Esther Omam Njomo | |
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Born | |
Citizenship | Cameroon |
Awards |
Esther Omam Njomo [2] is a Cameroonian human rights activist and the Executive director of Reach Out Cameroon, an NGO that promotes women's and children's rights in conflict-affected areas and ensures women's participation in the process of peacebuilding. [3] [4] [5] She is the winner of the 2023 Global Centre for Pluralism Award, and the 2023 German Africa Prize. [6]
Born in Douala, Cameroon, Omam was forced out of school to get married at a young age. [7]
Omam is a mediator of peace who belongs to the Women Mediators across the Commonwealth (MWC) network and became a member of the Women's Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) in 2020. [8] [9]
In 1996, Omam created Reach Out Cameroon as a small initiative which got legally permitted in 2000 alongside a group of medical doctors, gender specialists, social workers, nurses, community relay agents and agronomists in response to HIV epidemic outbreak in Fako District, Cameroon. [10]
In 2018, she proposed the creation of South West and North West Women's Task Force (SNWOT), bringing together women's civil society organizations from across the two regions of Cameroon and beyond. [11] [12]
In 2021, she played an important role in organizing the first ever National Women's Peace Convention in Cameroon, an event that brought over 1200 women together from across the country demanding an end to violence and calling for peace. [13]
In 2023, she was awarded the German Africa Prize alongside Marthe Wandou and Sally Mboumien for organizing the first National Women's Convention for Peace in Cameroon. [14] [15]
In 2024, she won the Africa Women's Award in the Woman of Impact and Exception for the Promotion of Peace's Category for her contributions to ensuring peacebuilding in Cameroon and beyond. [16]
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Its nearly 27 million people speak 250 native languages, in addition to the national tongues of English and French, or both.
François Omam-Biyik is a Cameroonian football manager and former player who works as assistant manager of Cameroon.
CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation sr is an independent Finnish non-governmental organisation that works to prevent and resolve conflict through informal dialogue and mediation. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari founded CMI in 2000. CMI has offices in Helsinki and Brussels as well as a presence in selected countries. CMI transformed from an association to a foundation on 1 May 2021.
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Lenin Raghuvanshi is an Indian Dalit rights activist, political thinker and social entrepreneur. He is one of the founding members of People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), which works for the upliftment of the marginalised sections of the society. His work has been recognized with awards like Gwangju Human Rights Award (2007), the ACHA Star Peace award (2008), the International Human Rights Prize of the city of Weimar (2010), Special Mentions Prize of Human Rights of The French Republic (2018), Public Peace Prize(2018) and Karmaveer Maharatna Award (2019). He nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to combat masculinity driven militarist traditions, for his contribution to bettering conditions for peace in world and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of masculinity driven militarist traditions as a weapon of war and conflict. His childhood learning on hegemonic masculinity has been acknowledged by film actor Aamir Khan and he has been invited to participate in Satyamev Jayate TV series, a TV show hosted by Aamir Khan that discussed issue of violence and hegemonic masculinity that went on air in 2014.
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