Roegchanda Pascoe braved death threats while trying to ease the gang violence plaguing the Cape Flats community just outside Cape Town, South Africa. Facia Boyenoh Harris faced harassment while advocating for women\u2019s rights and protections against sexual violence in Liberia. Najla Mangoush a year ago accepted the role of foreign minister in the U.N.-backed transitional government of Libya, a country deeply divided by a decade of civil war.<\/P>
These three Africans are among a dozen women being honored by the U.S. State Department with its 2022 International Women of Courage Awards for demonstrating \u201cexceptional courage, strength and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality \u2026 often at great personal risk and sacrifice,\u201d according to a press statement.<\/P>
They will be recognized Monday at a ceremony that, because of the pandemic, will bring them together virtually instead of in person in Washington. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will preside, with remarks by first lady Jill Biden.<\/P>
Roegchanda Pascoe<\/P>
Pascoe, 47, is a crime prevention activist working in the Cape Flats, a poor community outside Cape Town where mixed-race people were forcibly resettled in the 1960s under South Africa\u2019s apartheid system.<\/P>
Gangs have had a decadeslong hold there, trafficking in drugs, guns, prostitution and more. Violence has been \u201cso normalized,\u201d Pascoe told VOA.<\/P>
But in 2013, after a boy was caught in gang crossfire and killed while playing outside, she co-founded the volunteer Manenberg Safety Forum. Named for the township in which it\u2019s based, the forum raises awareness about the criminal justice system, trains community advocates, and provides counseling and other support for victims of violence, especially women and children. Pascoe draws an honorarium through a grant from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.<\/P>
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The forum also has mediated between gangs, aiming to peacefully resolve disputes.<\/P>
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On July 20, 2016, Pascoe and several other Manenberg residents witnessed an alleged gang attack on a man who died later that day. Pascoe was the only witness willing to testify at the 2019 murder trial, helping to convict the gang\u2019s leader and two others.<\/P>
The day before her scheduled testimony, unknown assailants shot at her house. Pascoe had been moved to a safe house earlier that day, but her young children were still at home. They have since joined her in hiding, fearing gang retaliation.<\/P>
\u201cI cannot be silent when injustice is happening to any human being,\u201d she told VOA of her decision to testify. But \u201cthe effect of gang violence has been dire for me. \u2026 I\u2019ll never be able to move back to the community.\u201d<\/P>
Yet Pascoe has persevered. Through the forum, she continues to mediate community conflict and support victimized women and families. She set up a crime prevention and intervention program for at-risk youths. She has organized a \u201cwalking bus\u201d system for schoolchildren to be escorted by adults \u2013 often mothers who had been jobless. They get paid, \u201cskilled up and trained how to do emergency first aid,\u201d Pascoe said.<\/P>
\u201cShe has amazing strategies to develop her community,\u201d Oscar Nceba Siwali said of Pascoe in an email to VOA. He directs the Southern African Development and Reconstruction Agency, which promotes nonviolence in some of the country\u2019s toughest communities. \u201cIn workshops to help engage NGOs to work together, she has been most helpful \u2013 points forward while acknowledging [the] past.\u201d<\/P>
Pascoe hopes her selection for a Courage Award will help others realize that, no matter how disadvantaged, they can make valuable contributions.<\/P>
\u201cIt will mean a lot for our young women leaders,\u201d she said.<\/P>
Facia Boyenoh Harris<\/P>
In 2005, Harris was in her first year at African Methodist Episcopal University in Liberia\u2019s capital, Monrovia, when she and some classmates started the Paramount Young Women Initiative. They raised money for scholarships to help other students struggling with financial need, family burdens, academic difficulties and more.<\/P>
They added workshops. \u201cWe talked about family life, socioeconomic issues and the inspiration that we needed\u201d as Liberia began recovering from civil war, said Harris, now 39. \u201cWe had a safe space to come together.\u201d<\/P>
Today, the nonprofit initiative continues to provide that safe space support for adolescent girls and young women, promoting education, mentoring and leadership.<\/P>
It\u2019s just one activist outlet for Harris, a former journalist whose paid job is to direct outreach for Liberia\u2019s Independent Information Commission. It\u2019s charged with enforcing the country\u2019s Freedom of Information Act.<\/P>
Harris co-founded the Liberian Feminist Forum and, as a community organizer, has campaigned for broader political participation and better sanitation. She fights gender-based violence, including rape and female genital mutilation.<\/P>
In Liberia, \u201cwe\u2019re dealing with a very strong patriarchal system that continually marginalizes women,\u201d Harris said.<\/P>
