The King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) in Vienna has selected Rogelio Lelis, Jr. to participate in its International Fellows Programme for Religious Leaders as Practitioners of Interreligious Dialogue 2016 (KIFP).
On 30 November 2015, Lelis will join a select group of teachers from religious education centers for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism studies to participate in a one-year series of in-person and online trainings on interreligious dialogue, coexistence, and pluralism. The participants will also have the opportunity to develop and implement small-scale local and international projects during the course of the programme, and will further organize and attend dialogues, lectures, and field visits.
Lelis is among the affiliates who help COPERS innovate on applications of social psychology for peacebuilding and conflict resolution. He juggles teaching with the Department of Psychology with being a youth formator at his church and providing technical support to COPERS’ 15-month post-Typhoon Haiyan sociotherapeutic intervention project in Tacloban City. Now a highly trained Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Affiliate, he started five years ago as a student volunteer for COPERS disaster response.
After completion of the KIFP, Lelis becomes part of the KAICIID Fellows Network. The network works on following up on the fellows’ progress, and invest in their long-term sustainability as resource persons in the field of interreligious dialogue and peacebuilding.