Speaker to discuss 'Children of War Becoming Leaders
for Peace Project' at URI

KINGSTON, R.I. -- October 24, 2000 -- Lyn Fine, a leader of the Children of War Becoming Leaders for Peace Project, will speak on "Their Stories Are My Stories Now" as part of the University of Rhode Island's fall honors colloquium series, "Nonviolence: Legacies of the Past, Bridges to the Future." Fine will share her experiences of children of war-torn countries and a variety of other people from whom she has learned over the past four decades.

Fine will speak in the Barry Marks Auditorium, Room 271 of the Chafee Social Science Center on URI's Kingston Campus, October 31 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

A pioneer in nonviolence education in the New York City public schools , Fine has served as a teacher and in community development projects in a variety of places from inner city Boston to rural New Mexico and the Middle East and India. In 1999, she participated in the Asian Girl Child Peace camp held in Kathmandu, Nepal. Fine is also an advanced teacher of meditation in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.

Reflecting on her involvement with the Children of War Becoming Leaders for Peace Project for the past two decades, Fine said: "How do teenagers from different cultures who grow up with violence become leaders for peace? What forms does this leadership take? Investigating these questions inspired me. This multicultural cooperative project which brought together teenagers from 15 zones of social-political violence around the world allowed teenagers and adults to work together in ways that were both personally healing and that contributed to creating the conditions for peace."

Fine recorded how many of these young people were able to transform the trauma of their experiences into constructive action for peacebuilding in her doctoral dissertation research in the 1990s.

"I have been fortunate to be alive at a time when collective energies and consciousness have emerged into strong social movements. I have been nourished deeply by the nonviolent movements of Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Au Sang Su Kyi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez, the worldwide women's movements, the Jewish Renewal Movement, and the teachings of the Buddha as they have come through many teachers such as Thich Nhat Hanh," remarked Fine.

A strong supporter of putting into practice the ideal of the "Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence," Fine currently resides in Berkeley, California.

For Information: Lynne Derbyshire, 401-874-4732,
Arthur Stein, 401-874-4059, Jan Sawyer, 401-874-2116,
Jennifer Smith, 401-874-2116