Chehab “Shab” El Awar.
A Rotary leader who turns peace into projects: clean water, healthy smiles, safer ground and friendships that cross every border.
Building the pillars, one project at a time.
Shab rarely talks about peace in the abstract. He builds it through Rotary Foundation global grants, humanitarian partnerships and the people he brings together. Each piece of his work strengthens one or more of the 8 Pillars of Positive Peace.
The Peace Park, Calgary
At the 2025 Rotary International Convention in Calgary, Shab held court at the Peace Park in the House of Friendship, keeping its stage moving from speaker to speaker. Steve Bender worked alongside him, and the two used the time between talks to plan new projects.
Good Relations with NeighboursStanding with Ukraine
Shab has supported Rotary work in Ukraine and visited in May 2026, bringing what he saw back to Rotarians planning their own grants.
Good Relations with NeighboursSafer ground in Colombia
In July 2025 he convened a panel on peace projects in Colombia focused on landmines, bringing in peacebuilders such as Patrick Dunn, formerly of Roots of Peace and now with Pax Aterra.
Acceptance of the Rights of OthersClean rivers across the Americas
He became an international partner for river cleanup work on the Tijuana River and helped shape a global grant to clear plastic from Guatemala's Motagua River.
Equitable Distribution of ResourcesHealthy smiles
As a board member of Thousand Smiles, he opens doors for dental care, including plans to put Steve's fifteen-chair mobile dental trailer to work.
High Levels of Human CapitalTeaching the next grant makers
In July 2026 he led a global seminar on how Rotary Foundation global grants create lasting, peace-building projects, and in August he and Dr. Bricia El Awar led a Global Grants Learning Lab for environmental and community transformation.
Free Flow of Information“We are the People of Action.”Shab El Awar's signature line, borrowed from Rotary
A timeline of service.
Serves as Governor of Rotary District 5330 in Southern California.
Serves on the Rotary International Convention Promotion Committee.
Joins Steve Bender in planning a global grant for plastic cleanup on the Motagua River in Guatemala.
Offers a home for a mobile dental clinic through his work with Thousand Smiles.
Hosts speakers at the Peace Park, 2025 Rotary International Convention, Calgary, with Steve Bender at his side.
Convenes a peace projects panel on landmines in Colombia.
At EarthX in Dallas, joins the fireside chat on water security, watersheds and clean water access, and helps bring ESRAG's environmental seminars to the EarthX audience.
Visits Ukraine to support Rotary projects there.
Meets Rotary Peace Fellows at the Rotary International Convention in Taipei, where Steve's water presentation honors Dr. Bricia El Awar's project.
Teaches Rotarians worldwide how global grants build lasting peace.
Where war leaves its mark, peace has work to do.
Landmines keep killing and maiming long after a war ends, and they keep farmland empty. Shab and Steve have spent years on the other side of that story: clearing the way, healing the injured and rebuilding greener than before.
Mines to Vines
Founded in 1997 by San Francisco Rotarian Heidi Kühn, Roots of Peace turns former minefields into vineyards and farms, from Afghanistan and Vietnam to Cambodia and Ukraine. Heidi keynoted EarthX 2025 in Dallas and joined Steve for a Rotary TV interview there.
Read about Roots of PeaceCambodia: hands and smiles
In Cambodia, Steve helped give prosthetic hands to landmine survivors, gave fluoride treatments to children at a landmine school in Siem Reap, and helped our dental team restore children's front teeth.
See the Cambodia peace mission High Levels of Human CapitalThe LN4 hand
The LN4 is a simple, durable prosthetic hand that Rotary clubs fit for free around the world. Shab and Steve are planning an LN4 workshop so Ukrainians who lost hands in the war can go home with one.
Read about our LN4 workRebuild Ukraine Green
Founded by Steve in 2023 with partners in Odesa and Kyiv, Rebuild Ukraine Green works to make sure Ukraine is rebuilt once, and rebuilt to green building standards, through Rotary global grants, chambers of commerce and Ukrainian cities.
Visit Rebuild Ukraine GreenOur work for Ukraine
Shab joins Mines to Vines planning calls with Heidi Kühn and Rotary leaders in Ukraine, including Past District Governor Mykola Stebljanko, and proposes showing the film Wounded Land at EarthX in Dallas.
Shab backs Heidi's Mines to Vines dinner for Ukraine in San Francisco, where young landmine survivors and the Consul General of Ukraine speak.
Steve shares the 8 Pillars of Positive Peace at meetings in Poland and Ukraine.
Rebuild Ukraine Green is founded with partners in Odesa and Kyiv.
Steve is asked back to follow up on Rotary projects in Ukraine, and Roots of Peace brings Mines to Vines to Ukraine's farmland.
Shab and Steve begin planning an LN4 prosthetic hand workshop for Ukrainians.
Shab visits Ukraine to support Rotary projects there.
Steve spends a day with a Ukrainian delegation reviewing projects past, present and future, with a focus on clean water through One Million Drops, which aims to reach one million people in Ukraine.
A Rebuild Ukraine Green conference in Dallas in 2027, and a forest dedication planned for 2028 once the land is cleared of mines.
A place to read, grow and gather.
Shab and Steve built a Peace Park together in San Bernardino: a neighborhood space with olive trees, fruit trees, vegetable rows, a free library where children can take a book home, and butterflies at every turn. Volunteers plant it and families come to learn in it.
Shab and Bricia.
Much of Shab's work is shared with his wife, Dr. Bricia El Awar, whose projects in Mexico and on water access have been celebrated at Rotary conventions. Together they teach, fund and open doors for Rotarians who want their service to last.
Their example is the heart of this website: peace grows where people keep showing up for each other.