Nobel Peace Prize winners at the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates Tuesday told an audience at the University of Illinois at Chicago that “One Person Can Make a Difference.”
That was the title of the forum that featured an hour-long discussion among the five panelists who recalled their own experiences.
The panelists included Shan Cretin, of the American Friends Service Committee; Lech Walesa, labor leader and former President of Poland; Frederik Willem de Klerk, former president of South Africa; Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch‘s Arms Division and Dr. Bruce Lampard, of Doctors Without Borders.
Each panelist shared the spotlight as they told the story of their marvelous journeys to Nobel Peace honors.
Jim Frederick hosted the session, asking specific questions about the biggest moment in the journey of each laureate. The panelists’ motivating responses resulted in rounds of applause throughout the forum, leaving the audience eager for more.
“In my case, it was the process… Special moments in that process,” de Klerk replied and explained he had several formative moments, including the time he learned that people had to change in order for a change to be made.
“A critical component is teamwork,” said Lampard. He also said “one individual becomes the catalyst for change.”
Other panelists defined of violence and the process of altering a mentality of violence to a mentality of peace, including making peace with and within oneself. “It’s not only what we do to others, but it’s what we do to ourselves,” Cretin said.
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