Liberian Nobel Laureate Leymah Roberta Gbowee has offered her services on a pro bono basis to a group of 16 school children in Northern New Mexico. The group of students are members of Youth United, which received the 2012 Global Call to Action Challenge Award, co-sponsored by the Pearson Foundation and Peace Jam, in recognition of their literacy campaign, Hooked on Books.

The students are drawn from various schools in the Northern New Mexico region, who recently traveled to Colorado to accept the award and meet Laureate Gbowee at the Denver Center for the Arts on 13 November 2012. In 2011, Laureate Gbowee jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow Liberian, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Yemeni peace activist Tawakkul Karman for the women non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work.

In her speech to the group of students, the Liberian Nobel Laureate stated: "you all are shining lights; you are the hope for the future. Don't stop. Don't give up. Keep fueling your anger into positive things. The world depends on you." At the end of her speech to the kids, Laureate Gbowee, who is reportedly planning to visit the group of Children in Mexico sometime early next year, told the Hooked on Books kids, "If you need me, I'll come -- pro bono."