“We all can affect the lives of other people in a positive way, if we want to. Our biggest risk in life is complacency.” – why true information is a first, but very important step towards peace and how Kelly and his friends try to make their contribution.

Kelly Rusk, Co-Founder IYOCO and Director of Operations and International Affairs for WineAmerica, Washington, D.C., USA

Achieving world peace is not an easy task; however, it is a worthwhile one and that’s why Kelly Rusk and his friends Ignatius Mugabo and Erol Hofmans founded IYOCO, a platform that empowers young people to find information on conflict resolutions around the world. Planning a book drive for Rwanda in 1997 - to contribute at least a little to improve the sad situation there -, the three friends recognized that they have to do more. The idea of a platform that provides solid information on conflicts from various points of view was born. Empowering often uneducated people in the conflict zones and enabling them to find solutions for their specific problems with the help of the right tools and, especially, true information, seemed the right way to go.
As Kelly says, it is not enough to watch heartbreaking news and complain about how bad the world is. Everybody has to contribute to find solutions. It does not matter if this happens by going in the field and trying to find out more about the true reasons of the problems, or by researching at a desk and writing up insightful reports or in some other way. It just is important that everybody does something. We should not take the risk of becoming complacent. Often the way to help might not be very obvious, but every one of us has some skills and capabilities that are valuable to contribute to positive solutions.

Enjoy Kelly’s selected thoughts and statements of our discussion in the lines that follow. You may be able to read more about his work and the different initiatives he supports in our book “MyImpact”.

Kelly’s selected quotations:
“We want to provide a platform for young people in conflict zones that really helps them. It’s not possible and not so important to count how many people we saved, but we are sure IYOCO makes a big difference in many lives.”

“Sometimes we go in a conflict zone and ask people what the real problem is, what their needs are, what potential solutions could be. Sometimes we make a lot of desk research and write up reports that help to understand situations from different perspectives. The question is how can we help them, how can we work together to find the appropriate solutions?”

“I believe everyone really loves the pursuit of peace. I was in high school and was studying the conflict in the Balkans and I became horrified by it. I watched the news trying to figure out what was going on. Sometimes I did not believe what the journalists were telling us. My heart really broke seeing these terrible things. The next week I saw immigrants from Mexico dying in the back of a truck on their way to the US. My heard broke again and I kept asking myself: What’s going on here?”

“Most of the time your path is not clear. Sometimes you have to have a mentor. Sometimes you have to respond to the things that life offers you.”

“If you have affected one person positively, you are a success. If you have not tried, you are a failure. The biggest risk we have is complacency.”

“The paved road is always the easiest to follow. However, it’s off the beaten path that the real truth lies and satisfaction can be found.”

“I’ll never be a Democrat or Republican; I’ll always be a Solutionist.”

“I get sick when I look at the politics that is going on now in the US. We don’t have time for politics; we have time for solutions. All I ever ask for are better solutions, not complaints.”

“Finding the truth is the hardest thing to do.”

“I re-charge my batteries in various ways. When I am really burned out I take a deep nap. When I wake up I pray for guidance, I pray for others, I pray for the strength to do what I want to do. I don’t hide my faith. What keeps me going is my faith. I believe I have a role, even though I sometimes don’t know what exactly will be the next step. I try to find ways to help others.”

“My role is to empower other people. My role is to use my skills, my education, and my experience to empower others. However, I know that the mission is always larger than the person, than me.”

“It’s not glamorous to work out in the field, to have bullets fly over your head. But it is rewarding. It’s not glamorous to sit behind a desk and to write reports. However, it is very rewarding once the material is out and helps people.”

“There is a world of peacemakers out there who need the right information, true and correct information to find a way out, to find solutions.”

“In the end of the day I never walk alone. I know that out there are a lot of people who walk with us.”

“My biggest goal in life is to be a good father; everything else starts from there.”

Some background on Kelly Rusk:
Kelly Rusk was born and raised in Las Vegas. His family is from Northern-Irish immigrants, some who still travel back and forth to Belfast. For five years of college, Kelly went to freezing cold Minnesota and studied business and economics. He first worked as janitor to make a living and later applied at the local science department for a job answering telephones. When he got a phone call from Prof. Andrew Conteh who was offering him a job as his research assistant, Kelly’s life changed completely. He started researching for and typing Dr. Conteh speeches and got inspired by all the good work he had access to. One night he came home and came up with a “12 step process of mediation”. When Kelly showed this paper to his professor, Dr. Conteh encouraged him to go to Europe to present his paper and supported him to get in a summer program. Kelly went for the Erasmus University in Rotterdam to participate in a program of the Institute for international mediation and conflict resolution (IIMR) and soon met his next mentor, Dr. Monning and especially Ignatius and Erol with whom he later founded IYOCO.
Kelly started to travel and speak, and finished his undergraduate education in Minnesota. Two and a half amazing years followed at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies, one of the most dynamic and beautiful places in the world, as Kelly believes. There he got even more involved in the international arena and learned all the tools he needed to really play in this field.
After his studies Kelly went to Zimbabwe for two months and worked on a report on the situation there. Other field studies as IYOCO representative followed, e.g. an analysis of the land mine problems in Mozambique.
Today Kelly is married and lives in Washington, working for WineAmerica to be financially independent. Kelly still spends most of his spare time gathering and writing up information for IYOCO and plays an active role in contributing to a less violent world.

Some background on IYOCO:
IYOCO was founded in 1997 as an information platform for conflict resolution and world peace, especially for young people. People living in conflict zones should find appropriate information on this platform that empowers them to find solutions for their specific problems.

If you would like to engage with the work of Kelly Rusk or get to know more about IYOCO please visit www.iyoco.org or http://www.erolhofmans.com/TROP/
or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.