Simon is presently employed as a Detective within the Victoria Police, (Australia). He currently works in the Security Intelligence Group, which investigates Political, Religious and Ideological Violence which includes threats of terrorism. During his 20 year career with Victoria Police, Simon has also served in various Crime Investigation Units, the Homicide, Sexual Crimes and Fraud Squads and has worked as a policeman in both city and rural areas. Simon holds a Diploma of Security Risk Management and is presently studying a Bachelor of Arts, (African Studies). He has traveled extensively throughout South East Asia and, when not at work, enjoys photography, kayaking, keeping fit and quality time with his wife.

Name : ANKUR BHARALI (INDIA)

He completed his Post Graduation from the University of Delhi and served as a Lecturer in Mathematics for two years at Sivasagar. While working as a Lecturer he felt that he had a very strong urge to do something for the prevailing unrest in the society for which a job in the Civil Service was a better option. So he appeared for the Civil Services and got selected.

His profession presents variety of conflict situations ranging from calming down agitated crowd to rehabilitation of traumatized villagers affected by militant activities. For him life is full of events and each day is a new experience. But events that makes them mature and teaches lessons are significant events.

In January, 2007 six persons were gunned down by ULFA in a Chapori,(small river island) having about 500 households which was under his jurisdiction and he was sent there along with one platoon of Central Reserve Police Force to take control over the situation and also to assure the traumatized people about their safety and security. He reached the Chapori in the evening after traveling for more than three hours on a boat. All the bodies were lying on the river bank and the villagers refused to accept the bodies and demanded that the District Magistrate should come to hear their grievances. The next morning there was a sudden change in their demand; the villagers demanded arrogantly that they should be allowed to take the bodies all the way to the headquarters to take out a funeral procession. He continuously tried to persuade them to give up their demand. The situation further worsened when some people tried to extract political mileage out of it. Finally, he managed to tackle the situation and left the Chapori after staying there for three nights.

In October, 2006 a five year old boy accidentally got killed in a shoot out between security personnel and ULFA in a remote village bordering Arunachal Pradesh. He have been sent there on Law and Order duty. About 3000 villagers came out in protest against the killing, blocked the road and refused to receive the body of the child when police tried to hand it over after post mortem examination. He persuaded the agitated crowd, who were without any leader single handedly.

As this service has exposed me to various conflict situations, the Rotary Peace and Conflict Studies Program will definitely give him an opportunity for professional development. The entire course curriculum he is confidant that, if selected, this program will directly benefit me in solving problems and handling conflict situations in the community and the part of the world he is working in.

As far as his service life is concerned, he takes personal initiatives for creating better infrastructure for his sub-ordinates so that they enjoy their work, which in turn makes an attitudinal change in their mindset. He always works with a positive bend of mind for which he enjoy his work and get satisfaction out of it, although the nature of his job is full of stress and strain.

His hobbies include playing Lawn Tennis, Badminton & Table Tennis; singing; acting and recitation. He has also acted as a resource person in few career counseling workshops organized by clubs/NGOs.

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Fatoumata Fofana was born in the city of Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, Liberia. Her family lived in that part of the country for several years prior to the onset of the Liberian civil war which began on December 24, 1989. As a result of the war, her family fled in 1990 to Abidjan, Ivory Coast; where she started her early education in 1993, at the age of nine.

A year later, she went for further studies in the Ghanaian coastal city of Cape Coast, in West Africa. In Cape Coast, she enrolled at the University Practice Secondary School (UPSS), where she did her junior and senior secondary studies completing the A Levels and a West African Examinations Council (WAEC) certificate in August of 2003.

Leaving her family based in Abidjan, she returned to her home country, Liberia, with the aim of seeking personal and professional advancement. She took computer training courses to enhance her academic achievements and soon landed a job at a local newspaper, the New National. She had made up her mind to not just sit aside without doing something to help develop her country. She wanted to do something positive to promote peace and harmony. She, therefore, decided to accomplish this aim through the media, thus, thought of becoming a reporter and uses her reportage to highlight the triumph and the setbacks of the ongoing development activities in the country.

