Maria Helena Moreira Alves is the Coordinator of International Relations for Brazil's largest grassroots organization, Viva Rio. Viva Rio carries out income-generating projects and organizes social justice campaigns in the poorest neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. Maria Helena also has a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and helped found the Brazilian Workers Party. She is currently a Tinker Visiting Professor with the UW-Madison Sociology Department and Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program.
Ella Cecilia Flores Alvarez is the Director of Communications with the peace community of San Jose de Apartado in Colombia. This community -- which has a sister relationship with Dane County -- has taken the courageous stance of not providing support to any armed group in the country's civil war. Ella Cecilia also works with the newly formed network of Communities in Resistance, whose mission is to champion nonviolent solutions to conflict.
The International Women's Day event is being organized by the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua and Madison Women for Peace, with assistance from the Dane County-Apartado Sister City Project.