Ms. Safa Jafar, age 22, is from Baghdad Iraq. She is a young Iraqi woman striving to change the status of women in her country. She recently graduated from university with a Business Administration degree, minoring in Political Science. She is currently working for a brokerage firm in Baghdad. Safa is passionate about ethics and human rights; her long-term goal is to be ambassador to the UN.

Well, it has been only four days since the Pilot Program started, yet I can say that this program wasn’t what I expected, it is even better. I have been in exchange programs, I took part in women conferences and I held leading positions on different occasion; yet I never had it all at once. The Andi Leadership institute for Young Women has it all together to nurture 21st century peace-builders.

The variety of the program participants is at the core of its effectiveness. The program is formed from 8 young women leaders from four different countries, we take classes together, we propose our disagreements loudly and we discuss them peacefully. My roommate is American and the young leader next room is Syrian. This is where real peace-building takes place, where you come back home and live with the person you disagreed with two hours ago. We try hardly to accept each other, learn about other cultures, and understand their way of thinking; it is hard, yet achievable.

Well, I guess the question of how it is achievable just crossed your mind. It is achievable because we are taking a series of workshops that enrich our understanding of the issues we are facing and open our minds to new ways of dealing with them. Two days ago we had a conflict resolution workshop and part of that was conflict transformation; this last concept changed the way I look at differences and problems. Basically, the goal of conflict transformation is to look at our problems as processes, not open-end questions; adding to that is trying to look at the problem from a different angle. This might seems obscure, but actually it is very helpful once you start embedding the idea and then apply it to the simple conflicts we face on daily bases. Conflict resolution workshop is not everything, we had other peace-building workshops and we have many scheduled for the next two weeks; so the process of learning is still on going. I certainly admit that this experience is going to be one of the most challenging experiences I will have in my life, yet one of the most enriching ones.

Ms. Laya Farooq is a current fellow of the 2013 ALI Pilot Program. She lives in Iraq where she is a sophomore at The American University Sulaymaniyah. She is working on a curriculum called Tiny Leaders, which will empower the girls of Kurdistan, open and change the minds of the Kurdish youth, and build a more equal society.   


8:15 AM sharp at the elevators; that’s how we started our day; trying to change the world step by step, trying to come up with ways to re-open the eyes that were closed long ago. Eight different young women from different nations got together under one roof to share their experiences, to help one another by dividing their strengths among one another to stand up and raise their voices. All with the help of two brilliant women who had a dream; a vision that can create positive change. Empowering women, that was our goal. We faced our fears. We cried. We laughed. We empowered each other. And most importantly, we listened to each other. Eight unique personalities, each presented an idea; a marvelous idea to help her nation rise up on its feet, an idea that can open up the eyes of the blind. Four speeches were written by us to Hillary Clinton, and I was fortunate enough to present one I wrote with the help of my friend and fellow, Afnan Bahloul, to Hillary Clinton’s speechwriter, Lissa Muscatine!

One day, we had a trip to New York; it was a day to remember. In 12 hours we did the impossible. We achieved what one cannot achieve in a lifetime. It was like a dream. We were on set “behind the scenes” with Rachel Maddow! Yes, THE Rachel Maddow. We got to talk to her, to ask her questions. And she gave us the most inspiring answers, “keep your eyes on the horizon” is exactly what she said.  We got to watch Pray the Devil Back to Hell with the one and only Gini Reticker. We asked her questions about the documentary over lunch. Girl Be Heard was one of my favorite moments during the program; a workshop where I got to express myself through writing. I got to be heard there. It was an absolutely wonderful opportunity to meet all those people.

On the third week we were invited to The State Department to present a policy memo that we had prepared in the first two weeks of the program; we recommended several options, and I am proud to say that we influenced The U.S. Department of State to look at how the US can better support women and girl’s education in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. On the last day of the program we presented our own projects; the projects that we worked on for two and a half weeks. They were inspired by our everyday lives, by the struggles that our countries are facing. My project is to create a new, creative curriculum for the children of Kurdistan. The Andi Leadership Institute for Young Women has helped me know that anything is possible if you put your mind to it.