Community activism and philanthropy[edit]
Disney and her husband Pierre Hauser created
The Daphne Foundation in 1991 in order to fund programs that confront the causes and consequences of poverty in the five boroughs of
New York City.
[17]
In 2008, Disney launched
Peace is Loud, a nonprofit organization that inspires action through media and live events that spotlight women leaders on the frontlines of peacebuilding worldwide. The organization's mission is to generate a groundswell of people committed to building a culture of peace. Disney serves as the Founder and President.
[18]
Disney has made several overseas trips with fellow peace activists, including
Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee. The two traveled to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2011 to spend a week working with women peace activists and to explore ideas for building peace in their country.
[19] The following year, they visited
Sri Lanka, where women activists launched the Sri Lankan Women's Agenda on Peace, Security and Development, inspired by Gbowee's legacy.
[20]
In 2012 she renounced her share of the profits from the Disney family investment in the Ahava cosmetics company whose factory is located in a West Bank settlement. She stated "I cannot in good conscience profit from what is technically the 'plunder' or 'pillage' of occupied natural resources..." For legal reasons she could not withdraw her investments and therefore donated the investments and profits "to organizations working to end this illegal exploitation."[21]
In May 2015, Disney joined Gbowee and 28 other international women peacebuilders to cross the 2-mile wide De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) separating
North and
South Korea in an act of
solidarity with Korean women and to call for an end to the
Korean War. The peacebuilders headed international peace symposia in
Pyongyang and
Seoul, where they listened to Korean women and shared experiences of mobilizing women to end conflict.
[22]
