Visionaries | Global Connections Call Notes 12.6.23
On our final Global Connections call of 2023, Euphrates invited all of our past Visionaries of the Year to join us to share their updates and renewed vision for the world. Founder Janessa Gans Wilder facilitated an incredible conversation with Sami Awad, TH Culhane, Ronny Edry, Nousha Kabawat, Ahmad Shah Karimi, James Offuh, and Libby Traubman. We invite you to watch the complete recording at this link and/or enjoy the complete transcript below.
Welcome (Katy Lunardelli, Euphrates Executive Director)
Welcome everyone. We are so grateful to all of you joining us and especially the Euphrates Visionaries who you will hear from today.
The Visionary of the Year Award was started in 2011 when Euphrates Founder, Janessa, met the incredible Sami Awad, founder of Holy Land Trust. Inspired by his vision, humble leadership and indomitable spirit, an award was established to recognize peacebuilders making the “idealistic realistic and the impossible possible.”
Each year the Euphrates team – past and present – have had the honor of learning about peacebuilders who hold visions of peace and justice, and illuminate a path forward, often amidst violence and injustice. These extraordinary visionaries are able to rise above conflict, see a clearer picture of humanity, and bring peace and healing to their communities.
Today we have the great privilege to bring together many of the past award recipients from the last 12 years and hear their voices. I can’t express in words what this call means to us and how special it is for Euphrates to have this group reassembled.
This call cannot come at a more important and vital time when this darkness seems very overwhelming.
Janessa Gans Wilder - You all are such bright lights. Each of you has inspired me and the team in a very unique and specific way and has articulated a vision for peace. You did this not when times were hunky dory and great either for you or for the world, but specifically when times were toughest and when the times were darkest.
You know, I often wonder if I had not just survived a major battle in Iraq, would I have even noticed the Euphrates River flowing right to the midst of that. So that's really what we're doing today - gathering at this moment when times seem so dark and consuming. We are gathering to bring that light. And the reality is that even visionaries need to see the light and feel a sense of hope in the face of darkness. Our gathering together is flying in the face of that. We are all connecting here on this call. And it's also a powerful reminder that the patterns of conflict and systems of oppression and prejudice are linked. They are interconnected and so are the solutions.
Sami Awad
Janessa - Sami is joining us from Bethlehem today where he lives and is the founder of Holy Land Trust, an organization focused on peace and healing work at the deepest level. When I met him more than 10 years ago, I was so overwhelmed, honestly, by his vision. I'd never heard anyone speak in the way that he did about trauma, about healing, about seeing the other as a brother and really living the space of deep personal transformation. He was the genesis behind the Visionary of the Year Award.
I remember in one talk you quoted Gandhi as saying they will resist you, they will curse you, they will fight you, and then you win. So I wanted to ask you. What does winning look like for you? What if winning doesn't come in our lifetime?
Sami - I wanna share as we begin the conversation today, Israeli fighter jets flew over Bethlehem. We know where they are going. This is the route they take to go to Gaza. That means in a few minutes bombs will be dropped on the people of Gaza again. These flights have not stopped except for those few days where they declared this sort of alleged ceasefire. And now they're back and the situation is really bad. I'm a Palestinian. I've lived in Palestine my whole life. I've lived under the occupation. What is happening in Gaza is beyond any explanation or description or understanding.
I'm sure many of you have seen the pictures. And sadly many of you don't see the pictures that we get to see because the media in the West does not show you the reality of what life is in Gaza. My whole mother's family lives in Gaza. And you could imagine how extremely worried we are about them - an uncle who's 88 years old and aunt who's 80, blind and deaf. They've moved 4 times already. And now 8 members of the family are living in a small hut in Rafa – no water, no electricity. I talk to my cousin in Gaza and he says “If anything happens to us and we die, don’t mourn too much for us. It will almost be mercy.” The people in Gaza have lost all hope.
There is no way of understanding why and the level of hatred and resentment and bitterness that the Israeli government and many israelis are supporting this atrocity to take place. There's this verse in the Bible an I for an eye. I used to reject this verse and say, no, no, we shouldn't do an eye for an eye. Violence shouldn't be violence, but at this point I wish it was just an eye. Now what we're seeing is an eye for 10,000 eyes.
This level of not even revenge or retaliation is just this absolute hatred that is being put on the people of Gaza, I've never seen anything like this in my life. And it just reminds us of all the days where these things we thought actually stopped.