She is now a practicing Liberian journalist with a keen interest in advocacy for women's rights, professional advancement and empowerment as a cardinal tool to peace and societal growth and development.

She has made it a point, through her work, to promote unity across gender lines as Liberia gradually recovers from decades of civil conflict. Keeping in mind that determination today leads to success tomorrow; she is determined to promote peace from the most basic unit of society - the family - to the national level through her reportage. She believes this is what Liberians need to make Liberia a post-conflict success story that can be used as a case study for other war-ravaged nations to follow.

She is currently a senior political reporter for the nation's first independent daily, the Daily Observer newspaper which is also widely read on the World Wide Web. Here, she covers Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sir leaf, state-visits by foreign heads of state, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also serve as editor of the paper's Women and Family Page, which underscores the vital role of women in peace building, and advocates for women's advancement, empowerment and participation in decision-making at all levels of society.

As a journalist, she is also using experiences, her level of access, contact privileges and information outlet to help fill a void that would otherwise lead to destabilizing an already fragile peace process.

Lastly, she is a Bachelor's degree candidate at the United Methodist University in Monrovia.

Name : FRANCOIS KABONGO ( DR CONGO )

Mr. Francois Kabongo graduated in English language teaching at National University of Congo. He had been teaching in several secondary schools of the country for several years. As a Teacher of English as a second language, this career remained not only his reason of living but also his hobby.

He is a holder of other academic titles such as in Advanced Logistics, course by correspondence and has another two years education degree in French and African Linguistics, so, he is a bilingual teacher.

Very fond of his teaching career (even though it is not a remunerative job in his country), he had a big challenge to leave it suddenly and join the United Nations Mission in the Congo, where he is evaluating now.

First recruited as an English speaking/interpreter driver at the advent of the UN Mission in his country, he displayed as much as possible his abilities and devotion as an educated person, which led him to several appointments within the system. Responsible for transport department first, he was in charge of organizing the transport cartage, assigning tasks to drivers for pick up/drop off of all staff, secondly, he became interested in administration in the Department of Logistics. After his certified training in Logistics, he was then appointed at the post of Logistics Operations Assistant where he serves the mission up to date.

Father of three boys and two girls, his hobbies are riding with his family during the week ends, reading novels, theater and music, and having a glass of wine with friends by the tender evening is not excluded.

Name : SANAKORN MANMUANG ( THAILAND )

Pol.Lt.Col. Sanakorn Manmuang as Police Instructor , Police Central Training Center from Royal Thai Police. He holds a B.A. degree in Public Administration ( Police Science ) from Police Cadet Academy ,M.A. degree in Public Administration from National Institute Development Administration, Bangkok and also a 2nd Ph.D. candidate in Political Science In Ramkhamhaeng University, Thailand.

In additional he also has more training with Special training anti-terrorism course. The police leadership who got the first award in Anti-Drug war in Phuket 2003, Security Service Team in residence area, President George W.Bush in APEC, Bangkok, Thailand 2003

For 11 years from his experience involved in peace building and conflict resolution many cases. He ever worked as an inquiry officer who mediates the conflict such as in people cases, criminal cases, and drug cases of Thailand.

In addition, He have also worked as a suppression officer who prevent conflict and solve the problems by using the conflict resolution process in upper south of Thailand .He beleive that the body of knowledge conflict and peace is used by policeman who understand and apply this knowledge , the peacefulness will come to the society.

Name : MOHAMMAD AREF NOORZAI ( AFGHANISTAN )

Mohammad Aref Noorzai is from Afghanistan and lives in the southeastern part of the country – Herat. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Herat University. He is married and has a five year old son. He has more than eight years experience teaching English to both undergraduate students and university professors. After graduating from the two year Institute for Leadership Development, an American post graduate education center, He became an instructor at the institute. It is here, that he has found a way to have the greatest impact on the future of Afghanistan. Having the respect from his culture because of his education and field of studies, He is able to teach at the Institute for Leadership Development to train current and future leaders of his society. His classes are comprised of United Nation leaders, human rights leaders, development leaders, social workers, medical doctors, NGO leaders, civil society leaders and professors. He also teaches courses to the current government leaders. They are a highly respected institute in the community and the government, and have graduated four Fulbrights. Here, impacting the current generation of leaders and the future generation of leaders, it is his hope to develop leaders who can sustain a lasting peace in his beloved country.

