FEBRUARY IS PEACEBUILDING AND CONFLICT PREVENTION MONTH

Peace Begins with Understanding

—and Grows Through Action

Each February, Rotary recognizes Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention Month, a time for Rotary and Rotaract members to strengthen understanding, address the causes of conflict, support people affected by violence and displacement, and help create communities in which peace can endure.

Peacebuilding is not limited to negotiating an end to war. It takes place wherever people listen respectfully, overcome prejudice, resolve disagreements without violence, protect human dignity, expand opportunity, and work together across political, cultural, religious, racial, and economic differences.

Rotary invests in peace education, develops skilled peacebuilders, strengthens partnerships, and integrates peacebuilding into humanitarian service. Rotary members also address conditions that can lead to conflict, including poverty, discrimination, ethnic tension, social exclusion, inadequate education, and unequal access to resources.

“But, we ask, must the best genius of men be devoted to the science of war and none to the science of averting it?”

— Paul Harris, founder of Rotary, writing in 1940.

Peace Is More Than the Absence of War

People often think of peace as the absence of armed conflict. Sustainable peace, however, requires more.

A peaceful community is one in which people feel safe, institutions are trusted, differences can be discussed without intimidation, basic needs are met, and people have meaningful opportunities to participate in decisions that affect their lives.

Rotary’s approach reflects the concept of Positive Peace—the attitudes, institutions, relationships, and social conditions that allow people and communities to resolve disagreements constructively and withstand future challenges.

Positive Peace may be strengthened through:

Good relationships among neighbors and community groups
Equitable access to education, health care, employment, and public services
Respect for human rights and human dignity
Reliable and accountable institutions
Freedom to exchange information and ideas
Acceptance of people from different backgrounds
Fair access to economic opportunity
Communities capable of responding to shocks and emergencies

This approach recognizes that a ceasefire may stop immediate violence, but lasting peace requires attention to the conditions that created or intensified the conflict. Rotary’s partnership with the Institute for Economics and Peace has helped members apply this broader framework to practical community projects.

Rotary Has Worked for Peace for More Than a Century

Rotary’s commitment to peace developed early in the organization’s history.

As Rotary expanded internationally, members recognized that personal relationships among people from different countries and cultures could promote goodwill and understanding. International Service became one of Rotary’s Avenues of Service, encouraging members to advance peace through friendship, cooperation, and humanitarian action.

During World War II, Rotary educated members about proposals for a new international organization that could help nations cooperate after the war. In 1945, Rotary International was one of 42 organizations invited to advise the United States delegation at the conference where the United Nations Charter was developed. Eleven people officially represented Rotary, while other Rotary members participated as delegates or advisers to their own countries.

That history continues through Rotary Peace Centers, Rotary Peace Fellowships, Foundation grants, youth exchanges, scholarships, international service partnerships, community projects, and the everyday work of members who bring people together.

February 23: Rotary’s Anniversary

February also includes the anniversary of Rotary’s founding.

On 23 February 1905, Paul Harris brought together four professionals from different backgrounds for the first Rotary club meeting in Chicago. His original idea was to create meaningful friendships among people whose professions might not otherwise have brought them together.

Within Rotary, February 23 is also widely recognized as World Understanding and Peace Day. Clubs can use the occasion to celebrate Rotary’s history while demonstrating how today’s members continue building goodwill, understanding, and peace through service.

A club might mark the day by organizing a community dialogue, international fellowship program, peace-related service activity, public presentation, youth event, or discussion of Rotary’s historic role in promoting international cooperation.

The Rotary Foundation Invests in Peacebuilders

One of Rotary’s most significant contributions to lasting peace is the Rotary Peace Centers program, supported by The Rotary Foundation.

Each year, Rotary awards as many as 170 fully funded Peace Fellowships for experienced leaders to study at one of Rotary’s eight Peace Centers. The Foundation provides up to 50 fellowships for master’s-degree studies and up to 120 for professional-development certificate programs.

