A word from the President of UFFP

It is not war that kills our children, it is humane insanity.  This editorial this fall, is very important for me as it focuses on the world greatest treasure: our KIDS!

PICTURES all rights reserved KEITH HARMON SNOW. USA

It took me years to have the courage and resilience to write this book, it took me a life time, big pieces of my life, my own personal dramas as well. It’s not published yet, but it is on the way, and this editorial in UFFP, this month of September is a big step.

 

This book  means the world to me; it is the summary of all my battles from NEW AFRICAN WOMAN ( the magazine I created and managed for five years and left) to UNITED FASHION FOR PEACE the platform I created three years ago after the Arabic spring. It is the conclusion of my activism and my personal choices that led me to choose precarity in my professional   life, cause I refused being part of a “system” I could no longer bear. My Book is born and yet, I haven’t decided to edit it, as I consider this operation not a “marketing one” but really, labor of love. It took me years, tears, frustration, sometimes depressive times, to be able to undergo this project that started almost, fifteen years ago, when I was a young intern at the International Criminal Tribunals of former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

At that time I was hired by Richard Goldstone, the first Prosecutor of both Tribunals in Den Hague Holland. My dad was Ambassador of Tunisia appointed in the Netherlands, and I just finished my bachelor in Criminology from Ottawa University. It is indeed, a lifetime ago, I feel so old now, and I have lost my naivety towards humane kind. It took me embracing different “careers” ( criminology, diplomacy, journalism, social activism, even modeling) to understand that some things never change and with Time, it can get WORSE !

Still even if we know deep down that things are irreversible, we must keep on hoping and struggling to improve them : they won’t be perfect but at least, better.

Sadly when it comes to wars and children and women being instrumentalised by them, things haven’t improved and I Know the path I took, will be long, very long.

UFFP is born for that, the belief that there is a very strong community in the World that regardless of culture, religion and colour of skin share the same values: and we thank you every day for the love and the support!

I was fortunate  enough to have met friends and a community virtually and in reality, the altermondialists,  the UFFPians those who believe that we have to rewrite society and its values, that we have to fight capitalism that crushes human kind. They are the ones that gave me a hand and made me stronger. Because together we are stronger dear family of readers!

Dear readers, dears UFFPians my magazine is edited in french, but i wanted to write this editorial as well in english and kept a lot of my interviews in english for that purpose. We are not rich enough to have now an English edition.We have been struggling for three years without income and finance to be able to do the work we do: give light and voice to the people and initiatives that contribute to make our world and planet, a better place for us and our kids.

This September issue of UFFP does a great focus on children and their protection, it will give you as well all the latest news on what s in and hot, on fashion beauty and Art and lifestyle.

But before concluding this word, I would like to say thank you to my American friend Keith Harmon Snow, a war reporter, a social activist for all his support and friendhip towards my project  UFFP and  my books, thank you to Julien Lauprêtre  President of the Secours Populaire in France and Gus Massiah economist and altermondialist and Murhabazi Namegabe my Congolese brother who is struggling daily to get children soldiers out of the “hell” of violence they are enrolled in. They contributed to writing my prefaces of the Books ( Enfance et Violence de Guerre: Tome I and II, Two parts of the book)

We will keep you posted, on  the final edition of “Enfance et Violence de Guerre’ but until then, please read us, share us, follow us and love us back as we have great love to give to you and to  the world.

Bless and One Peace !

Fériel Berraies Guigny editor and President of UFFP