Liberia\u2019s president declared rape a national emergency in 2020, and the government recently launched a hotline to report sexual and gender-based violence. But Gender Minister Williametta E. Saydee-Tarr, addressing the nation\u2019s Senate Thursday [March 10], complained of low rates of reporting and slow criminal prosecution.<\/P>
\u201cThere are lots of challenges with the system,\u201d Harris said. Police sometimes say they lack the capacity to investigate or make arrests, or a victim or relatives may not want to press charges. Cases can get snagged in the criminal justice system.<\/P>
People need \u201ctimely access to justice,\u201d Harris said.<\/P>
She\u2019s also advocating for equal representation in public office. Though Liberia was the first African country to elect a female head of state – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president from 2006 to 2018 \u2013 women remain underrepresented in national elective office. Harris noted that in Liberia\u2019s Legislature, women hold just 11 of 103 seats in the lower chamber and two of 30 seats in the Senate.<\/P>
\u201cWomen do not have the same access to money\u201d for filing fees and campaigns, said Harris, suggesting campaign finance measures.<\/P>
Harris said the Courage Award honors \u201cthe women of Liberia who have continuously worked hard to ensure that injustices come to an end\u201d while advancing the country\u2019s development. It represents a personal challenge, too: \u201cI have a greater responsibility to do more \u2026 to leave a better Liberia for the generations after us.\u201d<\/P>
Najla Mangoush of Libya<\/P>
Mangoush was appointed March 15, 2021, as Libya\u2019s foreign minister \u2013 the first female to hold that position in the North African country of 7 million.<\/P>
A lawyer and human rights advocate, she also is a doctoral candidate at George Mason University\u2019s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, just outside of Washington. Mangoush \u2013 who holds a master\u2019s degree in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite University, also in Virginia \u2013 set aside her dissertation to take the Cabinet position.<\/P>
\u201cShe wanted to serve her country,\u201d said Susan F. Hirsch, a GMU professor of conflict resolution and anthropology supervising Mangoush\u2019s research. \u201c\u2026 She\u2019s someone who is very diplomatic. She\u2019s a born peacemaker.\u201d<\/P>
Peacemaking skills get put to the test in Libya, an oil-rich country mired in conflict since longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011. Mangoush is part of the Government of National Unity, a U.N.-based administration installed in Tripoli in early 2021 as a transition to an elected government. But presidential and parliamentary elections set for December were delayed and have not yet been rescheduled.<\/P>
A new government appointed by Libya\u2019s parliament March 1 has challenged the unity government\u2019s mandate, putting Mangoush\u2019s Cabinet post at risk.<\/P>
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During the 2011 revolution, Mangoush worked with civil society organizations as head of the National Transitional Council\u2019s public engagement unit. She also has represented Libya at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Now she\u2019s grappling with issues such as illegal migration and the presence of unwanted foreign military troops.<\/P>
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\u201cTo enter into the fray of Libyan politics and Libyan civil war and take a stand is a pretty courageous thing,\u201d said Marc Gopin, who directs GMU\u2019s Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, where Mangoush once served as program director for peacebuilding and traditional law.<\/P>
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An additional award<\/P>
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Beyond Monday\u2019s virtual awards ceremony, honorees will take part in a virtual leadership program \u201cto connect with their American counterparts and strengthen the global network of women leaders,\u201d the State Department said in its press release. More than 170 women from more than 80 countries have been recognized for their work since 2007.<\/P>
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To support their work, each honoree also receives a $5,000 stipend from American Women for International Understanding. The nonprofit group and its roughly 125 members promote \u201cwomen-to-women interactions\u201d through exchange visits, study programs and events.<\/P>
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The group\u2019s stipends allow recipients to do more of their essential work, said Julienne Lusenge, a 2021 Courage Award winner and human rights activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She told VOA that, with her $5,000, \u201cI built bathrooms for the children\u201d at a school in Mbau village.<\/P>
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AWIU plans a May 24 dinner in Los Angeles to celebrate this year\u2019s honorees. There, in recognition of its 15-year collaboration with the awards program, the group will receive its own prize: the State Department\u2019s Gender Champion Award.<\/P>
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Source: Voice of America<\/P>
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