Rotary Melbourne members heard from Peter Pal, one of the Rotary Peace Fellows who attended a new Peace Center built in Kampala, Uganda.
Carol Bond introduced Peter to the Club with the following message.
It is my very great pleasure to introduce Peter Pal to the Rotary Club of Melbourne. Peter is a Rotary Peace fellow who is recently returned from the Rotary Peace Centre hub at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda which has awarded him a Rotary Professional Development Certificate. In Melbourne, he serves as an accomplished peace-builder and mediator within the South Sudanese community. Peter has most recently graduated from Deakin University with a Bachelors degrees and also a degree from Victoria University. Currently Peter works for the South East Community Links Inc as a head of Bicultural Inclusion team. He has previously worked for Victoria Electoral Commission (VEC) as community educator (Democracy ambassador). Peter – I would like to invite you to address the club and share with us more about your experience as a Rotary Peace Fellow.
Originally from Sudan, Peter's journey is long and harrowing, but his plans for improving his home country align closely with Rotary's goals.
As a community educator for the Victorian Electoral Commission in South Eastern Australia, Pal is trained in peace building and diplomacy.
When he heard about the Rotary Peace Fellowship, he recognized an opportunity to use his skill set on a global level — and take it back to his home country nearly 8,000 miles away.
On a 2017 trip to South Sudan, Pal was shocked to find that formerly healthy rural areas had been urbanized without the necessary health facilities and educational opportunities.
Learn more at Africas Agents of Change | Rotary International
In the last week of February, in Kampala, Uganda, 15 Rotary Peace Fellows gathered at Makerere University for the inaugural session of Rotary International’s new peace center. Among them, the peace center’s first cohort represented 11 countries and spoke, in addition to English, a dozen African languages, including Luganda, Swahili, and Zulu. “Coming from diverse backgrounds, and yet with a shared desire for peace in Africa, they are the epitome of unity in diversity,” said Anne Nkutu, a member of the Rotary Club of Kampala Naalya and the host area coordinator for the Makerere University peace center.
