Matthew Bright, United States, District 6440
Matthew began his career abroad in 1999 as a Small Business and Municipal Development volunteer with the Peace Corps in El Salvador. Once there, he worked in conjunction with Save the Children to alleviate the devastating effects of two major earthquakes, gaining permanent employment with them in the process. Matthew's next assignment brought him to Afghanistan in July 2001, where he successfully helped manage the distribution of food to 710,000 needy Afghanis, rebuilt 10 schools, and provided health and nutritional education to the local population. He left Afghanistan in July 2002 and has been posted to Malawi, Africa to work on organizational representation and project/proposal writing for Save the Children's emergency drought response there. A Chicago, IL native, Matthew holds a BA in Psychology and Philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. He believes that peace and understanding can be effectively maintained and promoted through serving others and hopes that the Rotary World Peace Fellowship will further assist him to manage humanitarian work in complex emergency situations.
After completing the Rotary Program, Matthew took positions with Save the Children (US) delivering humanitarian assistance to Tsunami affected Aceh and earthquake affected Pakistan. He managed reconstruction and water and sanitation programs and helped guide the overall emergency response of the agency. Matthew is currently halfway through the PhD program at UQ, investigating the role of international NGOs as ‘good’ global citizens. He will be doing his fieldwork in various countries in Southern Africa at the end of 2007. He maintains a position on the board of directors of Jacana, an NGO working in Mozambique which is looking to start programs in Zimbabwe and Chad in the coming months. He also feels fortunate to be directly involved in Rotary Centre programming at UQ.
Francesca Del Mese, United Kingdom, District 1260
Francesca is a practicing barrister specializing in human rights. A U.K. native with degrees from Anglia University and the College of Law in London and York, she chose her profession to assist people in securing their liberty and to help them attain basic human rights. As a barrister, Francesca believes it is her duty to ensure equal access to justice, even when this means that the work she undertakes is on a voluntary basis. Francesca feels that cross-cultural lawyers and government advisers are needed more than ever to harmonize warring countries and ethnic groups. She is very passionate about the need for peace and will dedicate her career to bringing about improved relations and resolve conflicts around the world.
Francesca is currently working at The Hague, with judges from the International Criminal Tribunal who are currently hearing the trial of the Former Yugoslavia leader. She is working with people from 81 different nations. She is finding both the theoretical and practical sides of her studies at UQ, with the Rotary Program are allowing her to succeed in her current role.
Carolyn Fanelli, United States, District 7710
Carolyn grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her undergraduate degree in Public Policy Studies with a minor in Chinese at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. With the first of two consecutive Hart Fellowships, Carolyn spent a year in Washington, DC as an advocate for refugees and asylum-seekers. The second fellowship brought her to a global education museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she developed innovative ways to increase young people's awareness of global issues. Carolyn currently works for a cultural exchange program, promoting the many ways in which international teachers enhance students' educational experience. After earning her master's degree from the University of Brisbane's Rotary Center, she plans to work with young people in immigrant and refugee communities.
I currently serve as the Communications and Learning Manager with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Zimbabwe. Here, CRS operates programs in agriculture, food security, HIV/AIDS, and justice and peace, and my role is to document and disseminate the sound practices, lessons learned and success stories that emerge from our work. I also support the integration of communication projects into our programs - for example, by helping to develop educational materials for children on anti-retroviral therapy and by producing child rights posters in local languages. In addition, I coordinate the country program’s organisational learning initiative.
As a child of the Khmer Rouge era (1975-79) during which some two million Cambodian people perished, Path Heang lived through decades of internal armed conflict. In the past 15 years he has dedicated his career to peaceful community development in Cambodia. Path has worked with such diverse groups as the Cambodian government, United Nations Development Program, Australian Catholic Relief, American Friends Service Committee, German Technical Cooperation, Oxfam Great Britain, Working Group for Weapons Reduction, and Cooperation Committee for Cambodia. In his effort to make Cambodians’ voices heard, he has published a number of documents and addressed various international conferences, including two UN conferences in New York, USA. He has a degree in education from the Royal University of Phnom Penh. After completing his graduate studies, Path plans to return to Cambodia to resume his development work with particular focus on policy issues.
