Brave, Inspirational, Gracious
For the third year in a row, Creators of Peace (CoP) UK hosted an event as part of the Oxford International Women’s Festival (OIWF). The theme of the two-week festival was ‘Women thinking big: arts, politics, science, education’.
The CoP event took place at Oxford Town Hall on 4 March 2017, under the title ‘Brave. Inspirational. Gracious – BIG stories of women Changemakers around the globe’. The programme included talks from women peacemakers from all four sectors in the festival’s theme.
The turnout was more than we could have hoped for – numbers fluctuated throughout the afternoon and reached a maximum of 66. The main topics included:
- ‘Songs from the frontline’ with Lisa Yasko, singer/songwriter from Ukraine
- ‘Surviving the Rwandan genocide’ with Marie-Christine Nibagwire founder of Safe Refuge Rwanda
- ‘Freedom in sobriety’ with Jo de Rosa, founder of Quantum Sobriety, who also led a guided mediation
- ‘One size fits all’ with Maria Skoyles, founder of The Dorcas Dress Project
- ‘Young Voices’ with a 12-year-old girl who has a message that will change the world
- ‘BIG and women throughout history’ with Penny Halliday, Oxford Brookes University Lecturer Women’s Studies and Sociology
- ‘Women in Politics’ with local Green Party Councillor Ruthi Brandt.
To fund raise for the event, Karen Ridley organised a stall with plants and cakes. Other stalls sold ethically-produced accessories and dresses. We also sold a postcard, as part of a campaign to celebrate brave, inspirational, and gracious women in our families, communities, nations and the world. The aim was to encourage the audience to buy the card and send it to people to inspire them and spread the message of Creators of Peace.
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