Our guest speaker this week was Bianca Neff, Founder & CEO, Petra Peacebuilders. Bianca has been interested in peacebuilding all of her life. She has dual citizenship in the US and Spain, was educated at the Bradford, UK Peace Center in conflict resolution and is a certified Coach Humanitarian. She is now based in Spain which gives her convenient logistical access to the areas where she works most of the time.
Rotary International Peace Centers in the US (Duke University), Sweden, UK, Uganda, Japan, Thailand, and Australia. 1300 Peace Fellows have been fully funded since 2002 by the Rotary International Foundation. Bianca noted that global peacebuilding relies on a system that promotes the resilience of peacebuilders. The focus is on resolving mental health issues that are derived from trauma. To build peace, an organization need resilient people. These people need to be able to care for themselves mentally and emotionally. Many operate in countries that have been at war for decades and generations. Many are impoverished. Many have suffered the trauma of bombs and sexualized violence. Her organization sponsors “Resilience Retreats” for the peacebuilders. Interestingly, Bianca does most of her work remotely, sometimes through apps like zoom, but often via chat rooms that rely on typed responses. Her focus is on working with individuals rather than organizations. In response to the question, “Why did you get into this field?”, Bianca told us that her mother comes from the Basque region of Spain, where conflict has reigned for decades. It was a natural affinity. Bianca spoke very highly of the Rotarian organization, its support and outreach throughout the world.