Peace Scholar Update
Posted by Janny Jinor
PEACE FELLOW IMPACTS VETS AND MORE
I am glad to touch base with my sponsoring Rotary Club, District 7090 Clarence Rotary to give just a brief recap on my journey post class 13 graduation to date. As always, I will never fail to grab the occasion to express my gratitude for the lifetime opportunity accorded me to participate in the Rotary Peace Program by District 7090. My participation and graduation from this program has set me apart in many more ways than one. I will share a few with you:...
Being trained as a Peace Fellow has always given me that extra edge needed to promote peace wherever I serve. As you may already know, I worked with the Wounded Warrior Battalion of the naval hospital in Camp Lejeune post-graduation from the Rotary Peace Program. I worked there as a psychotherapist for returning marines until about 5 months ago. I had the single most interesting opportunity to be the therapist of choice for long serving marines whose problems were not only post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but problems resulting from difficulties with resolving conflicts. I had the opportunity to help some of the finest veterans develop a conflict resolution hierarchy which gave them the framework to manage conflict and prevent the escalation thereof. It is thanks to the Rotary Peace Fellowship training that my patients could benefit in the form of learning this skill, which for them translated into more peaceful relations both at home, at work, and in their communities.
In 2014, I was invited to teach trauma and self-care at the Rotary Peace Program at Chulalongkorn University, where I graduated as a peace fellow in 2012. I humbly welcomed this opportunity to give back. 
There are no words to explain the feeling of having first been a student and now an instructor for the Rotary Peace Program. In a way I start to feel as though it was a calling. Had Rotarian Bob Artis not pressed as hard as he did, I would have missed the opportunity to learn and be adept to fill the gaps that I have been able to fill for my patients, students and my fellow-man. Memories from when I was presented with the opportunity to participate as a student are best captured by the words of my persistent recruiter Mr. Artis thus; “As I remember, this all started in 2011 - 12, from your humble beginnings as a reluctant candidate to apply for a Peace Scholar Fellowship with Clarence as your sponsor. After wrangling over non-issues you completed the application just before the deadline and DG John Heise was literally on the run :-) signed your application just before the deadline.”
There are no words to explain the feeling of having first been a student and now an instructor for the Rotary Peace Program. In a way I start to feel as though it was a calling. Had Rotarian Bob Artis not pressed as hard as he did, I would have missed the opportunity to learn and be adept to fill the gaps that I have been able to fill for my patients, students and my fellow-man. Memories from when I was presented with the opportunity to participate as a student are best captured by the words of my persistent recruiter Mr. Artis thus; “As I remember, this all started in 2011 - 12, from your humble beginnings as a reluctant candidate to apply for a Peace Scholar Fellowship with Clarence as your sponsor. After wrangling over non-issues you completed the application just before the deadline and DG John Heise was literally on the run :-) signed your application just before the deadline.”I had just returned from a gruesome one year research assignment with Johns Hopkins University in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at which point I felt like I just wanted to do nothing for a loooooong time, although my experience in Congo, and seeing the devastation of war clearly called for doing more moving forward. It was on the idea that there is desperation for continual contribution to peace work that I stopped “wrangling” with Mr. Artis and “reluctantly” completed the application to be a Peace Fellow. The deadline was so close that I did not believe that my application would be approved. However, it was all hands on deck and here we are today.
In relation to how great my time in the program was, that much I had shared with you in an end of program report. I must not have told you then, but looking in hindsight now, my time in Bangkok as a Peace Fellow, in the midst of other Peace Fellows, the staff and teachers provided me with part of the healing that I needed from my time in the Congo, and hopes that world peace and conflict resolution is a cause worth pursuing.
To date, not only have I continued to teach trauma and self-care in the Rotary Peace Program after my first invitation in 2014, I was chosen by a former affiliate of the program who invited me to teach stress management and its impact on learning outcomes to a group of masters students at the Behavioral Science Research Institute of Srinakharinwirot University.
My goal moving forward is to be able to travel and retain lecturing assignments related to stress management, trauma and self-care, which are, as I have found, so desperately needed for peace workers and, as matter of fact, needed in every area and field of life. Without being able to take care of ourselves as peace workers, we burn out pretty quickly and thus leaving us with little or nothing to give in the form of care.
I attach some pictures from my last class at Srinakharinwirot University and some pictures with my students from the Rotary Peace Program.
Lastly but certainly not least, I am deeply grateful to the Rotary Club of Clarence for my application submission and to District 7090 for my sponsorship. End of my post Peace Scholar report and I’ll do my best to keep you informed.