The fellowships generally cover:

Tuition and university fees
Room and board
Round-trip transportation
Internship and field-study expenses
Academic instruction and applied professional learning
Access to an international network of peace and development professionals

Since the program began in 2002, Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,900 fellows from over 140 countries. Alumni work in governments, nongovernmental organizations, educational and research institutions, law enforcement, humanitarian organizations, peacebuilding agencies, and international institutions.

Peace Fellows study and apply skills involving:

Conflict analysis and transformation
Mediation and negotiation
Peace and development
Human rights
Social inclusion
Community reconciliation
Trauma-informed practice
Humanitarian response
Public policy
Environmental and economic factors affecting peace

Clubs do not need to finance a fellowship in order to recruit a candidate. They can publicize the opportunity, identify qualified professionals, refer prospective applicants, and work with the district Peace Fellowship or Rotary Foundation leadership during the application process.

Peacebuilding Through Foundation Grants

The Rotary Foundation also supports district and global grants addressing peacebuilding and conflict prevention.

A peacebuilding project might:

Train community mediators and dialogue facilitators
Strengthen youth leadership and violence-prevention programs
Help refugees and displaced families integrate into new communities
Prevent human trafficking or gender-based violence
Support trauma recovery and psychosocial services
Promote reconciliation among divided populations
Reduce social exclusion or discrimination
Develop peace education for schools and community institutions
Strengthen local organizations that prevent violence
Support research, scholarships, or vocational training related to peace
Create economic or educational opportunities in communities affected by conflict

Global grants are intended for larger international activities with sustainable and measurable outcomes. Rotary’s current grant resources include specific Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention Guidelines to help clubs determine whether a proposed project is eligible, evidence-based, community-led, and capable of producing lasting results.

Begin with Listening

Peacebuilding projects should not begin with an assumption that Rotary already knows what a community needs.

Conflict is shaped by history, identity, relationships, institutions, economic conditions, political realities, and individual experiences. An intervention that seems reasonable to an outsider may unintentionally deepen mistrust or place participants at risk.

Before developing a project, clubs should consult:

People directly affected by the conflict
Community and faith leaders
Youth and women’s organizations
Schools and universities
Refugee- and immigrant-support organizations
Mental-health and trauma professionals
Mediators and conflict-resolution practitioners
Law-enforcement and public-safety representatives
Local government agencies
Human-rights and legal-service organizations
Rotary Peace Fellows and Positive Peace Activators
The Rotary Action Group for Peace

Ask:

What are the principal sources of tension?
Who is affected, and who has been excluded from decision-making?
Which groups already have trusted relationships?
What might prevent people from participating safely?
Are there language, transportation, accessibility, or cultural barriers?
What previous efforts have succeeded or failed?
What would community members consider a meaningful result?
How will the initiative continue after Rotary’s funding or direct involvement ends?

A good community assessment identifies strengths as well as problems. Existing relationships, local leaders, cultural traditions, youth networks, schools, service organizations, and trusted institutions may provide the foundation on which peace can be built.

Conflict Prevention Begins Locally

Rotary clubs do not need to work in a war zone to contribute to peace.

Conflict can develop in families, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, civic organizations, and online communities. Political polarization, racial and religious prejudice, bullying, misinformation, economic inequality, social isolation, and distrust of institutions can divide communities long before violence occurs.

Local peacebuilding may involve:

Creating opportunities for respectful dialogue
Teaching people how to disagree without dehumanizing one another
Building relationships across cultural or religious communities
Supporting young people who are vulnerable to violence or recruitment by gangs
Addressing bullying and online harassment
Strengthening relationships between residents and public institutions
Helping immigrants and refugees participate in community life
Reducing stigma surrounding race, religion, disability, mental illness, or immigration status
Supporting people affected by domestic or community violence
Providing constructive opportunities for isolated young people
Encouraging responsible communication and media literacy

Several Rotary districts recommend community conversations, school programs, peace gardens, Peace Poles, Model United Nations activities, mediation training, youth leadership, refugee assistance, and events that bring residents together across differences.