In the midst of all of this, I think of this quote from Gandhi - first they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. For me, the winning now is in me personally keeping my sanity and my humanity.
We talked about hopelessness, yes, in hopelessness there is hope. But what is there in despair? When we have reached, as Palestinians, such a level of despair where wee are seeing how the world is - the world powers, not the people. So thankful for the millions and millions of people around the world that are really standing in solidarity with us. But we see government powers to such an extent of being complacent in this genocide that's happening to the Palestinians. I remember in the past when Israel shot a few rockets towards Palestinians and Gaza the US was the first to say okay that's it that's enough. But now it's as if it's the US, and Israel and Britain and Germans at war against the Palestinians. And yes, in this, my hope is in my ability to not just remain sane, but to have a heart that is continuously opened, continuously seeking, continuously pushing itself to engage in love in these times. This is not just a love to my enemy, to my oppressor. This is a love to a person that is out to kill. And then this is the strongest experience of love that any person can have.
Even in the midst of all of this, we could imagine Jews, Christians and Muslims, Palestinians and Israelis living together. This is not a pipe dream; this is not wishful thinking.
I fully believe in non-violence. I'm committed to not violence. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the only way to move forward is nonviolence. And what Hamas did is a clear sign for me that violence does not work. Whatever they did if they declare themselves as a movement that is interested in liberating Palestine, they have not liberated a single inch of Palestine. If their intention is freedom, they have not given any freedom to the Palestinians. And so for me, my resolve to engage in nonviolence is much stronger, but I have to say that during these times it is even difficult to think about what is the thing that we do in nonviolence.
What we are now in is this just ability to remain steadfast, to remain holding on, to remain believing that one day there will be enough Palestinians and Israelis that will shift this reality that we live in that we will be able to influence each other to a point where we begin to understand that It's not just about living in some sort of political peace just having no violence between us, but a real peace and justice for all the people that live in this land. Even in the midst of all of this, we could imagine Jews, Christians and Muslims, Palestinians and Israelis living together. This is not a pipe dream; this is not wishful thinking. We could all imagine this, but we need to work.
A big part of what we are now doing as Palestinians who are committed to nonviolence are really looking into what is the new movement that we want to create? It’s as if October 7th erased everything from the past. It was a new starting point now. It’s 75 years where the Palestinians have been displaced and neglected and ignored and marginalized, but now we are at a new starting point. It is resistance for freedom. It is resistance for liberation. It is resistance for coexisting together in the future.
No matter how many people die on both sides, we live in this land. We have a deep love and a deep connection to this land. We all have a past in this land. And we all have a future in this land. And then we need to see leaders emerge that are really committed to something different than what has been the narrative that we were in for the longest time.
I fully understand how trauma has shaped and moved the Jewish people. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that what we are experiencing now is the lack of healing of the historic trauma that the Jewish people have experienced not just in the Holocaust but over 2,000 years of suffering for the Jewish people and the marginalization of the Jewish people. But when you bring this deep trauma with absolute power, it is a formula for design. When fear becomes the motivation for your survival and you have violence as the tool for your survival, destruction is all that can be created.
For me it’s very important to address this as peace advocates. We have to stand. To stop the killing that's happening? But at the same time we have to also stand in creating the vision of the future where Palestinians and Israelis recognize the full equal right of each other to live in dignity, respect and security and harmony in this land.
There is no other option. There is no other option.
Janessa - That’s so powerful. What really struck me is that this doesn't have to be the death of peace, the death knell to coexistence, the death knell to a free Palestine and a secure Israel that it can be the birth of a totally new way of doing business because obviously what has happened up until now has never worked. Thank you for articulating not just the ending point, but the beginning. Thank you for sharing your vision in the midst of where you are and what you are going through.
Libby Traubman (00:17:46)
Janessa - And we are going to now turn to Libby Traubman who does work along similar lines. She and her late husband Len, who is beloved to so many of us in this community, founded a group called Jewish Palestinian Living Room Dialogues that has been going on for over 30 years. I imagine, Libby, there have been many ups and downs through your work and I would love to know what has kept you going. How have you been able to bring people together with such diametrically opposed views and what has been a secret to success for you of changing hearts and minds who are so fundamentally different?
