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Peace Notes DECATUR, ILLINOIS 62523-1295 First Presbyterian Church FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH * 204 WEST PRAIRIE * Peace Notes DECATUR, ILLINOIS 62523-1295 Focus on Peacemakers This issue celebrates individual peacemakers near and far. On each page you’ll find: An essay written by a member of the Peacemaking Committee about a remarkable person of peace, many of whom may be new to you. An introduction to the local Decatur Public School students who were named Peacemakers by their schools this year. Thanks to Connie Requarth for compiling these. Descriptions of Nobel Peace Prize winners over the past three decades, compiled by Craig Mandernach. Tawakkol Karman The Peacemaker Awards, 2017 By Sandy Peterson By Connie Requarth Tawakkol Karman, at the age of 32, was presented As we look at leaders who have striven to the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize “in bring peace around the world, we also want to recognition of her work in non- acknowledge some of our younger and local Peacemakers. violent struggle for the safety of In our 9th year of giving these awards, First women and women’s rights to Presbyterian’s Peacemaking Committee full participation in recognized 10 Peacemakers at eight Decatur peacebuilding work in Yemen.” public schools. We collaborate with both She was the first Yemeni, the Central Christian Church’s Peace and Justice Committee and First United Methodist’s Mission second Muslim woman, and the Committee. youngest recipient overall to Each student received a certificate, an date to receive that award. engraved medallion and a $50 gift card. “A journalist by profession and human rights Plaques located prominently in each school activist by nature, Tawakkol responded to the political were updated with the newest awardees’ names. Teachers and school staff made the instability and human rights abuses in Yemen by comments about the honored students. mobilizing others and reporting on injustices. In 2005, Please see more about these accomplished she founded the organization Women Journalists students in the display case in the Gathering without Chains which advocates for rights and Room. freedoms and provides media skills to journalists. In addition, the organization produces regular reports on human rights abuses in Yemen,” particularly those Nobel Peace Prize Awards that targeted journalists. From 2007 to 2011, Tawakkol organized weekly By Craig Mandernach protests in Yemen’s capitol city, targeting “systemic government repression,” corruption, and injustice. In The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 97 2011, she redirected her efforts towards supporting times to 130 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and the Arab Spring movement, even speaking in person 2016, to 104 individuals and 26 organizations. with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon Since the International Committee of the Red and organizing rallies at the UN headquarters in New Cross has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize York City. three times (in 1917, 1944 and 1963), and the She is known among her peers in the opposition Office of the United Nations High Commissioner movement as “mother of the revolution” and “the iron for Refugees has been awarded the Nobel Peace woman.” Tawakkol declares, “You have to be strong; Prize two times (in 1954 and 1981), 23 separate you have to trust yourself that you can build a new organizations have been awarded the Nobel country. You have to know you have the ability to Peace Prize. If you receive the email edition, you achieve your dream.” can click on the links to get more information about the prize recipients. (Quoted Source: nobelwomensinitiative.org) Peace Notes is distributed three or four times a year by the Peacemaking Committee of First Presbyterian Church. Its articles are intended to be thought-provoking and consciousness-raising, as well as informative about peacemaking efforts of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and First Presbyterian Church. Viewpoints expressed do not necessarily reflect positions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or our local congregation. Thanks to all who contributed to this issue. Peace Notes First Presbyterian Church Summer 2017 The Peacemaker Awards, 2017 Palwasha Kakar Terrence Tally, Thomas Jefferson By Phyllis McPherron Middle School Palwasha Kakar “Terrence has demonstrated exemplary serves as a deputy leadership abilities amongst his peers. He minister in the interacts with other students through his great Ministry of Women’s capacity for positivity, and is motivated by the Affairs for the satisfaction of doing the right thing.” government of Terrence visited First Pres on June 11 with Afghanistan. She was his mother and brother (pictured below with previously program Connie Requarth and Craig Mandernach). manager of a regional office of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission working toward the protection, promotion, and defense of the rights of the Afghan people, particularly women. She was born in eastern Afghanistan, educated at Kabul University and became a teacher. Her family was displaced during much of the 1980’s and 1990’s due to Soviet occupation and fighting among the Mujahedeen. When public teaching became impossible, she joined UNICEF and worked as a social trainer. She created the The Nobel Peace Prize 2016: only home school for girls in the Eastern Juan Manuel Santos Zone of conflict under the Taliban. Her “for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more family was later forced into exile in than 50-year-long civil war to an end” Pakistan. The Nobel Peace Prize 2015 When she returned in 2001, she created National Dialogue Quartet the first council of women in the city of “for its decisive contribution to the building of a Heart. She served as a women’s rights pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the officer, documenting human rights Jasmine Revolution of 2011” violations and calling on the government of The Nobel Peace Prize 2014 Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents and Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai international forces to respect and uphold “for their struggle against the suppression of children the rights of Afghan citizens. and young people and for the right of all children to education” In her present position, Kakar continues to challenge patriarchal norms and ensure The Nobel Peace Prize 2013 the rights of Afghan women in Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical governmental policy. Her work to lift up the Weapons (OPCW) “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical voices of women, often in remote regions weapons” of the country, placed her in life- threatening situations. She continues to The Nobel Peace Prize 2012 work toward the creation of environments European Union (EU) that offer women a reprieve from “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human discrimination and violence. rights in Europe” Palwasha Kakar was a Woman Peacemaker in 2006. The Nobel Peace Prize 2011 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkol Karman “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work” Page 2 Peace Notes First Presbyterian Church Summer 2017 The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 Liu Xiaobo “for his long and non-violent struggle for Julia Esquivel fundamental human rights in China” By Jean Wollenberg The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 Barack H. Obama Ms. Julia Esquivel, born in 1930, is a “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between Guatemalan poet, theologian, and peace activist. peoples” Ms. Esquivel lived in exile from her country for nearly a decade as a result of her work on behalf The Nobel Peace Prize 2008 of justice for indigenous Mayan people. The Martti Ahtisaari region in Central America where Julia is from has “for his important efforts, on several continents and seen as much civil unrest in the twentieth century over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts” as any place on the globe. As her native Guatemala The Nobel Peace Prize 2007 endured nearly 30 years of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change catastrophic political violence (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. under the rule of a series of “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to dictators, Esquivel watched as lay the foundations for the measures that are needed thousands and thousands of to counteract such change” Maya, Quichez and other indigenous groups were The Nobel Peace Prize 2006 savagely murdered. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank “for their efforts to create economic and social Against this bloody backdrop, development from below” Esquivel played the role of activist, poet, and minister. The Nobel Peace Prize 2005 She stood as a witness to God’s justice and International Atomic Energy Agency compassion, and acted as a healer amidst a land (IAEA) and Mohamed ElBaradei “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from of suffering. As a result of her work on behalf of being used for military purposes and to ensure that the poorer and oppressed people in Guatemala nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the she was threatened and harassed by police and safest possible way” army forces for many years, and she narrowly escaped kidnapping, arrest, and assassination. Finally, in 1980 she was forced to go into exile to save her life. Esquivel later used her time as an opportunity for education, for her own development, and as a The Peacemaker Awards, 2017 time to heal from the pain she experienced watching so many people endure fear, torture, Natahjie Bradford, and death. She wrote two collections of poems, MacArthur High School Threatened with Resurrection and The Certainty of Spring, which she says was literally like oxygen for “Natahjie is outgoing, very social and her, arising as much out of need as from volition – loves helping others. She has participated the need to heal, the need to keep on living.
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