Practice Peace Within Rotary

A Rotary club’s peacebuilding credibility begins with its own culture.

Members will sometimes disagree about projects, policies, leadership decisions, finances, social issues, or the direction of their club. Disagreement is not necessarily harmful. When handled constructively, it can reveal concerns, improve decisions, and encourage innovation.

A peacebuilding club:

Allows members to express differing perspectives respectfully
Listens before responding
Separates disagreement with an idea from judgment of a person
Avoids personal attacks, ridicule, and public humiliation
Seeks clarification rather than making assumptions
Uses fair and transparent decision-making processes
Addresses concerns before resentment becomes entrenched
Encourages participation by quieter or underrepresented members
Recognizes conflicts of interest
Uses mediation when direct discussion is unsuccessful
Protects confidentiality when appropriate
Applies The Four-Way Test first to its own conduct

Rotary clubs can model the civic behavior they hope to promote in the wider community. In a period of intense political and social polarization, the ability to maintain relationships across disagreement is itself a meaningful form of service.

Help Young People Become Peacebuilders

Young people are affected by conflict but are also capable of leading solutions.

Rotary, Rotaract, and Interact clubs can support youth peacebuilding by:

Teaching communication, mediation, and problem-solving skills
Organizing peer-mediation programs
Addressing bullying and cyberbullying
Supporting social-emotional learning
Sponsoring Model United Nations programs
Holding speech, essay, art, or video contests on peace
Organizing intercultural and interfaith conversations
Connecting students from different neighborhoods or countries
Including conflict-resolution activities in Rotary Youth Leadership Awards
Supporting youth-led community-service projects
Providing safe opportunities to discuss difficult social issues
Inviting Peace Fellows, mediators, journalists, and civic leaders to speak
Promoting Rotary Youth Exchange as a path to international understanding

Rotary Youth Exchange has long promoted tolerance and mutual understanding by allowing students and host families to experience another culture personally. Participants often describe the program as building peace “one student at a time.”

Programs involving young people should include appropriate safeguarding, trained facilitators, clear expectations, and procedures for responding when participants disclose bullying, abuse, discrimination, or threats of violence.

Support Refugees and Displaced Families

People who flee conflict often arrive in new communities after experiencing violence, loss, family separation, interrupted education, unemployment, and trauma.

They may also encounter language barriers, unfamiliar institutions, housing insecurity, discrimination, and difficulty having professional credentials recognized.

Rotary clubs can partner with experienced organizations to provide:

Food, clothing, and household necessities
Language instruction and conversation practice
School supplies and educational support
Transportation assistance
Employment mentoring and résumé preparation
Digital-literacy training
Introductions to health and social services
Legal-service referrals
Community orientation
Opportunities for friendship and social connection
Support for refugee-owned businesses
Cultural-exchange events
Trauma-informed mental-health referrals

Assistance should preserve dignity and choice. Refugees should participate in identifying priorities rather than being treated only as recipients of charity.

Rotary’s own service guidance encourages clubs to assist marginalized populations at risk of violence or persecution and to support people who have fled conflict.

Build International Understanding

International partnerships can build peace when they are based on equality, respect, transparency, and shared decision-making.

Clubs can:

Develop service partnerships with clubs in other countries
Organize virtual cultural exchanges
Participate in Rotary Friendship Exchange
Support Rotary Youth Exchange
Hold joint meetings with international clubs
Invite members to discuss their countries and cultures
Collaborate on projects addressing shared concerns
Learn about historical or cultural issues before beginning a project
Avoid stereotypes and paternalistic language
Ensure that host communities lead decisions affecting them
Recognize the professional knowledge and resources available locally

International service is strongest when participants learn from one another. The objective is not for one club to “save” another community, but for partners to combine knowledge and resources in pursuit of a shared goal.

Connect Peace with Every Area of Focus

Peacebuilding is connected with all of Rotary’s areas of focus.

