Peace Women Paper: Education for Girls and Women

Education is globally acknowledged as the most powerful means of empowering girls and women and protecting them from the violation of their human rights. Investing in girls’ and women’s education can transform, and even save, lives — the lives of girls and women, and the lives of their families and communities. It is one of the most effective ways to achieve positive, sustainable change in the world, for everyone.

Every day, girls face barriers to education caused by poverty, cultural norms and practices, poor infrastructure, violence and fragility. Girls’ education is a strategic development priority for the whole world. According to UNESCO estimates, 130 million girls between the age of 6 and 17 are out of school and 15 million girls of primary-school age — half of them in sub-Saharan Africa — will never enter a classroom. Girls’ education goes beyond getting girls into school. It is also about ensuring that girls learn and feel safe while in school; complete all levels of education with the skills to effectively compete in the labor market; learn the socio-emotional and life skills necessary to navigate and adapt to a changing world; make decisions about their own lives; and contribute to their communities and the world. Many peace activists around the world are working for this cause. My peace women paper consists of those peace women who work for the “Education for Girls and Women” around the world.

The peace activist women I chose are:

• Karla Schefter (Europe, Germany)
• Farida Shaheed (South Asia, Pakistan)
• Rajni Kumar (South Asia, India)
• Elizabeth Neuenschwander (Europe, Switzerland)
• Sandhya Roy (South Asia, Bangladesh)
• Karla Schefter (Europe, Germany)

Throughout her life, Karla Schefter has been working as a humanitarian for the rights of education of every girl and woman. She was devastated to see the miserable life that the people in Afghanistan faced and after that, she got determined about building a hospital there. With her inexhaustible stamina, enormous courage, and perseverance mixed with a lot of sacrifices, she succeeded in creating a lifework for her, the Chak-e-Wardak-Hospital. Upon facing a lot of difficulties and hardships, the Chak-e-Wardak-Hospital was emerged and every month, it takes care of almost 4200 patients, out of which, 70 percent are children and women. In that hospital, the doctors, together with nurses, treat internal diseases, deliver babies, perform different surgery, and provide the patients with optical and dental services.

Her work is also focused on the training of local people, especially women get training of nursing, physiotherapists, and birth attendants. After completing their training and education, all those people either work in the hospital or they can work with organizations like the World Health Organization.

Farida Shaheed (South Asia, Pakistan)

Farida Shaheed is known as one of Pakistan's leading women activists. Since the year 1986, Farida has been working with Women Living under Muslim Laws (WLUML), the core of international world, and she has also helped many other girls and women whose lives and rights are endangered due to the discriminatory laws. Together with her colleagues, she has faced a lot of pressure from the hostile parties such as local elites and got threatened with death. According to her, her biggest success is that more women in Pakistan are now aware of their marital rights, so they could negotiate more rights, stepping out of abusive matrimonial relationship, insert their rights in the marriage contract and register their marriages. Farida has also been working with other women rights’ platforms, and she also personally helped two women in leaving Pakistan, who were being threatened with death by some powerful opponents.

Rajni Kumar (South Asia, India)

In 1950, Rajni set up a school for young ladies that got displaced during the partition. This work drove her to conceptualize a foundation that would interface the education process with life itself, and Springdale’s School was created in 1955. Her numerous inventive school programs consolidating peace and human rights education in the educational modules, proficiency extends, the "adopt a gran" venture, and numerous others have adjusted India's point of view toward training. From 1950 to 1955, Rajni set up and ran a Hindu center school for the young ladies of families. By 1955, overflowing over with thoughts on education, she needed to set up a foundation that would entwine the procedure of training and life. She built up Springdale’s School in her very own home, with 24 youngsters on the program. She is additionally deliberate facilitator of the Delhi Schools Literacy Project under the National Literacy Mission, persuading understudies and educators more than 60 schools to end up engaged with the annihilation of lack of education. Her vision for what's to come is to discover approaches to make instructive frameworks more altruistic, evenhanded, and important to the changing scene situation, utilizing innovation to connect schools and youth comprehensively, and to consolidate training for peace, shared agreement, and universal comprehension into the educational programs everything being equal.

Elizabeth Neuenschwander (Europe, Switzerland)

Elizabeth Neuenschwander has put in very nearly 50 years of her life working abroad. She was born in 1929 in Schangnau, Switzerland, and left her town early. It was the restriction of the remote Emmental that made her leave in addition to her profound enthusiasm for outside societies. She went to Denmark for further education. From that point, her way went further well ordered. Progressively, the dressmaker from Schangnau transformed into a venture director for a few universal associations, for example, UNICEF and the Red Cross, working in African and Asian creating nations. Since 1986, she has been running her own private activities in Pakistan. Generally, her goal has continued as before: assist individuals with helping themselves. Elizabeth goes to Pakistan two times every year, remains there for half a month administering her tasks in Quetta close to the Afghan outskirt, returns to Switzerland giving introductions, demonstrating pictures and offering shirts and shawls that her ladies sew and weave in Pakistan. With the guide of her ventures, she needs to give ladies more fearlessness and confidence in an Islamic nation where respect killings still are a piece of day by day life. [

Sandhya Roy (South Asia, Bangladesh)

Sandhya R oy was born in 1954. When she was just 17 years old, she left her home to help warriors injured in the 1971 Bangladesh war. By the end of the war, Sandhya was very submerged in her work to return home. Rather, she joined Gonoshasthya Kendra, an NGO attempting to build up a people-focused wellbeing framework. For over 30 years now, she has been testing sexual orientation generalizations, battling fundamentalists who wish to hold her down, and progressing in the direction of her fantasy of an all-encompassing wellbeing framework. Sandhya was a piece of the principal group to get paramedical preparing. Her work with GK has been pathbreaking in a few different ways: she thought of the possibility that ladies should prepare to be drivers and work grills the two occupations that would challenge pervasive sexual orientation generalizations. Her work is likewise determined by her conviction that the devastated and the undermined can be specialists of progress, and not simply inactive beneficiaries of help.

My Reflection and Learning

Through the work of all these women, I have concluded that they all struggled hard and faced many setbacks to became peace activists, working for the right to education of girls and women. All these women worked for the education and awareness purpose of women in developing or underdeveloped countries. They have all either created or worked with the institutions that provide training to the women and girls on learning some special skills to become aware and independent. All the women had a vision of creating self confidence in young girls and women and to make them believe in themselves.

Many of the women had to leave their own studies and pursued the cause of helping other women. Sandhya Roy, from Bangladesh left her own education and worked for the humanity. Elizabeth Neuenschwander was devoted towards creating a bridge among the Switzerland and Pakistani nation to create peace and harmony. Rajni Kumar settled in India to serve her purpose of educating and empowering women. Farida Shaheed of Pakistan devoted her whole life in upbringing awareness in women and educating them about their rights according to the Muslim Laws. Similarly, Karla Schefter played her part in overcoming the miserable condition of the people and quality of education there.

All these women worked for the women education and empowerment and played their roles to bring awareness in girls and women around the world. It is observed that women, all around the world face problems and setback while working as peace activist and especially, for the rights of other women. All these women tried to play their role to bring light to the life of other devastated women by bringing awareness in their life. I support the work, enthusiasm and courage of every such woman around the world. We, as human beings, also need to play our part to create a change to stand with the moto “Education for Everyone” to bring individual independence and self-confidence in every human being around the world.