Did you know that cultural initiatives have the power to bridge conflict and nurture positive peace?
We harness this potential by using fine and performing arts,
popular culture, heritage, literature or films to create dialogue
and peaceful co-existence in communities ravaged by war or
those on the precipice of conflict. Through culture, we can
cultivate the pillars of peace: diversity, resilience, social
cohesion and tolerance. By using culture, we can counter
extremist narratives, polarisation and tensions over identities
and control of resources that often block the path to peace.
The projects are supported by Rotary Peace Fellows, working
group founders and coordinators of this area,
Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska and Dr Matthew Johnsen, as well
as Dr Helen Nambalirwa Nkabala, the director of the Makerere
University Rotary Peace Center in Kampala.
They and several other members of the planning team with experience in program design and implementation will help guide the Rotary community through the culture for peace process, exploring new ideas and visions that celebrate culture as an agent of positive peace.
We will utilize a variety of cultural resources in different contexts to build sustainable peace processes. The projects will deploy a multidimensional cultural approach towards capacity-building and empowering co-existence and reconciliation of local communities.
Contact: Natalia Sineaeva at nsineaeva@gmail.com
Project 1: Fine Arts Academy: Orchestrating Peace Through Arts & Science (Iraq). Project Details here
Project 2: The Neighbours: Enhancing dialogue and peacebuilding among young people in Bangladesh (Bangladesh) - Project Details here
Project 3: Let There be Light: Establishing a training center to empower Rohingya women and children living in Bangladesh Project Details here
Project 4: Shantinalay: A Place for Peace: Exploring the deep meanings of folk music (Bangladesh) Project Details here
Project 5: Rock for Peace: human rights education through arts and sports at Polish Woodstock Festival (Poland) Project Details here
These projects will strive to use emerging technologies appropriate to engaging the addressed communities in the post-pandemic world.
Partner Organisations
Natalia
Sineaeva-Pankowska
Rotary Peace Fellow at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (2018), she is the Coordinator of the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association Europe&Middle East, a museum educator and genocide scholar. She works for the NEVER AGAIN Association (Poland)
Dr Matthew Johnsen
Rotary Peace Fellow at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (2018), he is the Founding Director of the Center for Social Innovation at Worcester State University, a sociology professor and a musician (USA)
Karim Wasfi
Iraqi cellist and conductor, performing internationally between Europe, the Middle East and the USA. He is the president and founder of Peace Through Arts Global Foundation (Iraq and the USA)
Shahriar Kabir
Bangladeshi writer, filmmaker and human rights activist. He is the President of the 'Forum for Secular Bangladesh & Trial of the War Criminals of 1971' and General Secretary of the ‘South Asian Peoples Union against Fundamentalism & Communalism’ (Bangladesh)
Lablu Barua
PhD candidate in Peace Studies at Buddhist Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University and a mindfulness meditation expert, Ambassador of the Institute for Economics and Peace (2019), engaged in interfaith dialogue, in Asia and worldwide
Prof. Dr. Mamun Al Mahtab
Chairman of Hepatology Department at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka. Leading liver disease researcher in the region. Holds key positions in several national and international Hepatology and social organizations. He is the IPP, Rotary Club of Dhaka Generation Next, RID 3281
Dr Helen Nambarlirwa Nkabala
Director for the Makerere University Rotary Peace Center in Kampala, Uganda, extensively involved in community-based peace education, since 2017, runs a six-week online class, Foundation of Mass Autrocities, for Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation
