It seems to me that violence against women has been tolerated for so long that the world has become numb to it.

From an economic perspective, women are treated unfairly: they perform 66 percent of the world's work and produce 50 percent of the food but they only earn 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property.

Where has change ever been clean and nice? It has always been messy and painful.

When war ends, women are the first to pick up the pieces. Where there is no market place, they go door to door. When homes are destroyed, mothers and daughters haul stones to rebuild or plow fields together.

I dont want to be someone in my sixties holding on to a group that I created when I was in my twenties.

Working with women survivors of war has taught me that we need to listen to women's perspectives on war in order to understand how to effectively rebuild a country, a community and a family.

Sometimes you just have to jump off the cliff without knowing where you will land.