ICBL Afghan campaigner wins Emerging Peace Champion award 2012

(Geneva, 2 August 2012): This week the N-Peace, a multi-country network to strengthen the role of women in building and restoring peace, announced that Ms. Amina Azimi from Afghanistan as the winner of the Emerging Peace Champion Award 2012. The award aims to support the emerging leadership of young women who can motivate other young people to get involved in peace building.

The ICBL is hugely proud of Ms Azimi’s work, and has passed on sincere congratulations to her for her well-deserved win.A grenade survivor and co-founder of ICBL Governance Board member-organization Afghan Landmine Survivors Organization (ALSO), Ms Azimi helped found a Women with disAbilities Advocacy Committee (WAAC) in Kabul. WAAC advocates for the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls with disabilities in Afghanistan.“I am thrilled and feel proud to accept the Emerging PeaceChampion award 2012,” Ms Azimi said.“This award gives me great motivation and energy to do more for my fellows and all women whose rights are denied in my country. I am fully committed to do whatever I can to multiply voices of vulnerable women in Afghanistan until their rights are realized and upheld. Thanks to the N-Peace Network for all the Nobel work they do!” she added.Today Ms Azimi is a project manager in Kabul and spends her time supporting her fellow survivors of remnants of conflict, such as landmines and cluster munitions, as well as other women with disabilities. Since early 2011 she has led a unique initiative called Empowering Women with Disability (EWD), through which she has provided training to nearly 400 women and girls with disabilities and their families. Through peer counseling and awareness raising Ms Azimi’s work has helped these people overcome many of the psychological and social challenges of living with disabilities.In addition to working directly with these women, Ms Azimi reaches out with her messages to the wider public via her radio program Qahir-e-Qahraman (Qahir the Champion) – her aim to eliminate the discrimination survivors and people with disabilities face. The show has produced more than 300 short weekly programs over the past six years.