New York, 13 October — Twelve emerging leaders from France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Armenia, Norway, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada and the US, will travel to the Middle East and North Africa from October 15th to October 30th. Then, twelve emerging leaders from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco will travel to Europe and North America from October 27th to November 12th.
Besides a central focus on Intercultural Dialogue, both cohorts will also take part in activities and discussions addressing a secondary theme. EUNA participants will work on Youth Development in the MENA region. MENA participants will focus and Migration and Integration in EUNA countries. These themes were chosen to ensure a concrete impact of the Fellowship Program on the ground, while primarily serving UNAOC mission to foster intercultural collaborations.
Both cohorts will also meet in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina to discuss together on Interfaith Reconciliation for two days.
About the Fellowship Program
The Fellowship provides its participants with a first hand exposure to diversity and with the opportunity to experience cultural immersion while interacting with a wide range of local actors and partners. In every country visited, participants are being provided with crucial comprehension tools to help them understand the plurality and the complexity of their surroundings, and get an extensive grasp of their host country’s culture, politics, society, religion, media and more.
The main objective of the Program is to involve Fellows into intercultural cooperation and encourage them to engage in broader and deeper discussions on cultural sensitivity. By exposing participants to new ideas and perspectives, and by immersing them into culturally diverse and unfamiliar environments, the Fellowship Program aims at challenging perceptions and deconstructing stereotypes. Building on that, participants become then better equipped to position themselves as informed stakeholders and to develop cross-cultural partnerships while bridging divides between peoples from different faiths and cultures.