During announcements at last week's meeting, Jim Palmquist mentioned some information about Rotary Peace Fellowships.  Since June is Rotary Fellowships month I thought it would be interesting to share an overview about Peace and Rotary from Jim Palmquist.  Many Thanks to Jim for supplying this look at Rotary Peace Fellowships! 
 
Rotary has been working on peace from its founding.  The fourth Object of Rotary included a focus on peace.  “FOURTH: The advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.”  This was written in 1911 so it goes back to the very beginning.  Rotary was founded in 1905.
 
More recently Rotary has funded several college and certificate programs in peace called Peace Fellowships.  Each year, Rotary awards up to 130 fully funded fellowships for dedicated leaders from around the world to study at one of our peace centers.  Through academic training, practice, and global networking opportunities, the Rotary Peace Centers program develops the capacity of peace and development professionals or practitioners to become experienced and effective catalysts for peace. The fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses.

Since the program began in 2002, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,300 fellows who now work in more than 115 countries. Many serve as leaders in governments, NGOs, the military, education, law enforcement, and international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank.

The Rotary Peace Fellowship is designed for leaders with work experience in peace and development. Our fellows are committed to community and international service and the pursuit of peace. Each year, The Rotary Foundation awards up to 50 fellowships for master’s degrees and 80 for certificate studies at premier universities.  The Peace Centers are at University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England; Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand; Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan; University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.

A group of peace-interested Rotarians formed the Rotarian Action Group for Peace [RAGFP].  Our passion is PEACE. We are a group of committed Rotarians, Rotarians’ spouses, Rotaractors, Rotary Peace Fellows and other Rotary program alumni working together outside club structures with the help of telecommunications and driven by the common interest of peace.  Jim is a member of RAGFP.  There are loots of resources at https://www.rotarianactiongroupforpeace.org/ and membership is not expensive.    
 
IEP, the Institute for Economics and Peace is the world’s leading think tank dedicated to developing metrics to analyze peace and to quantify its economic value. It does this by developing global and national indices, calculating the economic cost of violence, analyzing country level risk and understanding positive peace.  IEP is an official Rotary Partner. 
IEP says peace is much more than the absence of violence. Positive Peace describes the attitudes, structures and institutions that underpin and sustain peaceful societies. The Institute has developed a conceptual framework, known as the Pillars of Peace, that outlines a system of eight factors that work together to build positive peace. See more at                       http://economicsandpeace.org/
 
MBBI, Mediators Beyond Borders International vision is building a more peace “able” world.  Its mission is to build local skills for peace and promotes mediation worldwide. MBBI is an official Rotary Partner.  See more at  https://mediatorsbeyondborders.org/                    
 
Of course, almost every project implemented by Rotary build the possibility for peace, such as Providing Clean Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene, Fighting Disease, Saving Mothers and Children, etc.  And some projects are conducted in the Rotary Project Area of Focus called Promoting Peace, which directly work on peace building. 
 
Emmaus Rotary Club is the International Sponsor of a peacebuilding training project called West Africa [IPTI Women Peacebuilders West Africa GG1757637].  In partnership with a Rotary Club of Ikeja, in Lagos Nigeria and dozens of clubs all over the world, we will train 30, mostly female community leaders to be peacebuilders and coach them in their work over a year.  The women will come from five West African countries.  We expect to submit the fully funded project to RI formally in late June and begin to roll out the project in a month or two. Jim Palmquist is the Emmaus Rotarian leading the project for us.