The Otto and Fran Walter Foundation has pledged $15.5 million to The Rotary Foundation to start a Rotary Peace Center in the Middle East or North Africa.
The new center will offer a professional development certificate program focused on peacebuilding and development issues in the region. This generous gift from the Walter Foundation, which is based in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, USA, will fund the center’s startup costs and operating expenses, as well as an endowment that will provide peace fellowships in perpetuity for up to 40 students to study there each year.
“Rotary has, for a long time, looked at how we can make a tangible contribution to the one area of the world where the element of peace has seemed so elusive,” says Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair K.R. Ravindran. “Now that opportunity has come our way, thanks to the immense generosity of the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation. We will take full advantage to create a center where we can inspire our peace fellows to give flight to their spirit and equip them to be able to support action that will bring about peace and goodwill in a troubled region.”
The Rotary Foundation will select a partner institution to host the Otto and Fran Walter Rotary Peace Center in 2024, and the first Rotary Peace Fellows are expected to start studying there in January 2026.
The Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,400 fellows who now work in more than 115 countries.
Read more about Otto Walter and his accomplishments.