Disease prevention and treatment: Conflict damages health systems, interrupts medicine supplies, displaces health workers, and makes vaccination difficult.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene: Competition over scarce or poorly managed resources can deepen community tensions. Fair and transparent access can strengthen cooperation.

Maternal and child health: Pregnant women, newborns, and children face exceptional risks during conflict and displacement.

Basic education and literacy: Schools can promote tolerance, critical thinking, media literacy, and constructive citizenship. Lack of education can increase exclusion and vulnerability.

Community economic development: Unemployment, extreme inequality, and exclusion from economic opportunity can contribute to instability.

Protecting the environment: Environmental degradation, climate pressures, and competition over land or water can intensify conflict.

Rotary’s peacebuilding approach therefore encourages clubs to consider how every humanitarian project affects relationships, inclusion, fairness, and community resilience.

Sunshine Rotary in Action

The Rotary E-Club of Sunshine, New York, has already undertaken activities that reflect important elements of peacebuilding.

These initiatives were not necessarily designed or described as formal peacebuilding projects. Nevertheless, they demonstrate how humanitarian service can address the consequences and underlying causes of conflict.

Welcoming Families Displaced by Conflict

Sunshine Rotary partnered with the Rotary Club of Westchester, New York, on a food and clothing distribution program in Poughkeepsie.

More than 50 people received home-cooked meals, groceries, and clothing. Many of the participants were Afghan refugees living in temporary or transitional housing. Club volunteers responded not only to material needs but also offered warmth, personal attention, and a sense of welcome to people rebuilding their lives in a new country.

This project illustrates how peacebuilding can begin with dignity and inclusion. Providing food or clothing does not resolve the conflict that displaced a family, but compassionate assistance can reduce isolation, help people regain stability, and create relationships between newcomers and the wider community.

Future refugee-support projects could add language practice, employment mentoring, school support, community orientation, professional networking, and opportunities for refugees to help design and lead the activities.

Responding Across Borders

Following the devastating earthquakes affecting Türkiye and Syria, the Club established a fundraiser directing contributions to The Rotary Foundation’s Disaster Response Fund.

Supporting people on both sides of national and cultural boundaries reflected Rotary’s humanitarian principle that need—not nationality, religion, or politics—should guide service.

Disaster response can also contribute to peace when assistance is delivered fairly, community organizations cooperate, and vulnerable groups are not excluded from relief and recovery.

Educating the Public About Rotary and Peace

The Sunshine website has featured the story of Rotary’s involvement in the formation of the United Nations.

The article explains how Rotary educated its members about plans for postwar international cooperation and how Rotary representatives served as consultants during the 1945 San Francisco conference. Sharing this history reminds members and the public that Rotary’s commitment to peace is not new or merely symbolic.

Public education is itself a useful peacebuilding activity. Clubs can help people understand international institutions, examine different perspectives, distinguish reliable information from misinformation, and appreciate the long-term value of cooperation.

Building Peace Through Service

The Club’s Facebook page has also shared Rotary’s message that every act of service has the potential to contribute to a more peaceful world—but that peacebuilding must be deliberate and strategic. It has encouraged followers to help fulfill Rotary’s promise to build peace through service and to consider planning a peacebuilding project.

This provides a strong foundation for the Club’s next step: moving from general awareness to a clearly defined initiative with community partners, measurable objectives, and sustained follow-up.

Possible Next Steps for Sunshine Rotary

Building on its existing service, the Club could:

Invite a Rotary Peace Fellow or Positive Peace Activator to speak at an online meeting.
Hold a facilitated conversation on reducing polarization within families and communities.
Partner with a refugee-support organization on employment, language, or mentoring needs.
Recruit and refer a qualified Rotary Peace Fellowship candidate.
Organize an online cultural-exchange meeting with an international Rotary or Rotaract club.
Sponsor a youth essay, speech, art, or video project on building peace locally.
Add conflict-awareness and inclusion questions to community assessments for future projects.
Host a program on Rotary’s history with the United Nations.
Support a domestic-violence, anti-trafficking, or community-violence-prevention organization.
Conduct a Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention project assessment with local community leaders.
Explore a district or global grant supporting refugee integration, youth mediation, or peace education.
Invite Club members to complete Positive Peace learning and share what they learned.