Libby - I have to start out by saying I feel very moved listening to Sami, it kind of breaks my heart to know all of this is happening. It is a dark time and in one sense I could say, Oh my God, thirty plus years of effort and look where we are, but in another sense, I do have a feeling for what does work. I wish that I could work with Sami and all the people I know in Israel and Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza people that we've worked with and known over the 30 years. Locally, we've gone to many schools, universities, high schools and shared our story of a Palestinian and a Jew side by side sharing their stories that people here could.
I was watching on the news seeing all the hostilities going on the college campuses - totally for the Palestinians or totally for the Israelis. I just keep thinking, is there somebody on that campus who can bring them together and sit them down, let them look at each other's eyes and make that heart connection. Who are you really? What are your dreams? What are your goals? How can I support you? You are a fellow human being.
Over the 30 years our dialogue group was so active and so big and spread in many places for a long time. Then over the years it kind of faded out. But recently with everything that's happening, suddenly the press is contacting me asking are you still active? Can we send people to you? We've had new people calling up and saying I want to be part of the dialogue. And so on the twelfth (December) next week, I'm hosting a gathering here at the house and new people are coming. We will be working together to start new.
In the dialogue, we know we are compassionate listeners. In the dialogue, we know that they're our 2 narratives, but in the end, we all can learn how to cooperate and live together and appreciate each other and how beautiful it would be if that kind of community could come along, if that If that could ever really happen. So I think we have to start fresh. We have to start new. We have to get people to have this experience. There are groups like Combatants for Peace and The Bereaved Parents and Holy Land Trust, that understand the power of non-violence. They understand the power of meeting each other and having relationships.
For me, the great need is to build that grassroots group, increase the people who have the experience of being with the other and appreciating each other and what each group brings to the table - Palestinians, Christians, Muslims, Jews. They’re all human beings and they want to have a meaningful life.
We, as human beings, we have got to move into a new way of functioning as human beings with a new consciousness about our oneness and our humanity. It's now or never.
I go by the words of our friend, Hal Sanders, who's no longer with us, but said there are things that governments can do such as signing binding agreements. Well, governments are failing, my friends, they have not done their job. But there are things that we citizens can do outside of government and that is build human relationships.
I would say our challenge today is going back to work, building the human relationships and, and seeing each other as human and equal. We’re living in a time when never before have we realized how interrelated, interconnected and interdependent we all are. Everybody on this living system, we are experiencing a climate crisis that's going to be pushing and shoving people around this earth. So we had better get it together with our belief and our understanding that all is one. Now is the time to figure it out that what's happening in Gaza and in Israel is not the only place where there's war in the world, as we all know. We, as human beings, we have got to move into a new way of functioning as human beings with a new consciousness about our oneness and our humanity. It's now or never. I feel very strongly we have to do it. Now's the time.
Janessa - I forgot to mention that you were all that you are also a climate activist and how related those two things are and it's just powerful to see how your work rippled out as a reminder that both those things the climate and the dialogue groups are the peacebuilding that each of us can do. We're not signing the treaties, but we have that important work and ideally the work that we're doing translates into the people that we vote in to the leaders who are ready to sign those trade treaties and actually make the hard decisions.
TH Cuhlane (00:25:46)
Janessa - All of your remarks are actually a wonderful tie into our next speaker who is very climate-focused - TH Cuhlane, an urban planner. One of the seven values of Euphrates is sustainability because we see how the issues of conflict and climate and sustainability are interconnected and linked and TH's work just goes right to the heart of that. It is so practical. He's focused on investing in creative solutions for people's sanitation and energy problems and he's gotten first-hand experience doing this in places where people have very little money to invest in energy, and yet he is equipping people on a practical level to be sustainable and that's showing those who have little how they can use these creative solutions. And it's also an inspiration for those of us who use too much to deal with less. TH, there's like a million questions I want to ask you. One is I'd love to hear you articulate how sustainability and conflict are tied together and interconnected. Also you are one of the most creative people I know and energetic and optimistic and I would love to know where does that come from for you? Where do you go for inspiration? How do you continually get this juice to think outside the box and to just, you know, look at problems and instead of running the other direction.
