July4: Carisma CEO, Erinma Bell MBE, pictured at Manchester airport before heading off to Thailand for a study sabbatical sponsored by the Rotary Club of Manchester Breakfast.
Rotary International has partnered with a number of universities worldwide
to offer study courses in the field of peace and conflict resolution. One
of these is Chulalongkorn University in Thailand which offers a
three month professional certificate aimed that people who are already
working in the "peace arena". Erinma will be joining around 30 other people on the course, chosen after a very competitive selection process.
The purpose of the programme is to support research, teaching, publication
and practical field experience on issues of peace, goodwill, causes of
conflict and world understanding. It is designed to inspire people to work
for a culture of tolerance and peace while enhancing their capacity,
knowledge and skill by generating interaction between practitioners and
academics.
During her three months in Thailand Erinma will spend two weeks on field work in Cambodia. She will be keeping in touch during her visit and is scheduled to return on Tuesday 28th September 2010.
Left to right: Rotary District Governor Margaret Hutchinson, Erinma, Rotary District Scholarships
Chairperson Jackie Berry.
PeaceWeek 2010 ran from March 6 - 13. This year's theme was 'Peace in the Mix' - the mix being all the different gifts and abilities the various people in the community can bring. It's another way of saying 'Celebrating our Diversity'. Like a good recipe combines ingredients to make something good to eat, or a music track mixes sounds to make something good to listen to.
The Launch Event saw the many and varied gifts of our young people come together in song, rap, poetry, dance and drama to produce another incredible event. The PeaceWeek Shield celebrated sporting gifts - football and netball. A full programme of schools assemblies, classes and workshops culminated in another Schools Showcase, superbly coordinated by ABCollectables, where children from 13 schools came together to show what they had been learning. A new event this year was the Peace Debate, where senior Police and Council Officers met with members of the community, ably chaired by our guest Rev Nims Obunge, CEO of the PEace Alliance in London, to discuss the question: "With the recent drop in levels of gun crime, do we still need to have a Peace Week?" The Lantern Parade and The OSBAs rounded off the week in style. For more details on all these and the other events and activities that were part of PeaceWeek 2010, visit the PeaceWeek and OSBA websites. For more photographs click here. The Manchester Evening News had articles on the Launch Event, Nims Obunge and the OSBAs.