Tamim Mohammed Ebrahimi

For those of you that are new to our club, or new to Rotary in general, I wanted to give you a little background on Rotary Peace Fellowships. The Rotary Peace Fellowship is designed for leaders with work experience in peace and development. Our fellows are committed to community and international service and the pursuit of peace. Each year, The Rotary Foundation awards up to 50 fellowships for master’s degrees and up to 80 for certificate studies at premier universities. (Reference:  www.rotary.org). Below is Tamim Mohammed Ebrahimi’s story provided by Carol Fellows.

For Tamim Mohammed Ebrahimi, peacebuilding is a personal spiritual practice, a vocation, and his chosen career. He says the passive youth in Afghanistan are “wood for the fire” of his country’s history of war; that is, youth are recruited into violence in the complex conflict that rages and simmers in Afghanistan. Tamim has devoted his adult life to educating youth about conflict resolution in order to wake them up from their passivity so they can choose a different path. Wisely, he put his energy into getting conflict resolution embedded into the curriculum of Afghanistan’s public schools. Just prior to the USA leaving Afghanistan in August 2022, Tamim was selected for a Rotary Peace Fellowship, but the embassy in Kabul closed before he, his wife and two small daughters were able to get out. Members of our District Peace Fellowship Committee went to great lengths, and after many challenges and delays, the family made it to the University of Queensland at the end of January 2024.

The Rotary E-Club of the State of Jefferson sponsored Tamim. He plans to do his Applied Field Experience (internship) with Swisspeace in Basel. He will finish his fellowship in July of 2025. His daughters are well and happy in school, but the high tuition assessed for children of foreign students has presented major challenges. Tamim hopes ultimately to work for an international organization or teach at a university.

Tamim’s expenses for his family to leave Afghanistan with him and for his children to attend school are not included in the Rotary Peace Fellowship. Through generous donations, we have been able to help contribute to cover the tuition of Tamim’s children. If you know of anyone that would be interested in donating, please reach out to Carol Fellows, Jackie Oakley or me (Patti Eisler).