Anniela Carracedo, aka Anni, is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War, a member of the World BEYOND War Youth Network and its External Relations Chair, and liason between the Board and the Youth Network. She is from Venezuela and based in the United States. Anni was born in Venezuela in 2001, at the beginning of one of the worst humanitarian crises in the Western Hemisphere. Despite this difficult situation, Anni was fortunate to grow up surrounded by inspiring people and organizations aimed at solving complex problems, helping their communities get stronger, and building a culture of peace. Her family is actively involved in the Centro Comunitario de Caracas (Caracas Community Center), a safe place for community groups to join forces and promote the spread of initiatives that empower and bring citizens together. Throughout her 5 years of high school, Anni participated in the “Model of United Nations“, attending more than 20 conferences, the majority of which aimed at stimulating the functioning of the UN committees for Peace, Human Rights, and related humanitarian issues. Thanks to the experience gained and her hard-working spirit, in 2019 Anniela was elected as General Secretary of the ninth edition of the Model of United Nations in her high school (SRMUN 2019). Thanks to the environment she grew up in and to the experience in the Model of the UN, Anniela discovered her passion: diplomacy and peacebuilding. Following her passion, Anni was the first to participate in a local music festival, called Festival Intercolegial de Gaitas y Artes (FIGA), and through volunteering, helped transform the festival into a peace project that helped and encouraged young individuals to step away from the violent situations they find themselves in due to the precarious conditions of Venezuela.
In 2018, Anni joined Interact Club Valencia, a Rotary International youth program, where she served as club secretary until she became a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in 2019-2020, representing Venezuela in Mississippi, USA. During her exchange, Anni was able to join the Interact community service committee at Hancock High School: she immediately got to work and organized a collection drive for shoes, socks, and hats to be sent to Colombia, in support of the Rotary initiative Hope for Venezuelan Refugees, a humanitarian project created to help alleviate hunger affecting thousands of vulnerable Venezuelans facing the second largest refugee crisis in the world after Syria. Once the pandemic started, she remained in the US to complete her exchange year. During this period, she challenged both her Venezuelan Interact club and American Interact club to remain active in serving the community.
Following the wish to remain active, she founded Rotary Interactive Quarantine, a network to connect Interact and youth exchange students from more than 80 different countries to exchange project ideas, build lasting friendships, and open opportunities for international projects. Anni served as District Interact Representative in 2020-21, and became a Rotarian in the same year. She got nominated honorary member of the Rotary Club of Bay St Louis, which also chose her as Rotarian of the Year. Looking forward, in 2021-22, Anni will be serving as Executive Chair of Rotary Interactive Quarantine, Alumni member of Rotary International’s inaugural Interact Advisory Council 2021-22, as well as Chair of the District 6840 Interact Committee. Her devotion to diplomacy and peacebuilding is clear in everything she does. She hopes to become, in the future, a diplomat and help make the world a safer and better place.
