Our club has been a strong supporter of Rotary Peace Fellowships – Through academic training, practice, and global networking opportunities, the Rotary Peace Centers program develops the capacity of peace and development professionals to become effective catalysts for peace. The fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and internship and field-study expenses.
Since the program began in 2002, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,600 fellows who now work in over 140 countries. Many serve as leaders in governments; NGOs; education and research institutions; peacekeeping and law enforcement agencies; and international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank.
Interesting to visit Wagga Wagga and see the Rotary Peace Monument. This was erected to commemorate the advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace, through a world fellowship of business and professional persons, united in the ideal of service “to work for peace”.
The current Rotary Peace City/Town project started on November 13, 1990, when the Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga Kooringal agreed to support the project, to dedicate Wagga Wagga as a Rotary Peace City and to erect a peace monument in the city. The project was officially launched in Wagga Wagga in October, 1991, inspired by Past President Rajendra Saboo’s theme Look Beyond Yourself with the symbol of the dove of peace flying over the world taken as the official Peace City/Town emblem.
On February 23, 1993, the first peace monument was unveiled by Past World President Royce Abbey and the then Mayor Pat Brassil declared the City of Wagga Wagga the first Rotary Peace City in the world.
There now are more than 20 peace counties, cities and towns in different countries in the world. Manila, in the Philippines, was the second Rotary Peace City to be declared on June 22, 1994, and the first outside Australia