Her Steps Count: Promoting Women in Peacebuilding

Lama Hattab is a Jordanian athlete and a youth- and women-in-sport advocate who works as Programmes Director for Generations For Peace, a leading global non-profit peace-building organisation based in Amman. She is best known for being the first female Jordanian marathon runner, the first Middle Eastern female ultramarathon participant, and a passionate proponent of youth and women’s involvement in sport across the Middle East.

Lama’s passion for running and sport inspired her to found the Jabal Ishrin charity race, which aimed to encourage people who might not normally engage in running to challenge themselves for a charitable cause. Having found success in long-distance races, Lama set her sights on new heights: climbing mountains. Lama and her twin sister were aiming to climb Mount Everest in 2009, but lack of funding required them to postpone this goal. However, her preparation for the climb led her to take part in intense training in Alaska and to climb the highest peak in the Arab world: Morocco’s Toubkal Mountain, which towers at an impressive 4,167 metres tall.

Lama is determined to continue showing the world what youth and women – particularly those from the Middle East – are capable of, and inspiring others to do the same. Her work with Generations For Peace highlights this theme, with programmes around the world that engage youth in conflict transformation and peace building. Despite her dedication to the organisation, she has not lost touch with her athletic side. Always seeking new ways to challenge herself, Lama will set out in April 2018 to climb Mount Lobuche in Nepal, whose peak measures almost 6,150 metres in height – approximately ¾ the height of Mount Everest, which she still plans to summit in 2019, just ten years later than she had original planned.

Generations For Peace is a Jordanian non-governmental organisation based in Amman dedicated to peace building through sustainable conflict transformation at the grassroots. Founded in 2007 by HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein, GFP has worked with and empowered volunteer leaders of youth in 50 countries around the world to promote active tolerance and responsible citizenship in communities experiencing various forms of conflict and violence. The organisation is the largest Jordanian NGO, with a global ranking of #2 in peace-building and #30 overall by NGO Advisor’s 2018 Top 500 NGOs in the World. It uses carefully-facilitated sport-based games, art, advocacy, dialogue, and empowerment activities to serve as an entry point for engaging children, youth, and adults, both men and women, and to promote integrated education and sustained behavioural change.