Friends,
What's happening with the International Fellowship of Reconciliation? Come hear Francesco Candelari, the new IFOR coordinator, visiting Minnesota from Alkmaar, Netherlands.
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Francesco Candelari, at left, with outgoing FOR-USA executive director Mark Johnson.
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International FOR coordinator Francesco Candelari speaks
TOMORROW, Tuesday, July 2, 7:00 PM
3517 East 26th Street, Minneapolis
Get directions to this event.
Please RSVP with name and contact info to Dave Gagne, (612) 325-8860, or dgagne52@earthlink.net.
The International Fellowship of Reconciliation is at a crossroads. After almost 100 years of commitment to peace and nonviolence, IFOR is now projecting itself into its second century, trying to understand how to make the values we stand for a reality. During the last year, along with the International Committee, Francesco worked extremely hard to set the ground for IFOR to flourish solidly and for all its members to benefit from a strong international network.
IFOR invested in youth and in creating the basis for a new generation of leaders committed to peace and nonviolence. It started an International Fellowship School for its young members all over the world. IFOR invested in international visibility, creating a new mechanism of effective representation at the U.N. in New York, Geneva, and Vienna and at E.U. institutions in Brussels.
IFOR also started to directly engage in reconciliation efforts in hot spots around the world, participating in peace missions from Myanmar to Syria.
Prior to working at IFOR, Francesco spent a year with one of the biggest nongovernmental organizations inspired by the work of Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave, ASSEFA. From 2008 to 2011, he was part of the human rights working group within the UN Counter Terrorism Task Force. He was then appointed program manager in the newly opened office for dialogue and innovation in order to study nonviolent ways to transform extremist initiatives in the Middle East.
When the series of upraising started in the Middle East, Francesco left the UN and spent six months in Egypt, Tunisia and Lybia to tell stories from the Arab Spring, building contacts with the youth in those countries and studying opportunities for nonviolent change live. Today, he continues to be a UN consultant on intercultural and interreligious dialogue in the Mediterranean.
Join Francesco to learn about IFOR’s continuing work, and how FOR members and supporters in the United States can be a part of it!
Sponsored by Minnesota FOR and Fellowship of Reconciliation USA. |