TH - It's pretty easy to answer that question because I run to the river. I run to the Euphrates Institute. I run to the literal Euphrates. I'm an Iraqi American and I've spent time both in my early childhood and later on in adult life in Iraq and and I've gone to the Jordan River where I've been baptized twice and I run to every stream upstream downstream tributary that can sustain me knowing we’ve actually created the very groups you’re talking about, Libby. That’s what’s so wonderful about these watering holes, these tributaries, watering holes. That group Libby, that you spoke about is us. We, on a daily basis through our encounters at the University of South Florida and at Mercy University, New York [where I teach]
When I step into the the course (I'm not gonna say the classroom because I'm abandoning a lot of that language), the course is like a river. I'm with these other co-learners who are really hungry to share food for thought, to share knowledge and to have respectful dialogue about this and I hear the problems on other campuses. On our campus what I've seen participating in some of the marches for children…It was amazing you had Palestinian flags and Israeli flags and you had the Christmas trees that were set. So it was all there – there was white, there was green, there was blue, and people playing in the fountains that were lit up in different colors. And you thought, you know, most of us actually do get it right despite the fact that there's so much horror that's still going on. These legacy horrors that you talked about, Sami, are unconscionable.
We just have to turn to that light and in all of its manifestations then follow it down its own tributaries and open up those spaces and overwhelm the shadows with that light.
The light that is shining is something that I keep returning to as a source. When Sami was speaking as a keynote when I went to the Principia College, he said that if people here in the United States were looking for Christ, they don't need to look anymore, he already came back. The Spirit of Christ is here, but we're looking away from that. It's like when you stand and the sun is behind you and all you see is the darkness of your shadow in front of you and people are tapping on the shoulder going turn around. Turn around the light is right there. But we're looking into our own shadow and so of course you're not going to see it. There's a lot of people here in Florida who declare themselves evangelical and I go to church in evangelical churches and I'm trying to explain that they are waiting for the wrong coming, that the coming that's supposed to happen is our becoming. We just have to turn to that light and in all of its manifestations then follow it down its own tributaries and open up those spaces and overwhelm the shadows with that light.
And going back to my early work when I first met Sami, I was working with the US Embassy and twice I was called to go to Gaza. I was getting ready to get into the car to bring in sustainability technologies to our colleagues in Gaza and twice in 2 different years had to abort because Israeli government airstrikes began that moment when we were in the car heading to Gaza. I'm very blessed that I was able to turn around and was not actually in a site when those missiles hit. And so we sat watching the devastation, working with the journalists and watching them come back with this horrific footage…We ended up doing our broadcast on a satellite link. We proceeded with the calls to try to teach these existential interventions that can end the zero-sum game mentality.
When Martin Luther King Jr. said it's not a question of not violence or non-violence, it's a question of non-violence or nonexistence, it was predicated too at a time when we had to deal with nuclear weapons which we still have to deal with. We had to deal with collapsing environments and now climate change has really raised the ante as it accelerates.
I'm the director of the climate mitigation adaptation program at the Patel College of Global Sustainability and I'm also teaching environmental psychology and cultural anthropology. And we talk in our courses about amygdala hijacking - how we're forcing everybody into a fight or flight response, yet we know from psychology and sociology, from biological science, from evolutionary psychology, we know that we have all the tech know-how. Tech know-how includes ancient indigenous technologies and modern technologies and everything in between. We have the tech know-how to solve our existential problems. We really do.
There's so many technologies, permaculture techniques. Sami and I were out at Tamara working on permaculture which is permanent agriculture and permanent social culture. It’s everything you need to graft a better society peacefully. We, in this field, all know that the techniques are there.
In all of our dialogue has always been we know how to do this, folks. We can solve people's trauma…But somehow our voices get lost when we doubt the collective power of this type of a group because the horror seems overwhelming.
My wife's brother's fiance is in Gaza right now and she just lost her aunt yesterday, 50 years old, hitting an airstrike. Her uncle was killed last week. Her sisters went out to try to find tomatoes and got shrapnel, one in the leg, one in the head, and 2 different strikes. We sent money over to get a sim card so we can hear them. [What] we can hear is never good when they're able to connect…and the indomitable hope that they have. And they went out to find a painkiller in a local pharmacy because the hospitals don't have any so they had to operate without any anesthetic or analgesics.
It’s horrible and you hear this and you cry. We hug each other, we weep, we watch the news, but then you think that nightmare is solvable. And if it wasn't solvable, maybe I would succumb to despair.
