The Presidency office of the Cabildo of Lanzarote was the scene this Wednesday of the cordial meeting between the island's leader, Oswaldo Betancort, and the recently designated by the Rotary Club Lanzarote as "Conejero of the Year 2024", Alberto Hugo Rojas. The president has thus joined the recognition of the Rotarians to this photographer and disseminator from Lanzarote, for his outstanding international contributions during the last decades to bring the cruelty of war conflicts closer to the educational community - from the Canary Islands and other communities. His latest works have focused on the heartbreaking war in Ukraine.
Oswaldo Betancort has been interested in the new projects of the photographer from Lanzarote, and has encouraged public institutions and private entities of any kind to support - as the Rotarians have done - the communication task that this war reporter executes inside and outside the conflict zones and refugee camps.
Alberto Hugo Rojas Luque, member of the Reporters Without Borders collective and the NGO Peace in Construction, already received from President Oswaldo Betancort last December the Jameo de Oro distinction, in the International Solidarity category, during the massive Act of Honors and Distinctions 2024 organized by the Institution.
His Peace in Construction project
The Rotary Club Lanzarote is chaired by Pedro Botella, and has Rita Martín Pérez as the assistant to the governor of the collective. Both accompanied Hugo Rojas this Wednesday in the Presidency. And both highlighted how the value education project that the "Conejero of the Year 2024" has been leading for years had not gone unnoticed by the Rotarians: "Peace in Construction", a weighty argument considered in the concession by the members of the Lanzarote Rotary Club.
"Peace in Construction" was born with the work of the photojournalist in war zones since 2002. Focusing especially the reports on the children and women who live under some conflict. They are the protagonists of the photographs and videos that serve as the basis for the project.
"The objective is clearly committed to education as a path to Peace, so essential always and, even more so in these times. It is necessary that the new generations have human values, applicable to what they want to be and do in life," explains Alberto Hugo Rojas when talking about "Peace in Construction".
The Rotary Club charity association is present on five continents and has more than 32,000 clubs and more than 1,300,000 members, who promote solidarity initiatives. In Lanzarote, since the year of its establishment, in 1991, the Rotarians have promoted multiple solidarity initiatives in favor of groups and entities on the island such as Afa; Afol; Calor y Café; Cáritas; Adislan; Afacoda, El Cribo or the IES Teguise among others.
The "Conejero of the Year 2024" chosen by Rotary Club Lanzarote will officially receive his distinction in a public ceremony that will take place soon.