UNAOC is pleased to announce that twelve participants from Europe and North America (EUNA) and twelve participants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have been selected to participate in its Fellowship Program.
Twelve emerging leaders from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the State of Palestine, Tunisia, and Yemen will travel from October 23rd to November 9th to the United States, Germany, France, and Spain. Then, twelve emerging leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey and the United States, will travel from November 6th to November 23rd to Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Qatar. Both groups will meet in Cordoba, Spain for two days. During their respective trip, besides addressing issues related to Intercultural Dialogue, both cohorts will also take part in activities and discussions focusing on a secondary theme: “Education as a tool for the prevention of radicalization and xenophobia”. This theme has been chosen to ensure that the program has a concrete impact on the ground, while serving UNAOC mission to foster intercultural collaborations. Education is one of UNAOC main pillars of action (along with Youth, Migration, and Media). Furthermore, the correlation between education, radicalization and xenophobia is at the center of current events both in the MENA region and in EUNA countries, and has become a focus of attention in media and political debates. The choice of such theme has also framed the selection process and participants from both are all involved professionally in the field of Education.
The Fellowship Program seeks to foster intercultural understanding by engaging with civil society leaders from Europe, North America, the Middle East and North Africa. Organized around two-week exchange trips, the Program sends participants from each geographic area to their counterparts’ region. In every country visited, Fellows are being provided with crucial comprehension tools to help them understand the plurality and the complexity of their surroundings, and to get an extensive grasp of their host country’s culture, politics, society, religion, media and more. By immersing participants into culturally diverse environments, the Fellowship aims at challenging perceptions and deconstructing stereotypes. Building on that, participants become then better equipped to position themselves as informed stakeholders and develop cross-cultural partnerships while bridging divides between peoples from different faiths and cultures.
