I have no hesitation in saying that world peace could be achieved and made permanent if reared on Rotary’s firm foundation of friendliness, tolerance, and usefulness.                                            (Paul Harris, 1940 Rotary Convention)
Rotarians doing Peacemaking in February Rotary Magazine
 
1. Peace Centers and Peace Scholars
Rotary has a long history of seeing peacemaking and conflict resolution as central to its mission and identity. John Germ, Rotary Foundation chair, states in the current February edition of our Rotary magazine,
with the creation in 1999 of the rotary Peace Centers we began a bold new chapter in this story.  This year marks the 20th anniversary of the inaugural class of peace fellows; the innovative program continues to merge a strong, academic understanding of the roots of conflict with practical tactics for solving real-world problems.
 
Since that first class there have been 1500-plus Rotary peace fellows with 93% of the alumni having a career path connected to peace and development.  These people are catalysts for peace working  in education, government, international relations and  wherever the fracture zones require healing.
 
I call your attention to your current February edition of Rotary where you will read brief descriptions of “The Seven Centers of Peace” now educating these peace scholars: Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok; University of Bradford in Bradford, England; University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia; International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan; Duke University and University of North Carolina, in Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.  These centers offer a wide variety of curricula and experiences tailored to meet the needs of a range of situations.  Scholar applicants choose the center that closely matches their skills and areas in which they choose to work.
2. Local Peacemaking Actions with Rotary Clubs
….We have got to do something. How dare you call yourself a Rotarian and not have compassion and empathy for this. If we are a peace organization, we should be talking about peace in the streets of Chicago…” says Rotarian Pat Merryweather-Arges from the Naperville Rotary Club about the spike in gun violence in Chicago and death of children. But now peacemakers are also on the streets of Chicago, thanks to  “Emcee Skool”  and its leader, Phenom, helping young people become successful “rappers” taking a healing message to the local street gangs and “hoods” to de-escalate conflict conditions.  Two Rotary clubs have helped sponsor the “rap school” by obtaining a global grant to fund their peacemaking training and activity!  Read the story and be challenged to  act.  You too may find your club can “rap” your way into becoming peacemakers locally.
 
3. Ecological Threats to Peace—A Rotary Response
The rate of forced displacements and migration in 2020 was the highest number of global displacements on record—82.4 million. That is 1 in 94 people and a great shift from 2000 when it was 1 in 161 people world-wide. Food insecurity, worsening ecological deterioration, resource deficits, and population growth are ongoing threats to peace. Food and water shortages as well as natural disasters such as floods, fires and hurricanes pose a huge threat to peace. An article featuring the work of the Economics and Peace Institute highlights such problems becoming ever larger in our world.   So,  this is a new and significant arena for Rotary peace action as it works with the Institute and its new area, “Protecting the Environment”. Rotary has already begun This work through its Positive Peace Activator Program by training 90 peace activators who have taught over 50,000 people how to deal with some of these problems locally.  Rotarians can gain much insight into our present issues and future problems by reading this article and becoming knowledgeable about this. It is better than handwringing when disasters keep happening.
 
Through Rotary, we can become active peacemaking partners in the world. I urge you to read your February Rotary magazine and commit yourself to be an active peacemaker. We all benefit!