A WOMAN'S BRIDGE

Jody Williams: Winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Peace

7/8/2011

 
Picture

by Yoon Joung Lee

Jody Williams, the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL)  was born in 1950 in Vermont.  During her childhood, she was able to learn to hate injustice through her brother.  Her brother was deaf and suffered from schizophrenia.  At an early age, she witnessed that her fellow children harshly picked on her brother.  Throughout this experience, she became dedicated to the cause of peace.  She showed her passion while protesting the war being waged in Vietnam.


She received a BA from the University of Vermont. She also got her Master’s degree in teaching Spanish and English as a Second Language from the School for International Training in 1974.  After completing her MA degree, she went to Mexico for two years to teach English.  In Mexico, she, for the first time, saw extreme poverty.    When she came back to the States from Mexico, she also taught English while she attended Johns Hopkins University and received her second master’s degree in International Relations in 1984.  

However, the turning point when she passionately began to become involved in anti-war activities was when she received a leaflet on the street.  The leaflet was about U.S. involvement in a civil war in El Salvador.  Two years later, she became a Central America’s coordinator for the Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project and then became deputy director at Medical Aid for El Salvador.

In 1991, Williams was phoned by the president of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Bobby Muller.  He suggested for her to coordinate a new effort to ban landmines over the world. She became the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), formally launched by six nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in 1992.  Williams has overseen more than sixty countries with more than 1000 NGOs who work for an end to the use, production, trade, and stockpiling of mines. Williams continues to serve the ICBL as a campaign ambassador and editor of the organisation's landmine reports while she works as a distinguished professor of social work and global justice at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.

In 1997, the Norwegian Nobel committee named Williams and the ICBL as the recipients of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Her dedication and effort for peace did not stop with the Nobel Prize Award.  In 2006, she co-founded The Nobel Women’s Initiative along with its sister organization Nobel Peace Laureates.  These size women including Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigobetra Menchu Tum, Betty Williams, and Mairead Corrigan Maguire represent their extraordinary experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

 


    Archives

    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010

    Categories

    All
    Amelia Earhart
    American South
    Amy Beach
    Anna Nzinga
    Anna Sewell
    Anna Wintour
    Anne Bronte
    Barbra Steisand
    Baroness Blixen
    Benazir Bhutto
    Billie Jean King
    Blackfeet Nation
    Brigitte Bardot
    Bronte Sisters
    Catherine The Great
    Charlotte Bronte
    Cheng I Sao
    Civil Rights Movement
    Clara Barton
    Cleopatra
    Cristina Fernandes De Kirchner
    Dagmar Wilson
    Dido Belle
    Dilma Rousseff
    Dorothy Kamenshek
    Edith Wharton
    Eleanor Of Aquitaine
    Elouise Cobell
    Emily Bronte
    Fannie Flagg
    Frances Glessner Lee
    Frida Kahlo
    Gabby Douglas
    Geun Hye Park
    Gone With The Wind
    Hannah Snell
    Harper Lee
    Harriet Tubman
    Hatshepsut
    Heian Period
    Helen Keller
    Hillary Rodham Clinton
    Ho Ching
    Hypatia Of Alexandria
    Intro
    Irena Sendler
    Isabelle Scott
    Jamestown
    Jane Eyre
    Jane Goodall
    Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis
    Jody Williams
    Josephine Baker
    Journalism
    Joy Ogwu
    Julia Ward Howe
    Laurie Marker
    Madeleine Korbel Albright
    Margaret Bourke-White
    Margaret Mitchell
    Margaret Thatcher
    Margot Wallstrom
    Maria Otero
    Marilyn Monroe
    Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
    Mary Poppins
    Maya Angelou
    Meip Gies
    Meryl Streep
    Mother Theresa
    Murasaki Shikibu
    Nellie Bly
    Patricia Cloherty
    Pl Travers
    Pocahontas
    Rachel Carson
    Rosalind Franklin
    Rosa Parks
    Rosemary Kennedy
    Ruth Harkness
    Sally Ride
    Sheila Johnson
    Song Qingling
    Sophie Scholl
    Sylvia Plath
    The Shriver Report
    To Kill A Mockingbird
    Trudy Harsh
    Vera Wang
    Victorian Era
    Women Journalists In Pakistan
    WWII
    Yearling

    RSS Feed