MOTHERS MOBILIZE TO IMPACT POLICY

Women Waging Peace Members Address Washington, DC Policymakers

WASHINGTON, DC- 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 address policymakers in Washington, DC on May 2, 2001. They will also participate in a Harvard-wide colloquium on May 5th at the Harvard Law School to discuss the increasingly essential role that mothers play in foreign policy formulation and implementation.

Mobilized Mothers 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 world's toughest, most hardened conflict zones."

May 2nd Events in Washington will include: Ambassador Swanee Hunt, joined by representatives of Mobilized Mothers, will give a briefing to members of Congress at the Capitol Building, sponsored by Representatives Jan Schakowsky, Nancy Pelosi, and Juanita Millender-McDonald. The briefing will be held Wednesday May 2nd, between 1:00-2:00pm in Room HC-9. Representative Schakowsky will make opening remarks. The Mobilized Mothers will speak about the efforts of women worldwide to promote political change.

Later that day, Amnesty International and Women in International Security will co-sponsor an open forum featuring the Mobilized Mothers at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace building for a discussion of ways that mothers and policymakers can work together to identify new methods for building sustainable peace. The panel discussion will take place in the first floor Choate Room, 1779 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 5:00pm-7:00pm.

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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