Name : Sorawit Sangsuwan ( Thailand )

Sorawit Sangsuwan was born in Chiangrai province which is the northern province of Thailand. In the year 1998, he moved to Bangkok in order to study for a Bachelor’s degree at Thammasat University, one of the best universities in Thailand. He majored in finance economics and development economics.

When he was in 1st year, he was selected by the faculty of Economics to be one of the representatives to compete in the Thammasat Debate Contest 1998. At that time, around 16 faculties joined in this competition. Finally, his faculty won against all the others and
his economics team got the 1st award of debate contest 1998. He was so proud that he discovered the skill within himself that is the skill of persuasion by speaking.

When he finished the 1st year, he got a chance to be a monk for 2 months. He had a great opportunity to study the Lord Buddha’s Teaching and to practice meditation in the right method. Both Lord Buddha’s Teaching and Practicing Meditation have broaden his outlook on life, cherished his heart and spirit. He has touched the inner peace that always lies within himself. He thinks towards the world peace for global family. They have to initiate inner peace within themselves first and then spread it out to others.

When he was in the 4th year, he got a good chance to be a Thai Youth Representative to attend the 2nd International Youth Leadership Conference during June 24- June 29, 2001 in Prague, Czech Republic. This conference gathered many active youths around the world, approximately 150 youths from 55 countries. This has broadened his attitude more towards living with people from different cultures, races and beliefs. He has found that they can live with each other in peacefulness even though they are different. He has found sincerity and friendship can overcome any barriers.

After graduation in 2002, he received an ASEAN-Japan Scholarship to be one of the Thai Youth Representatives to attend the Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program in 2002. He has met many good friends among 10 ASEAN Countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and Japan. Approximately 340 youths joined this program. They did many activities together both in the big ship and also when they were on the lands of each particular country. This SSEAYP (Ship For Southeast Asian Youth Program) lasted for 2 months. After that, they built a strong network among ASEAN-Japan youths. They have continued to keep in touch with one another and of course, they have much mutual understanding to each other which can finally lead to world peace.

After SSEAYP, he got a chance to be an English & Mathematics teacher at Eureka Institute which is one of the most popular private institutes in Bangkok, he has found that he has the skill of teaching. He loves to be a teacher and loves to see his students laugh, smile and progress in their lives.

In 2004, he continued to study for a Master’s degree at Thammasat University. He chose to study in Political Science with a major in international relations (international program). He had a very precious time to broaden his academic knowledge towards
international relations. He was one of the outstanding students in international relations, Faculty of Political Science. Moreover, when he has free time, he usually writes the academic essays to compete in the national level and fortunately he has got many essay awards. Finally, he has found that he has got the skill of writing as well.

When he was about to graduate Master’s Degree, He passed the examination of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be a Thai Diplomat (Government Official). He has learnt
many good experiences both inside and outside Thailand. Moreover, he was one of the diplomats who involved in Sixtieth Anniversary Celebrations of His Majesty's Accession to the Throne, Bangkok (June 8-13, 2006). He had worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 1 year and decided to quit because it didn’t suit his attitude.

After quitting his job as a diplomat in 2007, he had a good chance to be a monk again. This time he had been a monk for 6 months. At that time, he had learnt Lord Buddha’s teaching in dept and he had practiced meditation everyday. This experience has made him understand inner peace and he really wants to spread out the inner peace for everyone on Earth.

Nowadays, he is a peace instructor at Mae Fah Luang University which located in Chiangrai province (the northern of Thailand). He has created networks of Peace throughout GMS (Greater Mekong Sub-Region) in Southern China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. He hopes that through the Rotary Scholarship to study Peace and Conflict management at Chulalongkorn University, he will have more academic knowledge and networks to create the peace in Greater Mekong Sub-Region. Finally, he can have the connection with Rotary Club International to build mutual understanding and create activities to bring peacefulness into his community and others.