It's a bitter frustration because I have Jewish, Christian, and Muslim relatives direct kin, so I can't take, couldn't possibly take any side. I mean, there's pain wherever I look, but there's also this feeling you feel. When I worked with missionaries to try to fight leprosy with the Dayak people in the deep forest, we knew that these diseases were curable. And the gospel that we were trying to bring, the good news was there is a cure. And it may not arrive in time. Yes, as you've said, it may not arrive in our lifetimes. I hope it does. I hope we can do it. But letting the public know that we have the cure socially, environmentally, ecologically, psychologically.
Janessa - Thank you for restoring my hope that the solutions are there. We have them, we know them. It’s ust a matter of inspiring each other to adopt them and to actually live it. I love how you in your being connects Iraq, Palestine, environment, peace.
Nousha Kabawat (00:38:45)
And we're going to move now to another corner of the Middle East, Nousha Kabawat, who grew up in Damascus and in 2013 founded an organization called Project Amal ou Salam, Hope and Peace, that works with Syrian refugee children as a response to that crisis. She founded this organization to empower the future leaders of Syria through education, intervention, and trauma-based care, which has touched over 7,000 Syrian children giving them these educational opportunities.
What I'd wanted to ask you, Nousha, specifically in thinking about these dark times and what these children endured. What did you see that fostered their capacity for this resilience and their ability to express, that incredible joy, that incredible optimism and hope even in the face of the circumstances of what they had witnessed when they fled their homes, living in this new country in this new space? What do you think gave them and you that resilience?
Nousha - Thank you so much, Janessa, for organizing this. I think there's so much value for people who are trying our best to make the change necessary in the world for us to have the safe space..at least for us not to feel alone, to not feel like we're the only ones who are feeling the darkness, the heaviness of what's going on.
The disclaimer I want to give first is that when I received the award and when I met Janessa who came to the school, I was 26 years old. I was filled with hope, filled with energy, filled with this desire to give back to my country.
I grew up between Syria and Canada. I wanted to give children an opportunity that I had received in my own lifetime - this ability to be children, to grow up in Damascus in a safe home, to grow up in Canada, experiencing summer camps and creativity and just having this feeling of security and safety and not having to worry about things like war and death and conflict.
The first time I traveled to Syria after the conflict began, what I witnessed from Syrian children, I was mind-blown. Imagine - you grow up everyday thinking about being a refugee, every day thinking about war, about when you're going to live, when you're going to die, if your family is going to live…to think about how children wake up every single day with no hope.
How are these kids going to grow up? Who are they going to become? And what Sami said is still resonating with me because what I've built this whole program around is the lack of healing. I thought if one day we're going to ask these children to go back and rebuild this country. What if they have not had that opportunity to heal, to recover, to grow, to understand who they are unrelated to a conflict? How do you give these children the opportunity to not just be victims of a conflict but to really understand who they are underneath that. What is their favorite color? Is it just red because they see it constantly on the news? What is their favorite sport? Just to give them that opportunity.
I want to tell the story here that it's just I think very symbolic to how my perception has changed. In 2017 I was running one of our biggest workshops in Jordan with about 300 to 400 children. And at the end of the day, we always have all of the children line up and sing the Amal ou Salam song, the hope and peace song of our school and of our project which basically says, you know, we are the generation of hope and peace. We will rebuild Syria.
At that moment, we were standing, the volunteers and the kids and our coordinator from Jordan came and whispered in my ear. He said there's just been a chemical attack in Idlib in Syria where at least 25 children died. In that moment I ran inside, I cried…I had these two conflicting ideas. One was what am I doing? Is this a load of BS? Am I trying to instill this idea of hope and peace and that these children are gonna go home and rebuild their country. When the reality is if they were in their country they would be dead.
I could instill a message in them. I could instill values beyond hate and revenge and fear. I wanted them to understand that we are more than that.
But then I have this other thought. How much do you have to hate your people to gas them to death? I'm very sorry about the strong language, but I think it's really important to understand that you must really hate your own people. We're not talking about two completely different people. We're talking about Syrians killing Syrians. There must be so much hate in these people's hearts. There must be so much grievance and conflict and fear for you to gas your own people. And I think this is exactly when, like Sami was saying, that's when if you let fear become the motivation, it allows for this to happen. And in that moment, I was even more reassured and more convicted that I needed to instill tolerance at least in these children. I knew that there wasn't much I could do at that moment, but I could with these 300 kids, I could instill a message in them. I could instill values beyond hate and revenge and fear. I wanted them to understand that we are more than that.
