PEACEBUILDER COMMITTEE

Peace is the cornerstone of Rotary’s mission! Rotary’s first area of focus!


Testimonials from committee members:

Yvone Joubert, Rotaractor
Peace.
A simple word filled with complexity and different meaning to anyone you ask.
To me, peace is many things. Every person I meet in life has their own stories, thoughts, and lifestyles. Peace is being able to recognize and appreciate those unique differences; accepting the diversity and looking for the equality among it.
Most importantly, peace for me is being accepted for who I am, while still being challenged on how I can be better and continue to make an impact on my community.
Peace is both personal - something within ourselves, and something big out there in the world.
The concept of positive peace may seem so simple, and yet it’s rather revolutionary.
                                          
Myles Dykes, Rotaractor
To become a Positive Peace Club, there’s a few things you have to do. First, form a Peace Committee in your Rotary club. Second, make a donation to the Rotary Peace Centres via the Rotary Foundation. Third, select two or more of a variety of focuses, such as engaging in a peace education seminar or workshop, integrating peace into one or more of your club’s annual service projects, applying a peace-builder lens when selecting those projects and programs, supporting a Peace Fellowship applicant, collaborating with Rotary members in our efforts build awareness of peace education, or supporting other peace building groups through participation. And fourth, fill out the application form found on the District Peacebuilder Committee website. 
Peace is more than the absence of violence. To learn more about peacebuilding, you can find more resources on the Global Peace Index YouTube channel and our District website.
 
Shannon Peacocke, Rotaractor
We are actively seeking peacebuilding – connected through Rotary. Through initiatives like Positive Peace Clubs here in our District.
Because peace goes hand in hand with service above self. 
For some, peace can mean freedom. That’s what it is for me. The freedom to be yourself without taking away the freedom of another.
I look to the future and I am excited. And I’m also scared.
I’m content. And I’m also dissatisfied.
I want to live in a world that is more peaceful, more positive.
Because positive peace will help us ensure justice.
In my own experience, the hardest part is making the decision to act. After I make a decision, the research and conversations, the projects and meetings all rippled out from there.
That one decision to act.
As a past Interactor and current Rotaractor, I know that change is possible. I’ve seen it. Through local and international service projects, through conferences and workshops, and through amazing friendships forged in the soil of service.
 
That is why peace is the answer.