Name : MOHAMMAD SHAFQAT ( PAKISTAN )

Muhammad Ayaz Shafqat was born in Kashmir. He is presently performing as Program Officer Monitoring and Communications in Kashmir Development foundation (KDF), a non-profit organization where the ultimate goal is a democratic, peaceful, environmentally friendly, socially viable and economically sustainable society. His IT Advance Diploma in Computer Studies facilitated him to remain up to mark with the styles of contemporary age. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir where History was in his major interests. His Masters in English Literature & Language is from National University of Modern Languages Islamabad where he won 25% scholarship due to the victim of October 08, 2005 Earthquake in Kashmir.

He participated in 1st International Conference on American Literature which endeavors to correlate literature with life and its psychology. He explored the methodologies of language teaching in English Language Teaching (ELT) Conference. He successfully endowed in Child centered and interactive Teaching methodologies, a project of “USAID” jointly ventured with Child Resource International (CRI) and Federal Directorate of Education Islamabad. He also served in different media channels in the field of reporting and editing. He also performed as a Translator and Liaison. Writing articles and reports is also part of his life. His early practice as a Volunteer with KDF and other associated organizations in various projects brighten his thinking about the ways of life.

A change in his life occurred when he was serving voluntarily in the reconstruction and rehabilitation activities for earthquake victims. In the perplexing situation very first time he observed unnatural attitude which further expand the sphere of his meditation. He nourished in the environment where injustice and crucial local, national or international issues were widespread and further in this state of affairs, the bitter violation of human rights forced him to effort for peace and conflict resolution. In his life he has a strong wish to see whole of Kashmir, a peaceful place for World with a developing Nation.

Name : WENDY STERNBERG ( USA )

In 1999, during a self-expression and leadership program, Wendy Sternberg posed the question, “Can the arts transcend politics and religious strife today as they have throughout the world, since time immemorial?” She pursued the inquiry further, “Can cross-cultural artistic collaboration serve as a catalyst for inter-ethnic dialogue and global understanding?” Genesis at the Crossroads (GATC,) the non-governmental organization she created nine years ago, and has since directed, took shape out of these very questions, with a mission to use the arts to bridge cultures in conflict and to create and
implement innovative arts-education and humanitarian programs worldwide. Through GATC, she brings together ethnic artists to create, perform and bring to fruition new instrumental and vocal music, dance, performance art, documentary film, literary, and visual works of art. The organization’s programs and events likewise unite ethnically diverse audiences, educators and students as they discover their artistic self-expression and celebrate their varied cultures. Through GATC’s premise, she encourages similar interaction across many ethnic communities, setting an example of collaborative spirit
through the dismantling of cultural barriers.

Nine years since its inception, under her visionary leadership, Genesis at the Crossroads
has created and produced over 100 cross-cultural collaborative programs, three nationally
touring concerts of Arab and Jewish musicians, (three at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC ) as well as our Israeli-Palestinian, Gesher-Jisr, Building Bridges performance, which was featured at the United Nations’ 60th Anniversary Celebration. In 2007, she founded the Genesis World Music Ensemble, Saffron Caravan whose eight diverse members come from Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, Morocco and the United States tpo collaboratively create new art and model arts diplomacy and cultural bridges for other disciplines to follow. Currently in the midst of an 18-city world tour, Saffron Caravan musicians explore both the sacred and mystical traditions in Arab and Jewish music, poetic influences, and ethnic African Sufi, Gnaoua and Rai music, infused with the sub-Saharan roots of blues and jazz alongside Latin rhythms. The ensemble integrates local ethnic musicians into our repertoire and preserves/shares these collaborations through international radio broadcast series. Following the Chicago, Kennedy Center and Casablanca debuts, Saffron Caravan’s tour continues in Egypt and Jordan in July 2009 and Australia for the Parliament of World Religions’ World Congress and Sacred Music Festival in December 2009. To further the influence of this work and sustain its long-term impact, Genesis at the Crossroads will “marry” innovative master class and roundtable arts-education programs with this worldwide performance series. Future performance destinations include Israel and other parts of the Middle East and Africa, Europe, and North & South America. A champion for reaching remote corners of the world as well as mainstream audiences, she engaged a number of prestigious film houses to follow Saffron Caravan on their world tour and fashion a human-interest documentary about how cross-cultural dialogue and exchange alters artists’ viewpoints, their individual work, and especially, their families and communities at large.

