Pam Evans

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Pamela Christine Evans, known as Pam Evans, is the founder of the Peace Mala Youth Project for World Peace. She is an honours graduate of the University of Wales and an experienced teacher of World Faiths. Pam taught at High School level for 34 years before taking early retirement. In her last teaching post she worked as Head of the Department of Religious Studies in Coedcae Comprehensive School in Llanelli, Wales,UK.

Contents 1 Interests 2 Early career 3 Peace Mala 4 External links 5 Notes

[edit] Interests

Pam Evans has been fascinated by the mystical traditions of all faiths for most of her adult life. She also has a keen interest in History, Egyptology, Anthropology and travel. At the age of eleven she declared herself an atheist and stopped attending church. Seven years later whilst studying Religion at A level she discovered Liberal Theology, Biblical Exegesis and Form Criticism. This opened her mind to "a new and exciting way of studying holy scripture"^[1] and made her think again about the possible existence of God. She went on to study Mains Divinity at Trinity College Carmarthen where she was eventually baptised and confirmed a member of the Anglican Church in Wales by the Bishop of Saint David's in the college chapel.

She describes herself as an open-minded Christian who has a healthy respect for and interest in all compassionate, spiritual traditions. She practices meditation and prayer daily and also 'whirls' on a regular basis, having received the 'opening' from Sufi mystic and Dervish, Sheikh Ahmad Dede.

[edit] Early career

Pam is an honours graduate of the University of Wales and a former student of Trinity College, Carmarthen where she studied Mains Divinity and Drama and History as subsidiary subjects.^[2] Her first teaching post was at Trench Boys School in Donnington, Shropshire. After completing her probationary year,she returned to Swansea and joined Seatown Morning, a local pop/folk group, whilst teaching Drama, English and History at Olchfa Comprehensive School in Swansea. After two years at Olchfa, she joined the teaching staff of Llanelli Boys Grammar School, now known as Coleg Sir Gâr. She was one of the first female teachers at the school. Following reorganisation of the Llanelli schools into the comprehensive system, she was moved to Bryngwyn Comprehensive School. Her last position was at Coedcae Comprehensive School, in Llanelli, Wales where she ran the school library and worked as a pastoral Head of Year whilst teaching A level Religious Studies. She later became Head of the Department of Religious Studies.

[edit] Peace Mala

Pam started the Peace Mala project in the year 2002 during her time as Head of the Department of Religious Studies in Coedcae Comprehensive School. The idea came after a series of class discussions about the terrorist attacks of Tuesday, September 11. Islamaphobia had increased dramatically. This was something which became apparent when one of her own pupils, Imran Sheikh, had been receiving racial taunts at school and his local mosque had been attacked.

In 2005, she gave up her position in Coedcae to focus on her work with Peace Mala. On 16 November 2006, (25th Shawwal 1427 AH), Pam was awarded the Noble Soul Award 2006 in recognition of her contribution to challenging Islamaphobia in schools. The award was presented by RAHMA (Racial Attacks and Harassment Monitoring Association) on the International Day of Peace.

[edit] External links

• www.peacemala.org.uk/ - The Peace Mala official website.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Personal correspondences (Alosel)
2. ^ According to an interview carried out by the South Wales Evening Post on September 9, 2006 [1]