Mike Evans '05 looks on as the Dalai Lama chats with a Playing for Peace student.
Mike Evans '05 had the oppportunity of a lifetime this fall when the Dalai Lama visited Belfast, Ireland, and the Playing for Peace program where Evans is director.
Playing for Peace (PfP) is a non-profit organization that engages children in basketball and life-skills activities that help them learn how to interact as friends and neighbors. Children ages 10-14 represent different religious, racial and cultural backgrounds and come from historically divided regions in South Africa and Northern Ireland.
Evans, who majored in communication studies and played varsity basketball at Hamilton, joined the PfP staff in Belfast in August. "This is our fourth year in Northern Ireland, but our first in Belfast," Evans explained. "As the program director I am responsible for starting a similar program from scratch in East Belfast -- the location of intense segregation and violence among Catholics and Protestants. We use basketball as a cross-community tool all over the world."
During the visit from His Holiness, Evans shared news of PfP's recent successes in Northern Ireland. "He responded mostly with smiles and asked if we'd thought of doing the program in other parts of the world."