I joined the World Bank (WB) in August 2005 and I am now working as a Program Officer for its Cambodian Country Office. Last year I was working under WB’s Justice for the Poor (J4P), a project that seeks to better understand and address social injustice. Justice for the Poor is the WB’s global research and development initiative aimed at addressing issues concerning legal and judicial reform and good governance. Together with my research team, we last year conducted a number of analytical research studies on issues related to dispute prevention and resolution in the areas of land, natural resource management, labour and freedom of expression. The research studies seek to better understand how dispute prevention and resolution can be used as entry for empowering the poor and how good governance can be promoted. Findings from these studies have been used for the design of multi-million dollar development projects, namely: Demand for Good Governance (DFGG) and Empowerment of the Poor in Siem Reap.
This year I am working on three projects: (1) Justice for the Poor (as mentioned above), (2) DFGG - a US$12 million project aimed at promoting demand from the poor population for better and quality services, and strengthening state institutions’ capacity to respond positively to the people’s demand. (3) Project to Enhance Capacity of Civil Society on Social Accountability (PECSA) - a US$2 million project working directly with civil society organisations (CSOs). It aims to better understand the status of CSOs and improve their capacity to demand good governance and social accountability.
Ryan's experience as a NATO peacekeeper in Bosnia-Herzegovina opened his eyes to the grim realities of armed conflict. In Bosnia-Herzegovina Ryan witnessed extreme cultural, political, and economic disparity. He also saw a resilience of the human spirit that convinced him to pursue a career in peace and conflict resolution. Ryan has served as a volunteer assistant to the chief of protocol for the Organization of American States in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. He works for FINTRAC, Canada's newly formed federal anti-money-laundering agency, delving into the world of criminal intelligence and money laundering. Ryan attended the University of Ottawa, where he received a degree in social sciences. In 1998-99 he received a Rotary Ambassadorial Fellowship to complete a master's degree in strategic studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
Employer 1: Still with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) in Ottawa, Canada. It’s a government agency who’s mandate is to detect and deter money laundering and terrorist financing by providing law enforcement and intelligence agencies with financial intelligence. I’m currently a Senior Analyst in the Operations Sector. I continue to apply and develop much of the material that I absorbed at UQ and continue to apply it to my agency’s anti-terrorism mandate.
Employer 2: Continue part-employment with the Canadian Forces Army Reserves as an Infantry Section Commander in Ottawa. I’m currently leading a section of soldiers in all aspects of military training. Also assisting Regimental training in stability operations for current overseas deployments of Canadian soldiers. Although Afghanistan is the military’s priority at the moment, I am also assisting with deployments and tactical requirements for Canada’s current commitment to the UN mission in Sudan.
Of course, I remain in touch with Rotary since my return to express my eternal thanks and to get more involved in Rotary activities generally. In particular, I have made presentations on the Rotary World Peace Fellowship to clubs around my district. As I mentioned last year, my sponsor club, Windsor St. Clair Rotary recently made me a ‘Honourary Rotarian’, which was great honour in itself.
I noticed I was quoted in a recent Rotary publication as saying: The Rotary Fellowship Program at UQ has been one of the most significant professional and personal adventures in my life. Every day, I make use of the expertise that I developed from the program’s rich blend of academic, work and life experience. The program fostered incredible friendships and has strengthened my resolve to pursue peace and conflict resolution as a life-long commitment”. Still rings true this year.
Amy recently worked with the United Nations Development Program’s new HIV/AIDS Regional Program in the Arab States, working on a team developing projects focused on gender issues and media outreach in the Middle East/North Africa region. She also worked on community HIV/AIDS education with grassroots AIDS orphans organization, Hope for Children, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Amy studied Arabic in 2000 at the American University in Cairo as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. During that time, she worked for Egypt’s National Council for Women as a media consultant and later as a managing editor for IBA Media Group in Cairo. Amy continues to focus on HIV/AIDS during her last semester of research, concentrating on issues related to representation and human rights. When finished with her masters degree in Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Queensland, Amy would like to continue work related to HIV/AIDS.
