ROTARY PEACE FELLOWS ARE HELPING REFUGEES START OVER
Every 10 minutes, a baby is born without a state – without citizenship in any country. The crisis in Syria and conflicts in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and many other nations are producing new generations of refugees, internally displaced persons, and asylum seekers. Increasingly, they are long-term exiles who are spending years, even decades, in makeshift refugee cities with their families, unable to return home.
The number of people forced from their homes by war and conflict has surpassed 50 million for the first time since the end of World War II, when the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was created.
Among the graduates of the Rotary Peace Centers – nearly 900 since the program's inception in 2002 – are agents of change working to help this growing population of refugees.
Each year, Rotary Peace Centers host up to 100 peace fellows in a three-month program at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, or a master's degree fellowship at universities in Australia, England, Japan, Sweden, and the United States. Four alumni, who work for nongovernmental organizations and nonprofits that aid refugees, shared their stories with The Rotarian.