Sister Lorraine Garasu is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth and Coordinator of the Bougainville Inter-Church Women’s Forum. She is also the founder of the Nazarene Rehabilitation Centre on Bougainville. She has participated in peace negotiations in Bougainville and overseas. In 2009 she was honoured as the Papua New Guinea winner of the US State Department’s International Women of Courage Award, and in 2011 received the Order of Australia in recognition of her work assisting displaced families, sexually abused youth and victims of domestic violence, as well as trauma counselling, rehabilitation and agricultural programmes.

Read more from Lorraine:

Accord Issue 12: Papua New Guinea-Bougainville

Accord Insight Issue 1: Women and peacebuilding

Lorraine Garasu is a contributor to our Accord publication series and not a staff member of Conciliation Resources. The views expressed in the publication are their own and do not reflect the position of Conciliation Resources. We cannot share contributors' contact details.