1. Mighty Be Our Powers – Leymah Gbowee

2.  War “officially over Aug. 14, 2003  Hard to believe the war was really over after there had been more than a dozen peace treaties signed and broken  Many rumors  People live in a constant state of fear  After 14 years of war, it doesn’t just go away

3.  250,000 people were dead – ¼ children  1 out of 3 people was displaced  350,000 living in internally displaced persons camps  One Million – mostly women and children at risk of malnutrition, diarrhea, measles and cholera due to contaminated wells  75% of country’s infrastructure destroyed (roads, hospitals, schools, etc)

4.  A whole generation of young men had no idea who they were without a gun in hand  Several generations of women were widowed, had been raped, had seen others raped, and their children kill and be killed  Neighbors turned against neighbors  Young people lost hope – old people lost everything they’d worked for  Everyone was traumatized

6.  Had to continue to show the awesome power of women  Peace is not “the end” but the foundation of a movement that had to continue  Ran a 3 day conference to teach women what the peace agreement meant

7.  UN Missions in Liberia (UNMIL) was the official peacekeeping force  Very arrogant  Supposed to kelp with humanitarian assistance and refugee return  Never consulted with anyone in the society on how to do this  Result = avoidable disasters

8.  Policy not to give food/supplies to former fighters  Made food delivery to civilians  Didn’t consult locals and didn’t know there were armed men in the area  Fighters came in and took everything

9.  “Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration”  Leymah told them they should let knowledgeabe locals help – she was told not to worry – there were “experts” in charge  Plan was to offer money for guns

10.  UN helicopters buzzed villages and dropped leaflets describing the program to communities were most people were illiterate  Dec 7 – supposed to be a “just for show” demonstration of how the program would work  Didn’t tell fighters this was “just for show”  Almost 3000 heavily armed troops showed up and got in line (many were Taylor’s troops)

11.  They smoked pot while they stood in line  There wasn’t enough food, water or money for all the fighters who showed up  Did they go away peacefully when the supplies ran out?????  Of course not!  Chaos = Rioting, Looting  The UN Staff left the locals to clean up the mess

12.  3 days later the UNMIL shut down the DDR program  Leymah and Sugars approached Taylor’s generals and offered to help – told them they knew how to work with the boys  Recruited over 50 volunteers to start  Taught women around the country how to run an effective DDR  It worked!!!

13.  In 2004, a UNIFEM report on DDR in Liberia praised the women for their assistance, noting that they performed “many essential tasks that would normally be the responsibility of armed military personnel.”

14. Leymah broadens her involvement  WIPNET got a lot of attention in the world of conflict resolution and peace-building.  Leymah was asked to present at conferences  Thelma started Herstories publication  Leymah went to New York to a USAID conference in 2004 (US Agency for International Development)  That led to a conference in Switzerland  Leymah started to read more and get involved more with “officials” in the peace groups

15. Steps toward college  Leymah attended a month-long program at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Virginia  Learned the concept of “Restorative Justice”  Gets away from punishment and retribution  Focuses on joint effort between victim and offender  Leymah saw this as a great solution because it followed the village tradition  She also dealt with her own issues – forgiving and moving on