Betty Williams
Compassion
"There's no point talking about the problem unless you talk about the solution."
A woman that has made her life a testament to a better world. A Nobel Peace laureate, she confides in change, in listening and mutual respect. On condition everyone plays their part.
A diehard activist, she proclaims her fight in the name of peace and children. She has managed to turn a tragic experience into a message of hope far the next generations.
ABOUT BETTY WILLIAMS
Betty Williams was born in Belfast. She is the eldest child of a mixed marriage: her father is a Protestant, her mother a Catholic, and her grandfather a Jew.
In the tense climate of Northern Ireland, on 10th August 1976 she witnesses a tragic event. She witnesses the death of faur people. Three of them are children run aver by a car, the faurth one is the driver. He is an IRA ( Irish Republican Army) fugitive who has lost control of his car as he has been shot by the British police. From then on, Betty becomes so increasingly frustrated that she decides to canvas among Catholic and Protestant women and mothers to stop violence in Northern Ireland. Along with the dead children's aunt, Mairead Maguire, she organises a rally, which is joined by 10,000 people, fallowed by more rallies with hundreds of thousands of people.
Just after that, the two women faunded "Women far Peace", which then became "Community far Peace People". For her commitment to the cause of a peaceful society, in 1976 Betty was conferred the Nobel Peace Prize.
From then on, Betty got to travel all aver the world and listen to the experiences of children who had been the victims of violence and difficulties. During her travels, she understood that, far change to be effectively created, some regulatory changes had to be implemented to promote the protection of children. Her campaigns, that began in her home country, have become a humanitarian call to the whole world.
From 1982 to 2004, Betty went on with her peace-making work in the United States. There, he held lots of lectures and was visiting professor in some prestigious universities. She earned several honorary degrees, including a Law Degree from Yale University, as well as lots of awards and accolades.
Today, Betty is president of the "World Centres of Compassion far Children International" and "Fondazione Città della Pace Basilicata", an exemplary institution with an advanced education campus far refugee children and families, at Scanzano Jonico, on an allotment that would have otherwise been used as a dumping ground far nuclear waste.
www.fondazionecittadellapace.it
www.wccc-italia.org
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