I am working in Sudan with the UN Mission’s Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program contracted by UNDP to support the Information Counseling and Referral Services offered to those going through the DDR process. I am mapping opportunities for female ex-combatants and those who have faced sexual and gender based violence to access HIV related services and creating materials for low-literacy audiences on HIV support in-country. I’ve also been conducting some preliminary assessments of services to better inform recommendations I will be making for the next steps of the DDR ICRS HIV program. I have been meeting with the DDR Commission’s gender and HIV focal points in the North and South along with the respective HIV Programs and stakeholders with the support of UNMISS and UNDP. Although there is little information regarding HIV prevalence rates, what indicators we have including risk indicators with such a long-standing conflict merit urgent interventions. So I am a small piece of a large operation and feel I am putting my Rotary fellowship and scholarship to work. I am leaving Sudan soon and planning to head back to the U.S. I have a short-term consultancy waiting for me there with a USAID implementing agency (Constella Futures) conducting leadership workshops for Arab People Living with HIV- so that will get me back to the region which is good news.
Sophia Knöchel Ledberg, Sweden, District 2350
Sofia is a graduate student in the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. A native of Sweden, Sophia has studied at the Beijing College of Economics and as well as at London University. During her time abroad, Sofia studied Chinese studies, development studies, international politics, and social anthropology. Sofia's primary area of interest is Central and Eastern Asia. After completing her master's degree, she would like to work within the field of conflict resolution and regional cooperation in Asia.
Since returning to Sweden, Sofia has been working as the Program coordinator for the Cotemporary Silk Road Studies Program at Uppsala University. As well as a busy family life, with two young boys, Sofia has coordinated and facilitated numerous workshops and projects on peace and conflict management and prevention. The Rotary Program has strengthened her desire to work towards the peaceful resolution of conflicts. The Program also gave Sofia a deeper understanding and knowledge of a range of pressing issues.
Rebecca Milligan, United States, District 6310
To work towards the protection of refugees, safeguard their rights and well-being and find lasting solutions to their plight are the cardinal points around which Rebecca hopes to plan her career. The experiences she has had in the past few years have done much solidify this conviction. Rebecca was a Fulbright Scholar (2000-2001) in Russia, where she documented the plight of displaced Chechens fleeing the war in Chechenya. In Russia, she also assisted the Red Cross Center for Refugees by interviewing asylum seekers. Most recently, Rebecca worked for Human Rights Watch in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she assisted the organization in the documentation of torture, arbitrary detention and religious persecution. Rebecca will intern with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Cairo, Egypt in 2004. Additionally, Rebecca has worked on a prison reform project, at a Holocaust Memorial Museum and as a labor union organizer. Rebecca holds a Bachelor's Degree from the Honors Program at the University of Michigan with Highest Honors and a Master's Degree from the European University at St. Petersburg with Distinction. She speaks German, Russian, Uzbek and Arabic. She is convinced that a degree in Peace and Conflict studies, by building on her experiences and skills, will enable her to realize her career aspirations.
Working as a researcher for the International Organisation for Migration, Rebecca is finding the training and expertise she gained during the Rotary Program at UQ invaluable. She is currently focused on researching and bringing to the media’s attention the trafficking of children from Bangladesh and Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates, where they work as slaves. It is her current aim to bring about an end to this practice.
Christian Oakes, United States, District 6970
Christian has witnessed firsthand the devastating effects that armed conflict and natural disaster can have on communities. Christian has served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon, Central Africa, where he helped build low-cost shelters. He rebuilt hurricane-damaged homes in Antigua as a member of Crisis Corps. Christian supervised the construction of 47 school buildings as part of an NGO project in Cambodia. A graduate of the University of Florida with a degree in construction management, Christian and his wife, Rosemary Berkeley, a writer, currently make their home in Neptune Beach, Florida. After Christian completes his studies at the University of Queensland, he looks forward to putting his degree to work in the developing world.
Chris is now scanning the adverts and submitting his C.V. for positions in organisations doing international development work. He is also considering the possibility of working in New Orleans to help rebuild there.