THE REAL REASON WHY WE NEED PEACE!

The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists. Every day millions of women and girls worldwide experience physical, sexual and psychological violence. According to the United Nations, one in three women around the world are likely to be victims of gender-based violence (GBV) in their lifetime, including sexual abuse, rape, genital mutilation, trafficking and forced prostitution. Increasingly, rape has been used as a weapon of war against civilian populations in such countries as Liberia, Rwanda and Somalia. In the DRC and Sudan, systematic rape campaigns are another form of “ethnic cleansing.” In such situations, armed groups use systematic and brutal rape as a means of terrorizing entire communities and forcing submission to their power. This actions that often irreparably break the body, mind and spirit. Even after the physical wounds have healed, survivors face enormous stigma and shame, and both women and their families live in a constant state of fear of additional attacks. Children in war zones have to cope with very difficult circumstances. Not only do children suffer horrible physical wounds, hunger and malnutrition. Children have problems with recurring nightmares, sleep disorders, incontinence, depressions, explosions of anger or anguish, concentration problems, and many more symptoms. Many are very somber about their future.