The creative engine behind GATC’s programs, Sternberg developed an array of arts-education programs to change the face of diversity education worldwide and benefit future
student artists and world leaders that we desperately need to educate to transform our challenged world. Her Art of Peace public school curriculum explores personal and cultural
identity through ethnic music and storytelling with educational models promoting academic
excellence, while fostering cultural awareness. After 14 Chicago and LA sites, she continues, the One Peace at a Time children’s humanitarian peace quilt project indefinitely. (At Chicago Children’s Museum & LA’s Museum of Tolerance.) Arm Them with
Instruments, GATC’s humanitarian instrument donation companion program links American students possessing idle instruments to children in disadvantaged Middle Eastern and North African communities who have precious little arts programming. GATC’s partner organizations in Morocco, Egypt and Jordan donate free music lessons to beneficiaries of this program. (Potential sites in Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Tehran are currently in development stages.) GATC is pairing Rotary Clubs worldwide to facilitate our distribution effort along with WFMT. GATC’s aid in the renovation of the Casablanca Conservatory including cross-cultural music exchanges, benefits all participating communities.

As GATC’s Founder & Executive Director, she has not only been a frequent guest on WBEZ/NPR, but also has been featured on CBS News, ABC 7, the BBC, Al-Jazeera TV & Radio, 98.7 WFMT, and UN Radio. She and GATC have been the subject of numerous articles in Chicago Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Time Out Chicago, The Reader, The Chicago Sun Times, The LA Times, The Washington Post, as well as the Associated Press
and the US State Department’s articles the latter of which were distributed globally. Among her many accolades, she was named Finalist for the Fourth Annual Susan F. Berkowitz Award for Teaching Tolerance to Children and was featured in Today’s Chicago Woman Magazine as a “Woman to Watch.” She was also nominated for Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 Award and featured in a cover story by Chicago Jewish News as one of the “10 Jewish Chicagoans of the Year.” She presented GATC to the 2007 National US Conference of Children’s Museums’ Diversity in Action Showcase, (Chicago,) to Consul Generals, Mayors, university deans & students, architects and the media (Casablanca, Morocco) and also to members of Congress, DC-based interest groups, and the media at the 2007 Alliance for Middle East Peace Conference on Capitol Hill. She is the recipient of the 2007 Publicity Club of Chicago’s Silver Trumpet Award in Issues Management. and the Wilmette Rotary Club 2008 Frankel Award for fostering cross-cultural understanding worldwide. Rotary International recently named her a Paul Harris Fellow. She is thrilled to participate in the Rotary International Peace and Conflict Studies program at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. Combining her experience in medicine with the arts, she recently created a multi-disciplinary Healing through the Arts program for Genesis to be presented in a rare format with a CBS Anchorman’s documentary film on post-traumatic stress disorder. This program aims to impact journalists in war-torn areas and military personnel returning from the frontlines, both of whom face re-integration into our society following atrocities they cannot help but internalize.

Her personal and professional life has always been a rich tapestry of cross-cultural experiences. She earned both a Bachelor’s Degree in French literature with a semester abroad in Paris, and a Doctor of Medicine Degree at University of Pennsylvania. With
international educational grants and foundation support over the years, she studied Hebrew, led a Project Renewal Program for children in an Israeli North-African resettlement community and extended her medical studies to include Third World pediatrics in India. Among her many hobbies, she has Israeli folk danced for 18 years and hiked all over the world. She profoundly believes the arts reach the common core of our human spirit in many ways, find connections between diverse people and link us all for the greater good of humankind. On this note, Wendy will retire from her 14-year career in private-practice Internal Medicine and leave her Teaching Faculty position at Northwestern University Medical School at the close of 2008 to pursue further visionary growth and international development of Genesis at the Crossroads on a full-time basis.

Just recently, an NGO colleague broke into a smile as he referred to her a Doctor without
Borders.

Name : MANOLIN THEPKHAMVONG ( LAOS )

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