It has been an inspiring week, hearing from a range of people whose studies are being supported by Rotary, through the Rotary Peace Fellows Program and also the Rotary Foundation Global Grants Scholarships. Both programs equip people to make positive change in the world.
Over a few days around last weekend, ten students undertaking peace studies at the University of Queensland had a brief tour of a number of important facilities and groups, including the Australian Civil-Military Centre and United Nations Women National Committee. A highlight for Canberra Rotarians was the Peace Fellows dinner held on Monday night, where we heard a little about each of these inspiring people, and what they hope to achieve after completing their studies. The Peace Fellows came from the US, Burma, Uganda, Columbia, Kenya and the Philippines. This is the 16th cohort, of about 100 Peace Fellows, studying at select universities around the world, all with a focus on making positive change in the world. Some truly inspiring people, who I am sure will have gained a great deal through the Rotary Peace Fellows Program. For more information on the program see - https://www.rotary.org/en/our-programs/peace-fellowships .
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Our club was also fortunate to have as our guest speaker this week Kumiko Nakada, from Japan, who is a Rotary Foundation Global Grants Scholar, currently studying a MA of International Relations at Australian National University. Kumiko spoke about the basis of China and Japan's dispute over the Senkaku islands and their inability to resolve this dispute, based on quite different grounds.
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