Franca Judith Akello of the Parliament of Uganda: What am I most thankful for? I was thinking about you, dear Bobbi, all through the month of August, but was too busy to sit at the computer to say “Hi.” I am glad you still remember and think about me in your life.

I have been very busy with efforts to mobilize and return the IDPS (Internally displaced Persons) of my constituency to their homes for resettlement, reconstruction and development programs due to start soon. I am most thankful to God that we have witnessed two years of relative peace in the northern part of Uganda where I come from. Glory be to God who blessed our efforts as leaders towards a peaceful end of the two decades of war. I continue with my colleagues to exert more effort until we dully realize sustainable peace. I am also glad that my capacity as a woman leader to mobilize, represent, and work for my people has been richly enhanced by The Initiative for Inclusive Security through several training programs they sponsored.  I really owe the Initiative (founded and funded by Swanee Hunt and her sister Helen) a lot. Every bit of success in my work for the last two years, I fully attribute to the Hunt Alternatives Fund.  I am running several programs in the constituency which I pray I GET SOME AMPLE TIME TO SHARE WITH YOU. May God richly bless every single day of your life and in every little bit of your routine work.  Your friend Franca Judith Akello of the Parliament of Uganda. Read More about Franca.  Franca's Bio: Franca Judith Akello is a women’s activist and a member of Uganda’s parliament. She is a member of the committee on tourism, trade and industry; of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA); and of the Uganda parliamentary forum for children. She is the deputy secretary-general for the Acholi parliamentary group, and an executive member of the forum for women in democracy (FOWODE). Ms. Akello is also a member of AMANI, the peace forum for the Great Lakes region. From 1999 to 2004, Ms. Akello worked as a teacher. She volunteered for the Norwegian Refugee Council from 2001 to 2002, and from 1996 to 1998, she worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kitgum. In 2003, she earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Makerere University.

Betty Achan Ogwaro president of the Southern Sudanese Women’s Parliamentarian League and a parliamentarian in the government of southern Sudan (GOSS): I am most thankful for knowing people who changed my life and my reactions to circumstances.  I am most thankful to my mother for bringing me up to be a tolerant person to any situation.

I am now able to travel rough roads doing my work not thinking that I am a woman, but saying the work must be done.  I am thankful to my father who told me to make a difference as a woman in man-dominated world, and I am thankful to Bobbi McKenna who told me to look at life positively.  More about Betty: Betty Achan Ogwaro is a parliamentarian in the government of southern Sudan (GOSS). She is a member of the mediation team negotiating peace settlement between the Lord’s Resistance army (LRA) and the government of Uganda, and the first Sudanese woman to challenge Joseph Kony, the LRA’s top leader, face-to-face for the group’s atrocities in the Sudan and their lack of commitment to the peace process. Ms. Ogwaro, an activist, is currently president of the Southern Sudanese Women’s Parliamentarian League, which advances the participation of Sudanese women leaders in politics and decision making. She is also the chair of the Southern Sudanese Women Caucus, where influential women’s organizations work to respond to the needs of Sudanese communities. She is a member of several committees, including specialized committee for Gender, Social Welfare, Youth and Sports. She was the chairperson for the Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM) chapter office in the Midlands from 1999 to 2005, and is one of the women leaders who successfully negotiated the inclusion of 25% minimum women representation at all levels of governance as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Ms. Ogwaro is a founder of “Windows for Sudan,” an NGO striving to advance the status of Sudanese women and promote their participation in development. She also served as a consultant to UNIFEM on women’s issues and women’s leadership. Ms. Ogwaro holds a master’s degree in veterinary science from the University of Edinburgh. She combines her parliamentarian work with promoting women in agriculture.