Women activist Rutuparna Mohanty was felicitated at a glittering function at Cuttack for being selected as one of the four outstanding peacemakers to participate in an eight-week Women Peace Makers Programme from August 16 to October 14 at San Diego in California.
The host of oirganisations which felicitated Mohanty included by a host of organisations, including lions’ Club, Cuttack, Adibasi Sahid Smruti Sansad, Nabarangpur, Maruadi Mahila Samiti, Deesa Mahila Samiti, Jharsuguda and Maaghar, Nabarangpur. Former DGP Gopal Nanda, Kuldip Singh Gil from the Indian Army and IG (central range) RP Coche were present at the function. Sunita Gupta of Maaghar, Cuttack hosted the programme.
While Mohanty is the only Indian to get the chance, the others included Rehana Hashmi from Pakistan, Sabiha Husic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Philister Baya lawiri of South Sudan. Institute for Peace and Justice (IPJ) at the University of San Diego (USD) selected the four women from a a lerge number of applicants who would join the unique summit that will primarily focus on the documentation of their peacemaking story as well as provide them with opportunities to inform the surrounding community about their work and visit several local NGOs who work in human rights or conflict prevention.
Mohanty will be working primarily with a peace writer with support from a small film team to help her with the documentation process reflecting on the challenges she had faced in her work.
There will be opportunities to present her work and inform the San Diego community about her peacemaking story.