2008 Peace Writers

 

Dzenovska worked with peacemaker Shinjita Alam of Bangaldesh and wrote the narrative "The Candle of Bangaldesh."

Updated 6/10 - After completing her time as a peace writer, Dzenovska worked for the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies as conference coordinator for the Greening Borders conference in Fall 2009.

Jennifer Freeman has a B.A. in political science, German and European studies from the University of Victoria in Canada and an M.A. in peace and conflict studies from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland, where she studied on a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship. Freeman has worked with various nongovernmental organizations in Ghana, the United Kingdom, Canada and in Ugandan refugee settlements on issues of women’s rights and peacebuilding through sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response, supporting women with HIV/AIDS and conducting psychosocial programs for war-affected youth. For her master’s thesis, Freeman conducted research in Kyaka II refugee settlement in Uganda on gendered security, for which she interviewed Congolese, Rwandan and Burundian refugees on their perspectives of human and traditional security threats in their countries of origin and since arriving in the “safety” of asylum.

Freeman worked with Sylvie Maunga Mbanga of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and wrote the narrative "Healing the Wounds of War."

Updated 6/10 - Freeman coordinated the 2009 Women PeaceMakers event Bearing Exquisite Witness and served again as a peace writer in 2009, writing the story of Zeinab Mohamed Blandia of Sudan. She is now program officer for the Women PeaceMakers Program.

Morales-Egan worked with Olenka Ochoa of Peru and wrote the narrative "Paving the Path to Peace."

Updated 6/10 - Morales-Egan is regional desk officer for the Latin America/U.S. Border Programs of Project Concern International, a San Diego-based nonprofit health and humanitarian aid organization.

Alicia Simoni’s life experiences have inspired a career and research focused on the gendered implications of violence and on women’s capacity to create positive change. As an undergraduate studying anthropology at Johns Hopkins University, she worked with homeless women in Baltimore and, while studying abroad, Protestant women in Northern Ireland. After graduating, Simoni began work at Women for Women International where she contributed to the design, implementation and monitoring of programs in several post-conflict and conflict contexts, including Afghanistan. In 2007 she completed her M.A. in international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. During her graduate studies, Simoni spent time in Uganda working for The AIDS Support Organization and researching the role of masculinity in peacebuilding. She then returned to Women for Women International as a monitoring and evaluation officer, where she was surrounded on a daily basis by evidence of women supporting each other through traumatic events and encouraging each other to challenge the status quo.

Simoni worked with Zandile Nhlengetwa of South Africa and wrote the narrative "Deepening the Peace."

In 2010, Simoni wrote "Keeper of the Soul of the People," the narrative of Bae Liza Llesis Saway of the Philippines.

Updated 6/10 - Simoni is editor and community manager at Peace X Peace, a global network of women with women-focused e-media, fresh analysis and from-the-frontlines perspectives.

Updated 11/11 - Simoni is getting her master of social work from Smith College's School for Social Work and is now based in Atlanta, Ga.