Over 250 delegates were left inspired by the Rotary Peace Fellows at the Bill Huntley Seminar .
The annual event at the University of Bradford, one of Rotary’s six peace centres across the world, left guests in awe as the peace fellows of Class IX spoke of their hard work and achievements in the world’s most dangerous regions.
Katja Karppinen, Jillian Larsen and Bianca Neff spoke about Humanitarian Response to the Somali Refugee Crisis.
Sonja Basic and Marina Kharlamova gave an insight to Alternative approaches to building Peace and Kayo Yoshida and Peter Opata specialised in Civil Conflict, Peacebuilding and Reconciliation; Experience from Sierra Leone.
Huot Sokunthea delivered a solo presentation entitled Land Conflicts in Cambodia, Maria Masullo’s topic was Bradford, Brussels, Bologna and return while Juliana Amal’s presentation was called Conflict Minerals.
Some of the talks brought a lump to the throat with the realisaton of the struggles the Rotary Peace Fellows have gone through to secure an education. Several of them have firsthand knowledge of life as refugees.
The seminar was also an opportunity for Class X to introduce themselves and it is clear there is another excellent year in store.
Guest speakers this year were Mark Segal, Senior Conflict Advisor at the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), and Chris Cushing, Principal Research Fellow, Peace Studies University of Bradford.
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