Humanitarian and activist Ruthi Solari honored as ambassador
As of July 28, a Healdsburg local and current Switzerland resident embarked a new leg of her international journeys. As a humanitarian and activist, Ruthi Solari (née Bozman-Moss) is representing the United States as an ambassador for the inaugural European Peace Walk, a 23-day, 500-km journey across six countries, established in commemoration of the centennial of World War I.
While the European Peace Walk is open to the public, and many people from the United States will accompany her on the journey, Solari has been selected to represent the United States throughout the event. The Peace Walk begins in Vienna, and continues through Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia, before ending at the Mediterranean Sea in Trieste, Italy. Solari has taken the opportunity to raise funds for global nonprofit Women for Women International.
Born in Montana, Solari moved to Healdsburg at a young age and remained a local until she moved to southern California to pursue a degree in international studies from UC San Diego, with the intent of becoming involved in global humanitarian work. Deeply passionate about health and wellness, Ruthi later received her master’s degree in mind-body medicine and integrative healthcare from Saybrook University in San Francisco.
“Following from when I finished college, all my jobs have been around helping people to be healthy, to be well,” she said. “Helping people build community in a healthy, sustainable, safe way has been kind of the centerpiece of my education and my professional life.” Solari’s humanitarian interests eventually led her to found SuperFood Drive in 2009, which is a San Diego-based nonprofit that provides guidance for hunger relief organizations. Currently, she resides in Switzerland and provides consulting services to local organizations.
While representing SuperFood Drive at a United Nations-hosted event in Geneva, Solari learned about the upcoming World War I centennial and the inaugural European Peace Walk. “I really fell in love with the idea that the European Peace Walk is a very grassroots effort,” she said. “It’s led by a group of volunteers representing many different countries and they all wanted to create a cross-cultural and cross-border initiative that gives people an opportunity to do a very personal journey.”
Solari said that she enjoys long-distance hiking and interacting with nature, and upon learning about the European Peace Walk decided to take the plunge and submit an application. Yet the broader context of the event also proved appealing, she said. “When I saw the opportunity to be a part of something, that I could be a part of creating it for generations to come, at this time with so much going on in the world, being able to raise the conversation about peace felt so important,” she said.
As an ambassador, Solari said her goal is to raise awareness and to engage the public in a dialogue about the event and larger conversations about peace. “When I walk for peace, it is to promote solidarity between all religions, races, ethnicities, genders and non-genders,” she said. “First and foremost, we are one global humanity.”
Solari added that the chosen route traverses areas directly tied to the start of WWI, and that participants will thus have the opportunity to engage with landmarks and people affected by the war. In addition, the walk presents an opportunity for Solari to reflect on her own history, as her family was involved in the conflicts of Central Europe during World War II, with family forced to flee Germany during the Holocaust.
Through her walk, Solari hopes to raise $5000 for Women for Women International, a global nonprofit that provides job skills and business training for women survivors of war. Solari said she chose the organization because she believes empowering women to be a cornerstone of the peace movement.
SuperFood Drive was born of Solari’s time spent as a board member of the United Nations Association in San Diego, through which she became aware of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. “One of the goals was around eradicating poverty,” Solari said. As she became more aware of the amount of people in the United States who struggle with food insecurity, she identified room for hunger relief practices to incorporate nutritional concerns into their giving.
“I started at the time, just a project to try to hold healthier food drives and encourage people to donate nutritious items instead of the standard processed junk that is donated,” she said. “And that project went so well that it became a program and the program needed organization.” Since its founding, SuperFood Drive has expanded its reach throughout California and even nation-wide, helping food banks to source healthier foods and promote healthy recipes and nutrition education.
The European Peace Walk establishes a permanent trail for future activists to follow. As a participant in the inaugural event, Solari sees the walk as an opportunity to promote increased interconnectivity. “I feel I am walking for the solidarity of all Americans and all people,” she said. “It is much bigger than me.”
Those interested in contributing to Women for Women International may visit Solari’s fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/Ruthi-Solari-EPW. For more information about the European Peace Walk, visit www.peacewalk.eu.
