Transcript: In Pursuit of Democracy

LEYMAH: Now what? What do we do? Do we just go back home and sit and dance and celebrate? And it was like all of us just turned to that answer no, we have to be involved.

SUGARS at Accra: Peace is a process. It’s not an event. When the guns are put down, we have to continue to build the peace. We have to accept our combatants into our midst. We cannot hold it against them.

VAIBA: Sometimes I’m the opposite side to forgive these guys. But again I say to myself, "How can we move on if we do not forgive?" But really I tell you no lie, with the stories from the women, I find it hard.

LEYMAH: I was angry with the perpetrators. These ex-child soldiers. But when I started working with them, I realized that a lot of them were as much victim as we were.

LEYMAH: We believed that until we had elected democracy, Liberia would not know true peace. We decided to keep working and going to the field until that day came.

VAIBA: We all got involved one way or the other. We campaigned till we campaigned in the night. We campaigned till we forgot that we could even be raped.

SIRLEAF INAUGURATION SPEECH: I want to here now gratefully acknowledge the powerful voice of women from all walks of life whose votes brought us the victory. They defended me, they worked with me, they prayed for me. It is the women who labored and advocated for peace throughout our region.

LEYMAH: There’s no way that the history of Madam Sirleaf can be written without the history of the women’s peace work. It was the cake, and then her election was the icing.

LEYMAH: After two and half years, we officially ended the mass action campaign and left the field. But Liberians knew that if things ever got bad again, we would be back.