Expressing optimism about peace efforts throughout the world, over 100 women who have been victims of war and conflict met yesterday with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 (D-Mass.) and 30 other policy makers at Boston's Park Plaza Hotel.

The session was part of a nearly two-week-long conference titled Women Waging Peace Initiative, sponsored in part by the Kennedy School of Government (KSG). The conference brought the delegates together to discuss ways to better integrate women into peacemaking processes.

"We've come together to create a network, a network of women who are determined to stop the violence," said former U.S. Ambassador to Austria Swanee Hunt, director of the program on women and public policy at KSG.

Hunt Alternatives, a non-profit organization led by Hunt that aims to strengthen democracy around the world, also sponsored the conference.

Each of the women who attended the conference was given a laptop computer, along with a network connection modem and extensive Internet training. These resources will enable the women to maintain a constant dialogue about both their progress and their struggles in their peacemaking efforts when they return to their home countries, Hunt said.

After listening to women from Colombia, Palestine, South Africa and Northern Ireland speak about contributions to their countries' peacemaking processes, Kennedy rose to offer all of the women words of thanks and admiration.

"You live in countries where the shadow of conflict and the specter of violence hang heavy over everyday life. Yet you have all made the courageous decision to work for the great cause of peace. You have gone beyond talk and belief, to action," Kennedy said.

Rather than focusing on the atrocities that continue to take place in the world's conflict zones, the conference delegates spoke with an air of optimism about the potential for progress initiatives like the conference represent.

"Coalitions...like the one we are building here...are an opportunity to change the face of our country and the face of our world," said Rosa E. Salamanca Gonzalez, a Women Waging Peace delegate from Colombia.

The conference also served to recognize the efforts of women peacemakers that too often go unnoticed, Hunt said.

"We have learned that we women have special gifts that we have to use to turn violence into peace," said Sumaya F. Naser, a delegate from the Jerusalem Center for Women.

The relentless strength of women in conflict zones was also a predominant theme.

According to Mary Montague, a delegate from Northern Ireland, women are too often seen simply as mourners in conflict-ridden areas--not as potential peacemakers.

"But the women in Northern Ireland moved from being victims to being survivors, and from being survivors to being victors," Montague said.

The 1999 Hunt Alternatives Program is designed to emphasize the need for a presence of women in democratic peacemaking processes around the world.

"I commend the work of Ambassador Hunt, and all of the members of the Women Waging Peace Initiative," Kennedy said. "You are making an important contribution to peace, and your voices deserve to be heard loud and clear in all lands."