A lecture by Liberian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee – with an introduction and afterword by Precious Nnebedum
Leymah Gbowee meets with Austrian students in Vienna. Based on their questions, she delivers powerful beliefs and offers personal insights as well as inspirational accounts of her life and work. Class 7k from KLEX was part of the audience and brought back the recording of the lecture. Precious Nnebedum, a young woman from Nigeria, in her intro, admits to her „fan-girling“ and finally, in an amazing afterword, offers her thoughts and feelings as inspired by Leymah Gbowee. 55 minutes of truths that we are happy to share.
Background info for better unerstanding (more detail is offered in the podcast):
In Liberia, civil wars had raged since 1989, when Leymah Gbowee called together women from different ethnic and religious groups in the fight for peace. Dressed in white garments, they held daily demonstrations at the fishmarket in Monrovia. They collected money and finally Leymah Gbowee led a delegation of Liberian women to Ghana to put pressure on the warring factions during the peace-talk process. This played a decisive role in ending the war.
Leymah Gbowee was born and raised in Liberia. She educated herself as a social worker and has helped those who suffered psychological trauma in the civil war, including child soldiers. (cf. nobelprize.org)
She is one of only 48 women who have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2016.
Treffen mit der Friedensnobelpreisträgerin Leymah Gbowee
Am 30. September 2017 trafen die Schülerinnen und Schüler der 7k der KLEX im Albert Schweizer Haus in Wien auf die Friedensnobelpreisträgerin Leymah Gbowee. Frau Gbowee war für das große Reformationsfest der evangelischen Kirche am Rathausplatz als Hoffnungsträgerin eingeladen und stellte sich am Vormittag den Fragen der jungen Menschen. Im kleinen Rahmen (ca. 60 Personen) machte sie Mut, sich für verfolgte Menschen, Flüchtlinge und Frieden einzusetzen, niemals aufzugeben und wenn man hinfällt auch wieder aufzustehen. Zwischendurch zu verzweifeln sei erlaubt, so Gbowee, mit neuem Mut und Kraft weiterzuarbeiten aber erforderlich!
„Winners never quit, quitters never win!“ – so einer der Leitsätze, die sie den Jugendlichen mitgeben will.
Eine außergewöhnliche Frau, die Hoffnung gibt!
Foto im Slider: aga7ta, shutterstock.com