Women Activists

"We need to make the message much clearer -- that aid means saving lives, it’s not a luxury."

"The developed world needs to feel that these huge levels of poverty (are) a threat to their own security. When their interests are at risk, money can be found."

"Tradition has developed a hierarchy in relationship between men and women that leads to discrimination."

"Humanity’s greatest challenge is to either work together to preserve this planet or destroy it. It’s up to us to assume our own responsibility and defend life. In Colombia, we’re creating campaigns to incentivize reforestation, as well as recycling. We want to raise awareness about the products that can be composted and how we re-use certain items. There is so much we can do."

"Colombia elects climate champions president Gustavo Petro and vice president Francia Márquez, pledging to put "the defense of life above the interests of economic capital.""

"Hope means believing in ourselves, in our capacity to lead, in our potential to make a better world, country, and planet for everyone."

"The biggest obstacle we face is the fear people have about their freedom, the fear of deciding for themselves, the fear of joining a transformative force. We are overcoming that fear."

"In our campaign for the presidency, we have built a feminist mandate that seeks to put an end to patriarchal politics, guaranteeing gender equality for women and people with different sexual orientations and gender identities. Our objective is to implement an intersectional public policy that promises sexual and reproductive rights, eradicates all forms of gender-based violence, promotes equal opportunities, and recognizes and redistributes care work."

"Restructuring an anti-drug policy is a task for our nation and the region of Latin America. The “zero tolerance” policy to combat drug trafficking must end because it has failed. Complete criminalization has not diminished production, consumption, money laundering, or dismantled the political mafias that dominate our state, flooding the economy with illicit activity. We promote a social epidemiological approach to addictions, the regulation of the existing market, and the use of sacred plants for health and industry. We will embrace a new paradigm to face the phenomenon of the production, distribution, commercialization, and consumption of psychoactive substances since the current, stale paradigm lacks coherence, planning, and understanding of the problem."

"A multimodal transportation revolution is required to decarbonize the economy. That means strengthening rail transportation, which Colombia abandoned as it surrendered to the vehicle and oil industries, naval transportation, cable transportation, and urban planning."

"We have spoken about building a program of employability with care. We must care for and restore our rivers, soils, rural and urban ecosystems, and care for people, children, and the elderly. Our economy is based on care, but we need to have the infrastructure for it; gardens, schools, colleges, parks, and sports arenas for children and recreational areas for the elderly population."

"It is not enough to promote more jobs; there needs to be a guarantee of training, remuneration, and stability."

"We want the peace we make to have opportunities for our economies so they can be strengthened by knowledge and productive applications based on our ecological and cultural diversity. This is so we can advance and transform global energy and decarbonize the planet."

"We must dispel the myth that the main cause of violence is the “absence of the state.” On the contrary, in many territories where social leaders have been assassinated, the state, especially the armed forces, has been present defending the multinationals that extract our resources, carrying out forced eradication of crops, and displacing communities that are victims of the armed conflict. The elites have created this myth to avoid taking responsibility for the systematic violations of human rights."

"The strength of my ancestors and the women who gave birth to freedom and taught us the path of dignity motivated me to start on this road to the Colombian presidency."

"when I announced that I wanted to be president of Colombia, people said, “Francia, you’re crazy, because you think that” — they can’t imagine it. They think that’s reserved for white men who are privileged elites. But today, those of us who are nobody, those of us who haven’t had a voice, those who have been historically silenced and subjected to violence, are standing up to say that we are going to go forward from resistance to power until dignity becomes something that our country becomes accustomed to."

"Right now I’m here in the United States. And I know that the Black people here are assassinated, especially Black youth, in the same way as Black, impoverished Black youth, racialized impoverished Black youth, are assassinated in Colombia. Because of the color of our skin, they see us as criminals. But we are human beings. Our dignity must be respected and recognized."

"We’re tired of having to bury our family members and seeing women, mothers, burying their children. That is not just. We deserve a more dignified nation, a nation in peace, a nation with social justice, and an antiracist nation."

"That is a history that is repeated day after day. Mothers go to work in the homes of other families, and they come home to bury their children. That is the history of our country."

"I have been proposing a program of agroecological productive projects and with the idea of food sovereignty being the top issue. There’s more than 21 million people in Colombia who don’t eat enough, who go to bed hungry every night."

"This situation of armed conflict and abandonment in terms of no social investment, that needs to be brought to a halt. It’s not going to be brought to a halt by the privileged elites of white men who have historically governed our country. It’s the people who need to step forward to press their grievances."

"I think that more than making history, we are giving impetus to the idea that in Colombia a new form of government is possible, governance that is built up from the Black, Indigenous and peasant peoples from the very different sectors of the community, LGBTIQ+, from the youth, from the women, from the small farmers of Colombia, those who have been no one — that is to say, who have never had a voice in the government, who have never had a voice in order to put forward our grievances as a people. And today we need to put forward the nobodies, the people who’ve never had a voice, to step into the state so that we can write our own history, a history that will make it possible to live with dignity, with justice, with equity, with equality, that would enable each and every one of us to turn the page of violence of the armed conflict and to pursue agenda of social justice."

