Building Bridges for Peace

We were fortunate to be in Chapel Hill at the same time as the sixth annual conference of the Duke-UNC Rotary Centre, with presentations by the Rotary World Peace Fellows. There are six Rotary Centres worldwide, each partnered with a major university, and the Peace Fellows undertake a two year masters program in fields related to conflict resolution, peace studies and international relations.

The six speakers (including two Australians: Jane and Pia) spoke on topics as diverse as acid attack violence, military intervention in regional conflicts, and migration and xenophobia in South Africa. All were clearly passionate about their studies and inspirational in their approach to world peace.

The Aussie contingent: GSE Team 9520 with Rotary World Peace Fellows past and present. The two graduating Fellows who presented on the day were Jane Welsh (second from left) and Pia Simonsen (second from right). Pretty amazing people.

The Rotary Centres and Peace Fellows are, like the Group Study Exchange, sponsored by the Rotary Foundation.