Being a Fellow, Another Opportunity for Peace Building (A perspective on #IEW2014 from Atlas Corps Fellow, Angela Betancur, serving at Latin American Youth Center. To learn more about Atlas Corps, visit atlascorps.org.) One of my most favorite things in life are cultural exchanges, and always, I confess, always I feel very curious about the brave and courageous people who pursue their dreams. I want to mention especially the people who dream about traveling around the world, leaving everything for achieving that goal. However, that is not the point. What I really want to bring up here are the words that I heard from a family (a father, a mother, and four kids) that have been traveling for more than ten years around the world, even, all the four children had been born in four different countries. Since they have kept moving every day, the kids haven’t gone to school, at least not to regular schools, but their mom is a teacher and gives them some lessons in the everyday life. OK, what really matters are the lessons that the children have learned about peace. The mother said something like, ” they (the children) don’t understand how war can be in the world, since they have been in many places, and everybody is so nice and kind.” Now, I will leave this story to you, and I will write why I started this blog post with it. It has been two months since I started my Fellowship. When I look back, I remember that since my first day here, I have met many people, from many countries. My first impression was, “how nice they are”, and now, two months later, I have hanged out with many of them, and with more convictions, I can say that they are nicer than I thought they were. No matter their origins, skin colors, or languages, they are noble, kind, and caring; so the wise words of that mother came to me, and I realized through my own experience the words are true. Media have shown me some “bad” things about my friends countries, but now, I just can’t confirm that. Instead, I have many positive ideas. Going deeper with my reflection, I went to the Atlas Corps mission: To address critical social issues, Atlas Corps develops leaders, strengthens organizations and promotes innovation through an overseas fellowship of skilled professionals. I really think the final purpose of addressing social issues is having better societies with more equalities and human rights. That is for me, getting closer to peace. To summarize, not just by collaborating with our Host Organizations, but also by sharing with other Fellows, we are building peace.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 19:17:00 +0000
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