Generations For Peace Shares Peace-Building Expertise at The Chicago Rotary Presidential Peacebuilding Conference

2 June 2018 – Amman/Jordan: Generations For Peace President Dr. Mohanned Al Arabiat attended Rotary’s sixth and final Presidential Peacebuilding Conference, speaking on a variety of topics in four unique sessions at the event, held 31 May through 5 June in Chicago. The conference, centred around the theme of “Basic Education and Literacy and Peace,” follows five additional Presidential Peacebuilding Conferences, which took place throughout the first half of 2018 in Vancouver, Beirut, Coventry, Sydney, and Taranto.

The Chicago Rotary International Peacebuilding Conference hosted not only local and international Rotarians, Rotaract, and Community Leaders, but also over 160 high school student leaders involved in a Rotary-UN Model Day. Over two dozen educators – peacebuilders working globally and locally to build sustainable peace – presented at the conference, during which Generations For Peace lent its perspective and experience to sessions covering youth empowerment, education in peace building, Jordan’s status and the impacts of the refugee crisis on the country, and more.

Over the course of the conference, Dr. Arabiat led three distinct sessions, addressing local Rotarians through District 5810 from Texas, speaking with youth engaged in UN Model Day who are poised to be future leaders and peace builders in their communities and around the world, and presenting to attendees of a breakout session discussing the parallels between gang violence and extremism.

Dr. Arabiat additionally delivered a keynote address to the conference, in which he discussed Jordan and its role in the Middle East in terms of refugees and its peace and stability as a nation, overall. His presentation also touched largely on the contributions of Generations For Peace as Jordan’s leading NGO and the world’s second-leading peace-building NGO in transforming conflict and inspiring peace locally and abroad.

In his keynote address, Dr. Mohanned shared, “The demographic youth bulge in Jordan, amplified by the young age of the incoming Syrian refugees, presents an opportunity to tap into the latent potential of youth to demonstrate their leadership and responsible citizenship through activities addressing local issues in their own communities. In this sense, the aim is to work with youth – not merely to provide things to them or for them – and to ensure youth are not objectified, instrumentalized, or regarded as a problem to be fixed, but rather seen as a valuable partner in development and given agency and autonomy to lead change. Generations For Peace is a global organization with Jordanian roots. A reflection of Jordan, our roots are local, but our message is global. Our messengers come from all over the world: they are our volunteers, they are our ambassadors, and they are our army of and for peace.”