HONOURED BY THE QUEEN!
The local heroes recognised in royal birthday honours list
A FORMER Llanelli teacher was among the great and good featuring in the Queen’s birthday honours list.
Pamela Christine Evans, from Morriston, Swansea, is appointed MBE for services to the promotion of peace and interfaith understanding.
Following New York’s Twin Towers terrorist attack in 2001, she set about establishing the Peace Mala organisation, spurred into action after witnessing young Muslim pupils facing bullying from their peers and prejudice that soon spread to other faith minorities.
At the time she was head of religious studies at Llanelli’s Coedcae School. Peace Mala was conceived and educational packs for schools, youth and community groups were created. These are designed to instil the message of treating others as you would wish them to treat you, and through her dedication and drive, this small local initiative has grown into a project with a global reach.
The project now has accredited schools across Wales and England and
thousands of young people have benefited from their exposure to Peace Mala.
Peace Mala was the first interfaith activity in Wales focused on young people and in 2017, held the first Interfaith Liturgy for World Peace in Cardiff’s Llandaff Cathedral attended by an array of faith leaders.
Speaking of her appointment, Mrs Evans said: “It is a phenomenal honour and it brought me to tears, to be honest, as I know nominations were made by those working alongside me at Peace Mala.
“I hope it helps to raise even more awareness of the work that we do and how important our message is.”
“To see it grow the way it has over the years has been wonderful and to be awarded the MBE is wonderful.”
Also appointed MBE was Caroline Anne Headon, of South Wales Police for services to policing and tackling serious and organised crime in Wales.