The first time I met Mama Esperance, she was standing in the middle of a dusty marketplace in eastern Rwanda. Two farmers had been feuding over a boundary line for six years. Their families had stopped speaking. Their children had stopped playing together. The whole village was suffering because of one invisible line in the dirt. Mama Esperance didn't raise her voice. She didn't take sides. She simply listened — for two hours — while the men shouted. When they were finally spent, she said something so quiet I almost missed it: Your grandfathers shared a beer under that acacia tree. What would they say if they could see you now? The next morning, the farmers shook hands. That's the power of women peacebuilders.
Why Women? Why Now?
Across rural Africa, women are the invisible backbone of peace. They keep families together when conflict tears communities apart. They rebuild homes, tend to the injured, find ways to feed children when everything falls apart. Yet they're also the ones most excluded from formal peace processes. A 2023 UN Women report found that women make up just 13% of negotiators in peace processes across the continent — despite overwhelming evidence that peace agreements involving women are 35% more likely to last at least 15 years. We're working to close that gap. Our Women Peacebuilders Network, now 2,400 members across four countries, trains women in mediation, trauma counseling, and community organizing. We give them bikes to reach remote villages, mobile phones to coordinate, and small stipends so they don't have to choose between peace work and feeding their children. In 2025 alone, our network mediated over 8,000 disputes. That's 8,000 conflicts that didn't escalate into violence.
Stories From the Frontlines
In South Sudan's Jonglei State, Nyaduoth Gai — a 42-year-old mother of six — has brokered peace between six warring cattle-keeping communities. When I asked her how she does it, she laughed. I tell them I've buried enough children. No more. Her methods are disarmingly simple: she brings women from both sides together to cook and share stories. Over shared meals, she says, enemies remember their shared humanity. In Uganda's Karamoja region, a group of 30 women peacebuilders convinced their communities to allow girls to attend school during a period of intense inter-clan violence. They did it by offering something the armed groups couldn't refuse: they offered to mediate water-sharing agreements. It was a trade — girls' education for water. The deal held.
What We've Learned
We've learned that formal mediation training matters less than trust. Women peacebuilders succeed because they're already embedded in their communities. They're the ones people turn to in a crisis. A government official told me recently: We spend millions on peace conferences in hotels. The real work happens at village level, and women are doing it for free. We're trying to change that. This year, we're launching a stipend program for all 2,400 network members. It costs $30 per woman per month. For $30, a woman can mediate disputes, counsel trauma survivors, and keep her community from sliding into violence. That's probably the most cost-effective peace investment you'll ever hear about.
Join Us
Mama Esperance is 67 years old. She's been mediating disputes for four decades. She has no plans to stop. But she needs support — training, resources, a bicycle that doesn't break down every month. We're raising funds to expand the network to 5,000 women by 2028. A gift of $30 covers one peacebuilder's monthly stipend. $360 supports her for an entire year. Donate to the Women Peacebuilders Fund and help us reach every village that needs a Mama Esperance.
