liberia

Last week three women, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their tremendous peace building efforts in their respective countries. This announcement came on the heels of several global conferences, including CGI 2011, during which international leaders called for an end to child marriage, FGM, and gender inequality. Prominent figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu noted girls' education as crucial to eliminating these evils.

Via @RisingVoices:

Sorry for the late notice, but I just found out about this competition for budding youth reporters. Deadline is October 1.

The More Than Me Foundation provides scholarships to girls in Liberia who would not otherwise be able to go to school.

This photo captures what More Than Me’s work means to those girls. It was also the Grand Prize and Africa region winner of GlobalGiving’s first Facebook photo contest.

I begin with a question, why did two nineteen year old girls take on the mission to essentially replace the UNHCR for funding basic needs on the Buduburam Liberian Refugee camp just outside the capital city of Ghana?

I managed to capture Ceasefire Liberia Project Manager Nat Bayjay's presentation to the recent Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Santiago, Chile. It was an inspiring moment. In Nat's words, it's "beyond the ordinary"!

The full story is available at the Th!nk3: Developing World blogging competition website  Ceasefire Liberia: Rising African Voices

I was pleased to learn about Ceasefire Liberia, a terrific example of the type of social media connections Kabissa seeks to promote.

From the website:

"Ceasefire Liberia is a multimedia project which aims to document the Liberian experience on both sides of the ocean. It includes a book, documentary film work, and now a blog. The goal of the blog is to connect the Liberian community in Liberia with the rest of the Diaspora in order to create a dialogue between those who fled during the war and those who remained."

The founder, Ruthie Ackerman, was recently interviewed on Media Bistro, which you can listen to online here. (via Rising Voices mailing list)

The Youth Employment Network's (YEN) Competitive Grant Scheme is now accepting applications!

The scheme will support youth-led organizations in the Mano River Union (MRU) countries namely, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Grants of USD 2'000 to 50'000 will be awarded to innovative proposals chosen by a Selection Committee through an open, transparent, and competitive selection process.

We received a request to post the announcement below from the Program for Individuals at Risk at Amnesty International USA. This month, they are hosting three Liberian women and promoting a film by Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Stack titled Women of Liberia: Fighting for Peace. Click here for more information. The films sound quite powerful and I wish I could watch the screenings! Will they ever come to Seattle?

For more than a decade, Liberia experienced a devastating conflict in which tens of thousands of Liberian women and girls were taken into the fighting forces and experienced unspeakable acts of violence, including rampant sexual violence against them, On Tuesday July 29 at 7pm, join Amnesty International USA at E St. Cinema for the Washington DC premiere of Women of Liberia: Fighting for Peace, a documentary film directed by two time academy award winner Jonathan Stack. Following the screening several of the Liberian women featured in the film will talk about their experiences and their courageous journeys of recovery. Free Admission. For more information, contact Ilona Kelly at Amnesty International USA, 202-544-0200.

Truth and Reconcilliation hearings being held in Liberia are using Web 2.0 technologies to make the hearings as widely accessible as possible. The project is being supported by Georgia Tech University of Atlanta and will consist of daily updates of videos of sessions, statements, discussion forums and general up-to-date news and resources.