation and peace. Peace building woman imagines, and because she imagines, she brings hope. My name is Irene Morada Santiago. I live in the Philippines, but one of the things that was important to me was growing up in a school where I learned to love my country, but also give back, and then much later I became a feminist. Communism became very important to me as a way of expressing my commitment to social justice. For about 40 years, I worked on women's rights and gender equality. I worked that women are at the table, they're on the table, and they're turning the tables. At the table is participation, voice, and on the table means whose perspective is on the table. Then lastly, you can't have participation and perspectives and all that without transforming the entire system, because in the end, it is about structural change. I was a member of the panel negotiating the peace agreement, and also asked to be the chair of the panel implementing the comprehensive Bamsa Moro Accord, and that meant working on the whole reconstruction and recovery, rehabilitation, demobilization, disarmament policies, setting up the new autonomous region. Nobody in the world had ever given that to a woman, but the times called for somebody who would help articulate what women are capable of doing in the world, and I'm very happy that I'm part of that articulation, because that's where other women and men will draw inspiration from. A peace building woman is a woman who understands the concept of peace not just being the ending of wars, but the creation of conditions that dignifies all human. In 1989, I graduated from high school as a 17-year-old girl. The next day, my country, Liberia, went to war. I moved from a child to an adult in a matter of hours. That's why the violence that many women experienced during the war, we knew that as women, if we did not get involved in the political process, we were doomed. The women of Liberia came together and took our country from rock bottom to a place where today we recognize for the peace that we've been able to maintain. Today, everyone is talking about what women can do when they get involved in peace process. The Women Peace Building Award shines a light on these courageous and committed women who have been using their voices, their talents, and their skills in grassroots community at national, international, and regional level. These women are changing their tide. The world needs to watch them. The world needs to hear them. The world needs to walk with them. This 2020 Women Peace Building Award recipient is a passionate and dynamic civil society leader. She is a driving force behind the inclusion of women in her country's peace process. Despite the numerous threats on her life, she has convened in that first group of participants from across traditional lines of division and has achieved major steps towards peace in her country. I am extremely proud. I am extremely honored to announce the inaugural 2020 Women Peace Building Award recipient is Rita Lopidia from South Sudan. Rita, congratulations. You are an inspiration to us all. Congratulations on this world-deserved honor. I would also like to congratulate all of the finalists of this year Women Building Peace Award through your successes and your examples of building peace in your communities and countries. You show the entire world that the power that women have to bend the arc of history away from violence and conflict towards peace. Congratulations. God bless you all. Let's continue to work for peace, justice, and our collective humanity. I love you all. God bless you. Winning this award will mean a lot to the people of South Sudan. It will mean that we are being recognized worldwide. It will mean that something good can also come out of South Sudan, not always the negative stories that we see all over the media. So this award is very important. A peace building woman is a powerful leader. I was born in Juba, South Sudan in the 80s. I joined the primary school here in early 1990s. I had good memories of friends in a school that is full of potential. This is where I had my foundation. This is where I started to understand that there is something wrong in my country. That is why I was not able to come to school because by then the SPLA was shelling Juba and it was not really safe for us to be in school. Then we had to move to Khartoum. That's how I ended up being an internally displaced person. Being a displaced person in Sudan during those days it was not easy. So we were always seen as second class citizens. The history that we know is basically that of conflict and we know the suffering that comes with conflict. And then after South Sudan got its independence there was hope that things were going to change for the women in this country but they didn't have the opportunity. Women continued to suffer because if you look at our country the basic infrastructure is not there. Women still cannot get loans to improve on their livelihood. Women cannot get proper maternal care. So even if there is peace and there is no proper plan, national plan to move women of South Sudan from the suffering into development we will not benefit from peace. The work that we do in South Sudan SE for organization is to ensure that women have the space to contribute in decision making and women have the opportunity to contribute to building this nation into a country that is stable and peaceful. We work with community leaders to ensure that there is support for women, there is protection for women against sexual and gender based violence especially as it relates to conflict. We work with girls where we train young women to be leaders of the future. We did work with women during the Sudan's elections. Finally the big work we did during the referendum as well. So if you look at the results of the referendum the number of women that voted is really high and as an organization we take pride in that. So South Sudan became a sovereign state because women came out in numbers and voted. The community we live in are still not aware on gender equality. Men and women experience conflict differently. So in order to have a complete and a comprehensive resolution of conflict it is important that women are brought to the table and women are also included in terms of power sharing such that perspective of women are included when resolving the conflict. The South Sudanese woman is a strong and a resilient woman that motivates me every time I wake up even with the trouble that they are going through they will still wake up with a smile and that smile alone keeps me going. Congratulations Rita on receiving the inaugural Women Peace Building Award. I'm so inspired by your efforts to empower women to be meaningful participants in the South Sudanese peace process. Congratulations as well to this year's finalists for their nominations and thank you all for your steadfast dedication into promoting peace. Your leadership is building a more peaceful future for all of us. Rita I just wanted to add my congratulations. Your story is inspirational from mobilizing civil society to empowering young boys and girls you are changing the world. You give us hope that peace is possible. Congratulations. Congratulations to Rita and to all of the finalists. Your stories and the important work that you do are an inspiration for the next generation of peace builders. Congratulations Rita on being the very first recipient of the Women Building Peace Award. This well-deserved recognition is proof that your tireless efforts toward achieving peace in South Sudan are seen they are heard and they are valued across the globe. To all the women finalists today we are so proud to be celebrating your efforts and we know that they will inspire other peace builders around our globe. The U.S. Institute of Peace has been honored to highlight and recognize each and every one of you courageous women in today's virtual event. You help heal the world and you guide us toward peace. Hearing these stories truly opened our hearts today. Each of you has sacrificed and overcome so much in your lives because you understand the goodness and the importance of peace. The U.S. Institute of Peace is proud to honor and celebrate you today. I am so pleased to announce that the nomination cycle for the 2021 Women Building Peace Award will open later this year. There are countless extraordinary women working around the world every day for peace. Because this award aims to celebrate the often invisible yet essential role that women play in peace building, we strongly encourage nominations of individual women who have not been previously recognized for their work in peace building. By submitting your nomination you can help us raise awareness of the key role that women play in building sustainable and lasting peace and inspire generations to come. A peace building woman is my hero. I have always been passionate about peace. I have always loved the blue, green, brown of sky and earth. I have always motivated to make a difference. I have always loved to empower women. I come from women who are the heart of the families. Who sit on their thrones smiling like cats. I come from women who have been internally displaced. I come from women who are visionaries who do not have the right to speak for themselves. My heart is aching. My heart breaks and rebuilds. My hands initiate to change. My hands are hardworking. My hands are open to give more. I am able to face the future. I am able. I am able. I am able. And I am able to create happiness and sorrow to go to the moon if that is what I choose to do. I am able to crumble soil and polish diamonds. I am able to challenge the world. I am able to build peace. I am able to change my story and that of many other young South Sudanese women.