Charles F. Dambach, noted Peace Corps leader and activist, urged the Wayne State University community to think globally and reach out to their local communities regarding issues of public interest.
Reflections on global peace efforts: 2002
G. Mennen Williams Endowed Lecture Program
by Tom Reynolds
Dambach at Williams lecture
Charles F. Dambach, noted Peace Corps leader and activist, urged the Wayne State University community to think globally and reach out to their local communities regarding issues of public interest. "Small-town America is fast disappearing and so is far-away, remote Rwanda or Ethiopia...events in one part of the world can have, and do have, an impact on other parts of the world," he said.
Dambach, senior consultant for the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, was the featured speaker of the 2002 G. Mennen Williams Luncheon. The Williams Lecture is named after Michigan's distinguished former multi-term governor and ambassador at large to Africa under the Kennedy administration.
Left to right are Charles R. Bantz, senior vice president and provost; Charles F. Dambach and Frederic S. Pearson, director, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies and Detroit Council for World Affairs.
The event, sponsored by the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies in the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs and the Office of the Provost, commemorated Williams' great concern for African-related issues involving a crucial theme in the Afro-Caribbean world. Dambach is part of a team of returned Peace Corp volunteers who have worked with warring factions in the Eritrea-Ethiopia border conflict, the Rwanda civil war and the current Congo civil war to help re-establish peace.
In his address titled "Non-Governmental Organizations and Peace Negotiations in African Conflicts," Dambach, formerly president and CEO of the National Peace Corps Association, called for bridging of academic and field work related to conflict resolution and peace studies.
Jorge L. Chinea, assistant professor of Latino and Latin American history, Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies, commented about key points offered by Dambach. "He (Dambach) reminded us that real, crippling economic and social inequalities, not some over-blown ethnic or religious differences, continue to generate violent domestic and international conflicts across the planet. He encouraged us to remain optimistic and upbeat about our ability to affect positive change," said Chinea.
"In the face of 32,000 children dying yearly on the planet," Chinea continued, "Dambach stressed global education, planning and activism, along with a dose of goodwill, persistence, hard work and a search for common ground, to help reduce or halt these depressing statistics."
Throughout his presentation, Dambach offered personal recollections about his experiences serving in the Peace Corps.
