MOTHERS MOBILIZE TO IMPACT POLICY

Women Waging Peace Members Address Harvard Colloquium

CAMBRIDGE, MA- At the invitation of Women Waging Peace, a global initiative of the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, three Mobilized Mothers will participate in a Harvard-wide colloquium to discuss the increasingly essential role that mothers play in foreign policy formulation and implementation. This group will also address policymakers in Washington, DC on May 2nd.

May 5th Harvard Wide Colloquium:
This Mobilized Mothers event brings together some of the leading voices from this influential and increasingly global movement. Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Chair of Women Waging Peace and Director of WAPPP, believes that "international security forces and diplomats could find no better allies than these mobilized mothers, who are at the forefront of peace efforts in some of the toughest, most hardened conflict zones."

On Saturday, May 5th, a group of Mobilized Mothers will address a Harvard Colloquium on international affairs entitled "A New American Foreign Policy: Global Voices, Challenges, and Opportunities." The colloquium will begin with a presentation by the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, and will feature in addition to three Mobilized Mothers, a keynote address by Dr. Jorge Casta�eda, Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs. At this year's colloquium, the Mobilized Mothers will present a special panel moderated by Ambassador Hunt entitled, "Mobilized Mothers: An Untapped Foreign Policy Resource." The panel will discuss how Mobilized Mothers can be powerful allies to diplomats, military leaders, security strategists, and aid organizers. The panel will meet at 3:00pm at the Harvard Law School, Hauser Building, in Room 102.

These events will highlight the activism and research of the following Mobilized Mothers:

• Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Ph.D., South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School, worked with the Mothers of the Guguletu 7 to confront abuses that occurred under South Africa's apartheid regime.
• Ida Kuklina, Ph.D., Secretary of the Analytical and Information Commission for the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, will present the work of this leading human rights group that is affecting military reform in Russia and has become a model replicated throughout the former Soviet Union.
• Atema Eclai, Ph.D. candidate, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, an activist with mothers' groups in her native Kenya and throughout sub-Saharan Africa. She has worked with women's development groups, ecumenical religious leaders, and chaired sessions for young African women at the UN Women's conference in Nairobi.

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