​On Friday, October 10, 2025, Virginia Gamba, who is on our list of Notable Women and may be nominated for UN Secretary-General within the next month or so, received the Motif World Humanitarian Award for her work with children as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.

The Gala Awards National Ceremony was held in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She has had a long career at the United Nations and served in this latest position from 2017 until July 2025. Her keynote address spoke to the need to listen to the voices of children. Here is an excerpt from her presentation:
 

“As former special representative for children and armed conflict, I spent eight years monitoring, engaging, advocating, and reporting on the unspeakable ways in which children are used and abused by, for, and in armed conflict. I travelled to countries in conflict, and spoke to survivor children and to those that held power over them. Talking to former child soldiers, and other child survivors of violence, was an eye-opener. After engaging with them, I understood that I was using the wrong tools to end violence, and realized I did not need to seek the source of violence, nor document its impact; there was no magic formula to prevent violence; nor mediators that could teach us to peacefully negotiate with one another. You simply had to listen to the children. Children don’t talk like we do. They are full of common sense, and of truth. They have the answers, but we fail to ask them the right questions. The children taught me how to use other tools to resolve important issues; tools they themselves have always used to survive. If applied correctly, these tools will bring peace. Children have four items in their toolbox: hope, charity, and faith. The fourth one is a universal tool that can replace any of the other three, as needed,and, that, is mercy.”