"If there weren’t economic interests in these territories, we wouldn’t have to get up and fight in order to have a decent life. We’re risking our lives to stop harmful extractive industries, because the latter are enjoying benefits at the expense of the many people who have died."

"Colombia is a country that has traditionally been run by wealthy families. When Black and Indigenous communities demand that large-scale mining be removed from our communities and we ask for protection under the rule of law, the ruling families say that we’re posing a hurdle to economic development. That’s when I ask, what kind of development are they referring to, especially when Indigenous and Black communities lack basic utilities? The community I live in has no drinking water, and our river has been polluted with chemicals used for illegal mining. Furthermore, the Colombian state does not invest in social projects. Their idea of economic development is to extract ore and territories from ethnic communities. This move is a sheer example of structural racism, and every time a social leader’s voice or mine is lifted up to demand rights enshrined in the Constitution, then we end up being military targets by armed groups in our territory, particularly right-wing paramilitaries."

"Faith is the strongest of all earthly weapons!"

"That who is not free in his house, does not have his house. That who is not free in homeland, had lost his homeland."

"“She reached out, she said ‘please come, listen and learn and we will walk this path together and that is why I’m here,’” he [Justin Trudeau] said."

"Today is about making some positive steps forward and rectifying a mistake. We wanted to ensure that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited what we refer to as a sacred site. It was a long awaited moment to receive a personal hand of recognition and sympathy regarding this horrific confirmation of unmarked graves from the Canadian head of state."

"We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify."

"The impact of this find was devastating. It’s hard to overstate the effects and impact it’s had on our nation. It’s triggered so many hurts and wounds. We have a lot of grieving members right now."

"In an age where creativity and intellectual curiosity are under threat from artificial intelligence, we must question what will happen if young Africans are not equipped with essential knowledge. Should we fail to improve foundational learning, strengthen critical thinking, and increase access to education for vulnerable learners, the long-term consequences will be severe for our continent."

"Rwandan youth, you have the power and opportunity to sustain the achieved development levels and take it to another level. I challenge you to stand for excellence in all your endeavors.” — addressing youth achievers."

"Education breeds confidence, which breeds hope, which ultimately brings peace. For Rwanda, peace is the goal."

"You can and will achieve whatever it is, you set your mind to do – if you are focused, disciplined, relentless, tenacious and consistent. If you are in doubt just look at where Rwanda came from 24 years. Education is for life."

"Nature can persist without us, but we cannot persist without it. Let us not interpret its hospitality as a dependency upon us. The sooner we act, the sooner we can reverse the current trend towards an eventual absolute ecosystem collapse"

"For all we may currently believe we lack as nations striving for our development, I can assure you that we have already much more than we sometimes appreciate…the thing about being constantly reminded that you don’t have much is that you learn to value that which you have"

"Rwanda will not choose between prosperity and beautiful, healthy environment. Rwanda will not choose between profit and responsibility. We will work, we will push, for it all. For both success and harmony."

"This library is much more than a building filled with shelves of books; it’s a gateway and window to the world"

"From the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and men in the global South, to the predominantly female online bullying, sexual exploitation, and violence across the world; it seems that obstacles to equality have multiplied, mutated, and evolved"

"When we talk about a safe family, it does not necessarily mean the one that is not living in war or conflict zone. A safe family is the one living a good life, ready to live in harmony and understands better that Rwanda starts from their family."

"We need more allies for this noble cause, if we are to remove the last-standing, structural barriers to progress, the mindsets that still undermine the ability of our women and girls, to awaken to the power that lies within them."

"We take this moment to appreciate the leadership of our country, which has prioritized the HeForShe campaign as a catalyst for changing mindsets and attitudes, helping fulfill the principle of gender equality."

"What a man can do, a woman can do just as well."

"When a girl is empowered to thrive, the entire community rises with her."

"Ndi Umunyarwanda ikwiye kudufasha kubaka umuntu w’imbere: ufite imico n’ imikorere bimugaragaza nk’Umunyarwanda, nk’uko umuco dusangiye uturanga. (Ndi Umunyarwanda should help us to build an inner person: one who has character and behavior that shows him as a Rwandan, according to the culture we share.)"

"Today, we join the world for the #WorldAIDSDay, let's commit to adhere our efforts to ensure a sustainable and effective response and prevention of #HIV/#AIDS in Africa and to the world."

"As the leaders of tomorrow, we need you to challenge yourselves to dig deeper when choosing the values that will guide your way of life, and know that there is pride in believing in your culture, in what defines you and representing it in a dignified manner, wherever you go."

"The gender gap, like all structural oppression can, and does kill. And this is literally and metaphorically.But fortunately, we dedicated advocacy and the financial resources.With tireless efforts from greater education, with equal empowerment of our boys and girls, this gap can’t shrink to nothing less."

"The sustainable impact that might allow us to dream of a world where philanthropy will only be about the love for people and no longer the need to save people."

"“In your determination, all of us here can draw faith that gender parity is ours to claim, ours to live,”"