Intern's Dream Comes True
As an intern in the Nonviolent Peaceforce office in Minneapolis, Rachel Beecroft dreamed of being part of an NP field team. Now as Rotary Peace Fellow and graduate student at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, that dream will come true. She will join the NP Myanmar team for three months as she fulfills requirements for a degree a Master of International Relations majoring in Peace and Conflict Resolution. The Rotary Peace Center program emphasizes development of practical skills, including mediation and project development. The program explicitly explores the relationships between peacekeeping and peacemaking. Both of these fields involve not only what happens after a conflict, but also what happens before a conflict breaks out. Creating lasting peace requires developing a culture of peace, and in war-torn societies, entire generations know only violence. Changing those cultural norms requires a multi-pronged approach, and this program is helping her to develop and implement those multi-faceted solutions.
(Published Oct. 2, 2015)
Rachel is one of seven who have received the Rotary Peace Fellowship from Nonviolent Peaceforce. Three more NP civilian protection monitors will be headed to University of Queensland in January. The fellowship is awarded to 100 peace practitioners worldwide every year by Rotary International, which has as its mission peace and goodwill in the world. Rachel was nominated by the Minneapolis University Rotary Club and her host club in Brisbane is the Rotary Club of Cleveland, Queensland.
Her duties with NP in Myanmar will be:
· Provision of regular contact analysis to support field projects
· Administrative and logistical support to the management team
· Compilation of reporting
· Development of resources to support field projects
· Management of monitoring database
· Research to support fundraising efforts
The Nonviolent Peaceforce team in Myanmar was invited by civil society organizations and authorities in August 2012 to support the peace process in Myanmar. Nonviolent Peaceforce works together with local partners, including the Nyein (Shalom Foundation), the Gender and Development Institute Myanmar, and the Karen Women Empowerment Group to increase civilian participation in the peace process.
As an intern in the Nonviolent Peaceforce office in Minneapolis, Rachel Beecroft dreamed of being part of an NP field team. Now as Rotary Peace Fellow and graduate student at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, that dream will come true. She will join the NP Myanmar team for three months as she fulfills requirements for a degree a Master of International Relations majoring in Peace and Conflict Resolution. The Rotary Peace Center program emphasizes development of practical skills, including mediation and project development. The program explicitly explores the relationships between peacekeeping and peacemaking. Both of these fields involve not only what happens after a conflict, but also what happens before a conflict breaks out. Creating lasting peace requires developing a culture of peace, and in war-torn societies, entire generations know only violence. Changing those cultural norms requires a multi-pronged approach, and this program is helping her to develop and implement those multi-faceted solutions.
Rachel is one of seven who have received the Rotary Peace Fellowship from Nonviolent Peaceforce. Three more NP civilian protection monitors will be headed to University of Queensland in January. The fellowship is awarded to 100 peace practitioners worldwide every year by Rotary International, which has as its mission peace and goodwill in the world. Rachel was nominated by the Minneapolis University Rotary Club; and her host club in Brisbane is the Rotary Club of Cleveland, Queensland.
Her duties with NP in Myanmar will be:
· Provision of regular contact analysis to support field projects
· Administrative and logistical support to the management team
· Compilation of reporting
· Development of resources to support field projects
· Management of monitoring database
· Research to support fundraising efforts
The Nonviolent Peaceforce team in Myanmar was invited by civil society organizations and authorities in August 2012 to support the peace process in Myanmar. Nonviolent Peaceforce works together with local partners, including the Nyein (Shalom Foundation), the Gender and Development Institute Myanmar, and the Karen Women Empowerment Group to increase civilian participation in the peace process.