Changing the world

“A mother has more opportunities to heal her children than any peace treaty” Zainab Salbi in concludes in the TED TALK Women, war and the dream of peace.

Zainab Salbi, who was a girl during the war in Iraq and founded Woman International when she was 23, has helped more than 400,000 women in conflict zones in the world, People Magazine named her one of the “25 women who change the world”.

But before Zainab changed the world, someone tried to change hers, as she tells: “In the history of wars we forget the story of my mother who entertained us with puppets so that we would not be frightened by the sounds of explosions and shots. The worst thing about war is fear, and the worst fear is losing “my inner self”.

It is true that wars between peoples are constant, but there is a war that destroys more than iron, namely “the pain that comes from those who should love us and do not. The injustice that comes from our relatives destroys more than the metal, the Arabs say “this destroys the “inner self”. Now conflict and violence are installed in the bosom of families, we look back to John Paul II at the XXVII World Day of Peace in 1995.

“With my eyes on the new millennium now approaching, I address once again all of you, men and women of good will, my anguished call for peace in the world.”

“… I wish to direct my Message for this year’s World Day of Peace especially to women, and to invite them to become teachers of peace with their whole being and in all their actions. May they be witnesses, messengers and teachers of peace in relations between individuals and between generations, in the family, in the cultural, social and political life of nations, and particularly in situations of conflict and war. May they continue to follow the path which leads to peace, a path which many courageous and far-sighted women have walked before them!”

When women are faithful to their essence, their help to make the world a better place is paramount.