Lea Baroudi, Founder and Director of MARCH since 2012, has led peacebuilding efforts in Lebanon, focusing on sectarian conflict resolution through art, cultural, dialogue and economic development and the WPS Agenda. A professional mediator, member of the Mediterranean Women Mediator Network and speaker at the UN, her work spans mediating in marginalised areas in Tripoli and Beirut, creating holistic deradicalisation and reintegration programs for youth, and advising on peace processes. Recognised globally, she was selected as one of the ten finalists for the prestigious Global Pluralism Award and was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to peace and civic rights in Lebanon. 

What does peace mean to you? When I close my eyes, I think it’s about humanising the other all the time. I think that why it matters today is that because we—and not just in Lebanon, everywhere in the world– are living in an increasingly polarised world where you have extremes on all sides, with no room for middle ground, which is actually peace.