Tag: Rotary

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Ugandan-Polish History Inspires Solidarity with Refugees

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association has commemorated the ordeal of Polish refugees in Africa during World War II and appealed for solidarity with refugees in today’s world.

From 1942 till 1952, up to 20 thousand Poles – mostly women and children – found refuge in Uganda and other countries of East Africa. They had been victims of Stalinist repressions and deportations who were evacuated from the Soviet Union after the Nazi invasion against the USSR. The Polish refugees in Africa were met with a warm welcome by the local communities.

This little known page of history has been remembered in the form of a multi-lingual mobile exhibition, also available online, prepared by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in cooperation with the Rotary Peace Centre at the Makerere University in Uganda, the most renowned university in the region of East Africa.

‘Our project aims to restore memory of an important page of shared Polish and Ugandan history. By highlighting this story, we hope to build a social climate of openness and intercultural empathy’ – said the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association’s co-founder Dr Rafal Pankowski, Professor at Warsaw’s Civitas University and Rotary Peace Fellow at Makerere University, Kampala. In 2024, he initiated the educational project ‘Building Bridges – Inspire Peace: Towards an Intercultural Understanding Between East Africa and Poland’.

On 1 November 2025, Polish and Ugandan members and supporters of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ lit candles at a Polish refugee graveyard in the village of Koja, in the Mukono district of southern Uganda.

The memory of the Polish refugee experience was presented at the annual Capstone conference of the Rotary Peace Centre in Kampala on 23 October 2025. On 22 October, Rafal Pankowski delivered a lecture for Makerere University students coming from across Africa and beyond on the subject of genocide in world history and the message of ‘NEVER AGAIN’. A special contribution to the session was recorded by Gregory Stanton, the author of the model of Ten Stages of Genocide and founder of Genocide Watch.

Earlier, on 11 October 2025, the ‘Building Bridges’ project had been presented during the multi-cultural Human Rights Academy organized in Warsaw by the Dunaj Institute of Dialogue. On 29 August 2025, the story of the Polish deportees in the USRR who found themselves in Uganda was the topic of a lecture by Rafal Pankowski at the Marc Bloch Library of Civilizations in Chisinau (Moldova).

The graphic design of the exhibition was prepared by Andrei Sergunkin, a Warsaw-based anti-war political exile from Russia and a member of the Memorial group, renowned for its efforts to commemorate the victims of Stalinist repressions.

The ‘Building Bridges’ initiative is accompanied by workshops prepared in the frames of the project. During interactive sessions, the participants are encouraged to reflect on the issues of refugees, migration, international solidarity as well as counteracting racism and discrimination.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organisation founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue, and human rights across the world.

More information:

https://www.nigdywiecej.org//docstation/com_docstation/172/building_bridges_towards_an_intercultural_understanding_exhibition.pdf

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MINORITIES FOR PEACE INITIATIVE PRESENTED AT UNITED NATIONS FORUM ON MINORITY ISSUES

Geneva, Switzerland – Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska, a representative of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association and OHCHR Minority Fellow, was among the speakers at the 17th session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues, held in Geneva on 28-29 November. During the session, she presented the ‘Minorities for Peace: Enabling Dialogue through Positive Peace and Mediation for Indigenous and Minority Communities in Eastern Europe’ initiative. The project is supported by Rotary International through the Rotary-Institute for Economics and Peace Partnership and is being carried out by ‘NEVER AGAIN’ in cooperation with Exult! Solutions, Rotary Positive Peace Activators, and other partners.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is the leading UN entity on human rights. It has a unique mandate provided by the UN General Assembly to promote and protect all human rights for all people.

The Forum, held at the prestigious Palais des Nations, brought together representatives from minority communities around the world, alongside delegations from member states and international organizations. The Minorities for Peace project was met with enthusiastic support from participants, underscoring its timely and significant contribution to peacebuilding efforts in Eastern Europe.

The Minorities for Peace initiative aims to foster a culture of peace by empowering leaders from minority and indigenous communities in Eastern Europe – focusing specifically on refugees from war-torn Ukraine and exiles from Russia – as agents of peace and dialogue. The region, with its complex history of both peaceful coexistence and violent conflict, continues to suffer the devastating consequences of war, particularly affecting its minority populations.

Integrating the frameworks of Dealing with the Past and Positive Peace, the initiative focuses on developing skills in mediation and dialogue. The project includes online trainings, in-person seminars in Poland and Moldova, publications, and recommendations designed to promote the pillars of Positive Peace as a foundation for preventing the recurrence of atrocities.

– ‘We believe that through education, we can equip minorities with the tools to become effective mediators, fostering peace and dialogue across entrenched divisions. With their multiple identities and intercultural competencies, they are uniquely positioned to serve as powerful messengers of peace, even in deeply divided societies, in ways that others cannot. Mediation, as a learned skill, is essential for preventing violence, promoting accountability, and fostering reconciliation. It addresses historical injustices, rebuilds trust, and promotes lasting peace, with the pillars of minority rights ensuring the dignity and rights of minorities are safeguarded throughout the process. The pillars of Positive Peace are deeply interconnected with the pillars of minority rights. We urge the international community to support initiatives that empower minorities as agents of peace,’ said Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska in her speech at the Forum.

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organization founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue and human rights across the world. It has actively participated in civil society networks, including the Global Alliance Against Digital Hate and Extremism (GAADHE), the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH) and the Alliance Against Genocide. It takes part in international projects to counter hate speech, Get The Trolls Out and SafeNet: Monitoring and Reporting for Safer Online Environments.

Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska on ‘Minorities for Peace’ project of the NEVER AGAIN Association, the 17th session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues, Geneva, 28.11.2024:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPqvzZqEpa0

More information:

www.NeverAgainAssociation.org
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THE MESSAGE OF PEACE RINGS LOUD FOR 2024

Members of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association have taken part in several important events promoting peace and justice across the world in the last months of 2023. In 2024, the Association invites international volunteers to join the global struggle against racism and intolerance.

‘NEVER AGAIN’s representative Anna Tatar participated in a two-day seminar on ‘Current Forms of Antisemitism’ organized in Berlin by the European Network for Countering Antisemitism through Education (ENCATE) and the Center for Research on Antisemitism (ZfA) on 9-11 October 2023. It aimed to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of contemporary debates surrounding antisemitism and the skills necessary to identify different forms of this phenomenon.

On 20-22 October 2023, Natalia Sineaeva, a ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association activist, attended the Rotary Positive Peace Activator Leadership Summit in Nagarkot, Nepal, together with 42 peace-builders from 25 countries and all continents. The Summit included academic sessions, strategic planning working groups, resilience conversations, and reflective practices. The participants shared and planned actions to build peace in their communities.

On 30-31 October, members of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Rafal Pankowski and Natalia Sineaeva visited Lumbini in Nepal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the birthplace of Sakyamuni Buddha, as guests of the Theravada Buddhist Community of Nepal. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres visited Lumbini on the same day. During meetings with monks and lay members of diverse faith communities, the representatives of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ emphasized the importance of inter-faith dialogue for world peace.

On 5 November, Natalia Sineaeva and Rafal Pankowski were invited as speakers at the public discussion organized by the Forum for Secular Bangladesh (Nirmul Committee) at the Supreme Court Auditorium in Dhaka on the occasion of the Bangladesh Constitution Day. They shared the experiences of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in the field of dealing with the past and, in particular, its successful campaign to include a ban on racist and fascist activities in the Polish Constitution. The Speaker of Bangladeshi Parliament Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury and other prominent discussants welcomed the contribution of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ members to the event.

On 9-11 November, ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association representatives participated in the international conference on ‘The Politics of Genocide Denial: Global Struggle towards Truth, Recognition and Justice’ at the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Drawing from the research conducted under the aegis of ‘NEVER AGAIN’, Rafal Pankowski presented a paper on ‘The Phenomenon of Multideniers: Denying the Holocaust and Cambodian Genocide’, Natalia Sineaeva spoke on ‘Holocaust Denial and Distortion and its Interconnectedness with National Identity: The Case Study of Moldova in Eastern Europe’. Other speakers at the conference included, among others, the friends of ‘NEVER AGAIN’: Dr Gregory H. Stanton (Founding President, Genocide Watch), Dr Elisa von Joeden-Forgey (Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention) and Dr Navras Jaat Aafreedi (Presidency University, Kolkata).

Between 15 and 20 November, members of ‘NEVER AGAIN’ met and discussed future cooperation in the area of peace-building with universities and Rotary clubs in Dhaka and Chattogram (Bangladesh). The meetings were hosted by Professor of Buddhist Studies Biman Barua, Professor Mamun-Al-Mahtab and Rotarian Ranjan Barua.

On 15-17 November, Rafal Maszkowski participated on behalf of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association in the international conference ‘Holocaust Distortion and Counter Strategies’ in Berlin, organized by the Kreuzberg Initiative Against Antisemitism and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in cooperation with the Topography of Terror (Germany).

On 21 November, members of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association Natalia Sineaeva and Rafal Pankowski presented the Association’s activities at a special meeting hosted in Dhaka by Shahriar Kabir, an eminent Bangladeshi writer and filmmaker, the founder of the Forum for Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971. The meeting was followed by a screening of a documentary on the Bangladesh genocide.

Nosizo Zondo represented ‘NEVER AGAIN’ at the conference ‘Integration through Sport and Inclusion for Refugees in Europe for Sustainability’, which took place in Berlin on 23-24 November 2023. The conference was organized by the Fare Network in conjunction with partners in Greece, Italy, Germany and Finland. It was aimed at empowering women refugees with the necessary skills and knowledge for engaging in the creation of sports activities, and innovating capacity-building methods that aid civil society organizations collaborating with refugees.

In the near future, on 13-16 February 2024, delegates of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association are going to participate in the 11th International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action (ICPNA) to be held in Mumbai, India.

– ‘The range of topics and international events attended by the NEVER AGAIN Association in the recent months points to the global relevance of its message’ – said Rafal Pankowski, co-founder of ‘NEVER AGAIN’, Sociology Professor at Warsaw’s Collegium Civitas and Rotary Global Peace Fellow (Makerere University, Uganda, 2024-25). – ‘In 2024, we invite online volunteers to join our initiatives from all over the world, wherever you are, we welcome all backgrounds and cultures.’

The ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an independent civil society organization founded in Warsaw in 1996. It has campaigned against racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia, for peace, intercultural dialogue and human rights across the world. It has actively participated in international civil society networks, including the Alliance Against Genocide (AAG), the European Network for Countering Antisemitism through Education (ENCATE), Facing Facts network, Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), the International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH), the Global Alliance Against Digital Hate and Extremism (GADHE), and the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine and Against War (ENSU).

‘NEVER AGAIN’ can be contacted at info@neveragainassociation.org .

Additional information:

www.nigdywiecej.org

http://www.holocausteducation-asia.org

Identifying and Countering Holocaust Distortion: Lessons for and from Southeast Asia

www.facebook.com/Respect.Diversity

www.twitter.com/StowNIGDYWIECEJ

www.linkedin.com/company/never-again-association