One carefully designed initiative, continued beyond February, would provide more lasting value than several unrelated one-day activities.

Work with Qualified Partners

Peacebuilding can involve sensitive histories, trauma, power imbalances, legal concerns, and risks to participants. Clubs should recognize when professional expertise is necessary.

Potential partners include:

Rotary Peace Fellows
Positive Peace Activators
The Rotary Action Group for Peace
Mediators and conflict-resolution professionals
Schools and universities
Refugee- and immigrant-support organizations
Human-rights and legal-service organizations
Domestic-violence and family-safety organizations
Mental-health and trauma specialists
Youth-development organizations
Faith and interfaith councils
Community policing and violence-interruption programs
Libraries and civic organizations
Local government human-rights or community-relations offices
The Rotary Foundation’s Cadre of Technical Advisers

Rotary Action Groups can provide technical guidance, identify partners, assist with project planning, and help clubs develop stronger district- and global-grant proposals.

Use Language Carefully

Words can either strengthen dignity or deepen division.

Peacebuilding communications should avoid:

Describing entire populations as helpless or violent
Assigning collective blame
Repeating unverified claims
Using photographs of vulnerable people without appropriate permission
Presenting one political interpretation as an uncontested fact
Speaking for affected communities without consulting them
Treating trauma as a fundraising device
Portraying Rotary members as rescuers
Promising outcomes that a project cannot realistically deliver

Instead, communications should emphasize shared humanity, community leadership, verified information, partnership, dignity, resilience, and measurable change.

Measure More Than Participation

Counting attendees, workshops, food packages, or social-media impressions describes activity. Peacebuilding evaluation must also examine whether relationships, knowledge, behavior, and community capacity changed.

Depending on the project, clubs might measure:

Participants completing mediation or dialogue training
Increased knowledge of constructive conflict-management methods
Participants reporting greater trust in other community groups
Disputes resolved without escalation
Young people trained as peer mediators
Refugees obtaining employment, education, or needed services
Community organizations establishing new partnerships
Increased participation by previously excluded groups
Improvements in perceptions of safety or belonging
Reduced incidents of bullying, harassment, or violence
Peace Fellowship candidates recruited and referred
Local leaders continuing the program after Rotary’s involvement ends

Some results may take time to become visible. Clubs should establish baseline information, agree on realistic indicators with project partners, protect participant confidentiality, and evaluate both intended and unintended effects.

Take Action This February

Peace is not created only by diplomats, governments, or international institutions. It is also built by ordinary people who choose understanding over suspicion, dialogue over hostility, fairness over exclusion, and service over indifference.

This February, let us examine the divisions within our own communities, listen to people whose experiences differ from ours, support those affected by conflict, and use Rotary’s network to create relationships capable of withstanding disagreement.

Whether your club welcomes a refugee family, trains young mediators, recruits a Peace Fellow, organizes an intercultural conversation, supports survivors of violence, or develops a Foundation-funded initiative, every thoughtful action can help create the conditions in which peace becomes possible.

What will your club do to build peace?

Share your club’s peacebuilding activities, partnerships, results, and photographs with the Rotary E-Club of Sunshine, New York. By telling these stories responsibly, we can inspire other members, recognize our partners, and demonstrate how People of Action create lasting change through understanding, dignity, and service.

Rotary Resources

Rotary International — Promoting Peace
Rotary Peace Fellowships and Peace Centers
Recruiting Rotary Peace Fellowship candidates
Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention global-grant resources
Rotary Foundation grants
Rotary Action Groups
Rotary’s history with the United Nations
Positive Peace and community peacebuilding