Several of the past and present Peace Fellows keep blogs. We will put links to any that we know about, on Fellows' individual web pages. Please let us know of any we have missed. Thank you.
NATALIA MUTO
BRAZIL
Sponsor Rotary Club: The Rotary Club of São Paulo - Brooklin, São Paulo-SP, District: 4610
Country of citizenship: Brazil
Language proficiency: Portuguese (native), English (fluent), Spanish (advanced) and French (intermediate).
Education: International Relations Bachelor’s Degree (2006), currently attending an specialization in Management of Social Projects in Organizations of the Third Sector.
Area of special interest: social and economic development, human rights, peacekeeping and peace building, public policy, international politics.
Background to RWPF Award: I currently work at GIFE – Group of Institutions, Foundations and Enterprises – a non-profit network that brings together business, family, community and independent organizations that invest in projects with public purpose. Its mission is to improve and disseminate concepts and practices for the use of private resources for the development of the common good, thereby helping to promote sustainable development in Brazil. Previously, I have worked for the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations in São Paulo, both in protocol and as the Minister’s assistant, and I also had some volunteer experience in United Nations Volunteer Program in Kazakhstan and in a human rights and development NGO in India. Besides that, during university I had been pretty much involved with volunteer projects in peace oriented organizations such as AIESEC and CISV.
What are you going to do with your RWPF: The MA in conflict, security and development , which is the one I am willing to attend, will be fundamental for my career in international conflict resolution and development. In Brazil there are not many courses covering this area of interest, which made it difficult for me to focus my career exactly in what I really wanted. I am pretty interested in social and economic development, and I have been very close to it working at GIFE, but I miss the international perspective of it, especially related to conflict regions, which is not too much part of the reality of the country. My main focus after getting the Master’s degree is joining UNDP or other international organizations working with conflict and development.