Jennie Vanlerberghe

Jennie Baroness Vanlerberghe (born 14 May 1945) is a Belgian Entrepreneurship, Women's rights, journalist and author. She is the Organizational founder of Mothers for Peace (MvV), the Belgian branch of Mothers for Peace. As its Chairperson, Vanlerberghe travels to conflict areas around the world, using her work in journalism to speak out against War crime and other issues inflicted upon Woman and Girl.
== Career ==
Vanlerberghe studied Art history, and was a journalist for the media group Roularta. She wrote a column for De Weekbode under the pseudonym Iphiginea, in which she championed gender equality between women and men. Vanlerberghe served as editor-in-chief of De Streekkrant, Steps Magazine, Télépro and Tele-Knack . She was also an editor at Newsco Publishing, a subsidiary of Roularta. She has been featured in the Radio 1 program The Silent Majority several times. 
As a journalist, Vanlerberghe worked in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s amid the Yugoslav Wars. In Ypres, she founded Mothers for Peace (MvV), the Belgian branch of Mothers for Peace (Bedem Ijubavi), an international organization that advocates for women's rights in conflict areas worldwide. Vanlerberghe has worked for Mothers for Peace in Yugoslavia, Somalia, South Africa and Afghanistan, where she opened a women's centre in Istalif under MvV. This centre organizes training courses for students, women and men, and also has a hospital. 
Vanlerberghe travelled to Kabul for the first time after being touched by the story of an Afghan refugee in 2002, following the September 11 attacks and fall of the Taliban. It was there that she first came into contact with Mothers for Peace. Since then, Vanlerberghe has established two women's centres and twelve schools with MvV, and travels to the country regularly to help improve the conditions women face. 
In 2007, Vanlerberghe initiated the Women's Power is Peace Force campaign with the help of the Women's Council in Belgium and politician Sabine de Bethune. Through this, Vanlerberghe seeks to give women a voice in Peace process|peace processes.
Vanlerberghe was the partner of painter Godfried Vervisch from 1930 - 2014. 
== Awards ==
Vanlerberghe has received the following recognition for her commitment to women's rights:
* 2005 - France Human Rights Prize
* 2006 - Woman of the Year (Knack)
* 2006 - Ambassador for Peace (Pax Christi) 
* 2007 - Regional Television Audience Award (WTV-Focus)
* 2008 - Inspiration Trophy Netherlands
* 2009 - British Women Welcome World Wide Award (Women Welcome Women World Wilde) 
* 2010 - Honorary title Peace Woman (Platform NAP 1325)
* 2014 - Inclusion in the personal nobility with the title Baron|Baroness
* 2018 - Honorary citizen of Staden 
== Bibliography ==
* Wall of Love, 1993.
* Justice and Injustice, 1995.
* A man on the run: the swinging door of our hospitality, 2002.
* Chronicle of Powerlessness: Sarajevo, Srebrenica... Ten Years Later, 2005.
* From Antwerp to Jerusalem: Hatred, Racism and Love, 2006. (with Lieve Snellings)
* Don't Laugh, Khanum: Five Years of Women's House in Istalif, Afghanistan, 2007.
Category:Belgian businesspeople
Category:Belgian women's rights activists
Category:Belgian journalists
Category:Belgian writers