Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa

Our mission is to provide outstanding education and leadership opportunities to women and youth. Leymah Gbowee is best known as the extraordinary woman who launched a powerful movement of thousands of women-from 16 different ethnic groups, across religious divides-to end Liberia's bloody civil war. Back in 1999, when the country, after a brief period of calm, was thrown once again into chaos, when women and children faced unprecedented levels of cruelty and displacement, when a quarter of a million people died and many more fled, and when the economic, political and educational systems threatened to completely collapse, the network of Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace took matters ... read more Our mission is to provide outstanding education and leadership opportunities to women and youth. Leymah Gbowee is best known as the extraordinary woman who launched a powerful movement of thousands of women-from 16 different ethnic groups, across religious divides-to end Liberia's bloody civil war. Back in 1999, when the country, after a brief period of calm, was thrown once again into chaos, when women and children faced unprecedented levels of cruelty and displacement, when a quarter of a million people died and many more fled, and when the economic, political and educational systems threatened to completely collapse, the network of Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace took matters into their own hands. Boldly, the women marched in the streets; clamored for the deployment of foreign peacekeepers; demanded a ceasefire; spoke passionately in public forums; held pray-ins, sit-ins and a sex strike; demanded the resumption of peace talks when they stalled; and blockaded the peace talks with their bodies, forcing warlords to negotiate. With those actions, the women achieved the impossible without a single shot. They ended Liberia's civil war, deposing the nation's notorious leader Charles Taylor, ushering in a hopeful new period of democratic self-governance, and paving the way for the election of Liberia-and Africa's-first female president. But that was not the end of the story; in fact, it was the beginning. As history attests, peace is not a moment; it is a process. Building a lasting peace demands recognizing the importance of the empowerment and participation of women; that, in turn, demands ensuring that women and girls have access to education for life and leadership. It has been and remains the dream of Leymah Gbowee- awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work in ending Liberia's civil war-to see women and girls empowered in Liberia, throughout West Africa, and worldwide to realize their own dreams and work confidently towards humanity's shared dream of peace and security. She believes that journey to sustainable peace must begin with girls' education. A major step towards achieving that goal came in 2012 when Gbowee founded the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa in Liberia. With offices in the capital city, Monrovia, GPFA is Liberia's leading grassroots, community-based organization dedicated to building sustainable peace in that country and throughout West Africa. It is focused on girls' education, women's empowerment, sustaining the peace, and ensuring security that goes beyond freedom from violence and war to encompass all aspects of human security-for food, health, environmental, personal, political and community security. In the short years since Leymah Gbowee founded the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa in Liberia, we have seen how eager Liberia's girls are to take advantage of the opportunity to follow their own dreams and help to make the dreams of their families and their communities come true. Today, GPFA is the leading grassroots, community-based organization in Liberia dedicated to building sustainable peace, increasing access to education for women and girls and supporting their full and active participation in the economic, social and political life of the country. GPFA achieves its goals through a comprehensive program of scholarships, mentoring, internships, leadership development and community-building activities.