Hamisa Zaja | |
|---|---|
 in 2024 | |
| Born | c.1972 |
| Nationality | Kenya |
| Known for | disability activist |
| Political party | United Green Movement party |
Hamisa Zaja (c.1972 - ) is a Kenyan empowering persons with disabilities. She founded the Coastal Association for People with Disabilities. In 2024 she was a finalist in the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) International Women Building Peace Award.
Zaja was born in about 1972 in Kenya's Mombasa County. She was treated for fever when she was a child and as a result she has a paralysed leg. [1] She went to Port Ritz School for the Physically Handicapped and then Mama Ngina Girls' Secondary School. She knew that her family organised marriages for their children, but no candidates were identified for her. She went on to graduate in business administration. [1]
Zaja founded the Coastal Association for People with Disabilities. [2] She was chosen to be on the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. [3]
She was one of four candidates at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington DC for the Women Building Peace Awards. The other three were Pétronille Vaweka of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Marie-Marcelle Deschamps of Haiti, Abir Haj Ibrahim from Syria. [4] [5] The award had previously been won in 2021 by Josephine Ekiru from Kenya. [6] In 2024 Pétronille Vaweka became the Women Building Peace Award Laureate. [4]
Zaja was one of fourteen women who stood for election to replace the Women's Representative Asha Hussein in Mombasa. [7] She stood on behalf of the United Green Movement party who are trying to end unfair inequalities. [8] She believed that people with disabilities may be intimidated by others, including some police officers, from voting. She spoke out for better behaviour noting that the winners and losers in the ballot all had to live together after the election. [7]
Zaja is married and has two children. [1]
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nairobi, which translates to 'place of cool waters', a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper had a population of 4,397,073 in the 2019 census.
The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an American federal institution tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide. It provides research, analysis, and training to individuals in diplomacy, mediation, and other peace-building measures.
Wangarĩ Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) is an indigenous grassroots organization in Kenya that empowers women through the planting of trees. It is one of the most effective and well-known grassroots organisations addressing the problem of global deforestation. Professor Wangari Maathai established the organization in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK). GBM's successes in forest conservation, education, and women's economic empowerment have gained the organisation worldwide acclaim. It is also noted for its advocacy of human rights, democratisation of access to public lands, and environmental justice issues such as the role of women's traditional ecological knowledge in addressing environmental degradation and desertification.
Education in Kenya refers to the education system in Kenya. It is considered a basic right that should be offered to every individual. Education in Kenya predates to as early as the 18th century among the Swahili people. The earliest school was established by missionaries in Rabai. During colonial rule, a limited number of Kenyans were able to access higher education opportunities abroad.
The International Children's Peace Prize is awarded annually to a child who has made a significant contribution to advocating children's rights and improving the situation of vulnerable children such as orphans, child labourers and children with HIV/AIDS.
Petronille Vaweka is a humanitarian NGO activist who led the Ituri Interim Assembly of Ituri Interim Administration, while in transition from the status of a district of Orientale Province to a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She won the Women Building Peace Award in 2023.
Erica Mann was an architect and town planner who lived and worked in Kenya for almost all her adult life, after fleeing her home in Romania during the Second World War. She made a significant contribution to the 1948 master plan for Nairobi and also took a leading role in planning Mombasa and other parts of Kenya. She became interested in development projects seeking to improve living standards and was director of the "Women in Kibwezi" project, which was recognised at the United Nations Habitat II conference in 1996. The "Woman in Kibwezi" project was but one of several NGOs she headed across Kenya, many of them engaged in fostering women's cooperatives. In 2003 she was honoured with the title of Architect Laureate for Kenya.
The United States Institute of Peace Headquarters houses staff offices and other facilities for the government-funded think tank focused on peacemaking and conflict avoidance. The building is the first permanent home for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), established in 1984. The headquarters is sited on a prominent location near the National Mall and Potomac River in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The environmentally friendly building, noted for its unique roof, was designed by architect Moshe Safdie and completed in 2011. Critics' reviews of the building's design have been mixed.
Megan Carroll Beyer is an American journalist, activist, and lifelong advocate of women’s rights and gender issues. Beyer is the Director of the Office of Art in Embassies at the U.S. Department of State, appointed by President Joe Biden in 2022. She has served as an advisor to many arts and civic organizations, including Civic Nation, the American Film Institute, and the Better Angels Society.
Laurie Susan Fulton is an American attorney, diplomat and the former United States Ambassador to Denmark. She was sworn in on July 15, 2009, and presented her credentials to the Queen of Denmark on August 3, 2009. She resigned effective February 15, 2013. In March 2013, she returned to Williams & Connolly LLP until July 2014.
Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's non-violent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her efforts to end the war, along with her collaborator Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, helped usher in a period of peace and enabled a free election in 2005 that Sirleaf won. Gbowee and Sirleaf, along with Tawakkul Karman, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."
Irene Morada Santiago is a peace negotiator from the Philippines. She is Chair Emerita and chief executive officer of the Mindanao Commission on Women (MCW). Santiago has negotiated peace between Muslim separatists and the Philippines government.
Alice Wairimu Nderitu is a Kenyan national serving since November 2020 as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
Carla Ravi Koppell is an American academic who serves as interim Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. As part of her work she collaborates with the Volcker Alliance to spearhead the University Leadership Council on Diversity and Inclusion in International Affairs. In that role, she works with deans of graduate schools of public policy and international affairs to incorporate attention to diversity and inclusion in their curricula and programs.
The People's Peace Movement or Helmand Peace Convoy is a nonviolent resistance grassroots group in Afghanistan, created in March 2018 after a suicide car bomb attack on 19 March in Lashkargah, Helmand Province. The PPM calls for the military forces of both the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban to implement a ceasefire and advance the Afghan peace process. The group marched across Afghanistan to Kabul, where it met leaders of both parties and conducted sit-ins in front of diplomatic posts, before continuing its march to Balkh and Mazar-i-Sharif, arriving in September 2018.
Esther Omam Njomo 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. She is the winner of the 2023 Global Centre for Pluralism Award, and the 2023 German Africa Prize.
Marie-Marcelle Deschamps is a Haitian doctor working to support women. She has received awards for her forty years leading the health facility that she helped found including the Legion of Merit. She was a finalist for the 2023 Women Building Peace Award.
Abir Haj Ibrahim is a Syrian peace activist known for her work in promoting non-violence and peacebuilding in the Middle East. She co-founded a company to train peace activists which won a Livia award. She was a finalist for the 2023 Women Building Peace Awards.
 | This article needs additional or more specific categories .(December 2024) |