I think this is what has grown with me over the years. My idea of hope has changed, and I think the way I present it to children has changed as well. I've learned the hard way and I'm sure all of you have understood that and felt that sometimes hope can be really dangerous. It can be very powerful, but it can sometimes really be a dangerous thing.
The last time I saw my home in Damascus was January 2011. That's 12 years now. I think I lived the past 10 years every day thinking tomorrow I'll go back, tomorrow I'll go back. And I think that was really important for me in that moment of my life when I was young. Working with these children I was building this hope and resilience amongst a vulnerable community. But I think it really in some way harmed me on a personal level. And I'm just saying this because I feel like I owe it to other changemakers and activists to give you this realistic perspective which is not to not have hope, but I think to be realistic with that hope. I think I put a lot of my life on hold because I had the desire and hope that I would go back the next day to Syria.
So I think I changed and in a way the messaging with children changed a little bit as well. Instead of constantly telling them you're going to go back to Syria and become the next president or become a teacher, a lawyer and all this, the messaging changed to giving them hope that they can live wherever they want to be and they can become whoever they want to be for them and not just because they owe it to their country. And I think that messaging is much better because I think it protects them from maybe an unrealistic hope that I myself suffered from at some point in my life.
We still continue to work with the kids. I work for a human rights organization on transitional justice. I work with old men in suits in New York, in Geneva where you see little things happening. Being able to go to my own school in Jordan that hosts Palestinian children and Jordanian children and seeing how these kids are becoming good people, this is what gives me hope. We can't change the course of this conflict, but we might be able to change the course of the lives of these kids and ensure that they have hope to become whoever they want to be and whatever that looks like. They're not a lost generation. They're getting the education they need, the safety they need, and the space to grow and to continue to instill in them these ideas of tolerance, most importantly, whether that's religious tolerance or any type of tolerance, and an idea of love.
Janessa - Nousha, it reminds me of that story of the grandpa and the little boy who were walking on the beach and he was throwing in the stranded starfish one by one. The whole beach was covered and the little boy was like, Look at all this, we'll never be able to save them. What difference does it make? And the grandpa said it made a difference to that one.
I think what you're pointing to is not a sense of a hope grounded in denial, or spiritual bypassing, but really what does it look like to be so clear-eyed and really mature. Maybe it’s not even hope, maybe it's just resilience. And maybe it's still continuing the work in the face of that. I love hearing how your approach has evolved and yet you're still doing the work and still showing up and committed.
The most important thing I've learned for me is that if I want to continue doing this work and I want to continue supporting my people and other communities, I have to really be able to take care of myself to do that.
Nousha - I think my point for everyone on the call is something important that I learned. My efforts were let's take care of the psychosocial conditions of the children because I think in our communities, it's a bit tough to talk about mental health for adults. So it's okay to talk about it for children because they're vulnerable anyways. The most important thing I've learned for me is that if I want to continue doing this work and I want to continue supporting my people and other communities, I have to really be able to take care of myself to do that. I think a lot of Syrians and I'm sure a lot of Palestinians and everyone else and other places are really learning that. It's so cliche, but it's so true.
Ahmad Shah Karimi (00:51:14)
Janessa - We're going to go now turn to Ahmad Shah Karimi from Afghanistan who has become a refugee. He fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took over in 2021 and is now living in Berlin. He is the founder of AYEPO, the Afghan Youth Empowerment and Peacebuilding Organization, that works to empower Afghan. They've had to readjust now that many of the leadership is outside of Afghanistan as refugees. Refugee comes from the French word refugee, which is someone who has gone in search of refuge and thinking of you and the newly displaced in Gaza and in so many places and thinking of future climate refugees and all that you know might be coming down the pike, how do you find refuge and a sense of home and hope without family, without familiarity for you in this context?
Ahmad - Thank you very much Janessa and the entire Euphrates team and community for your continuous support and kindness. Before I respond that question, I would like to acknowledge that the Euphrates Institute award bestowed the visionary of the year to AYEPO of which I am a small part, to a team of which I'm a fellow traveler. Their names might be new to you and some of the names may not be known. Some of them got the chance to live with me and some of them remain back in the country.
Where one is born and raised and where one comes from occupies a treasured place in one's heart. No matter where one goes in the world it may not give the same feeling. And though one may not be able to carry that home. with oneself, physically, one can carry it or hold it dear in one's heart while also finding homer far away from that home that one has left behind with all the dreams and hopes. It is very challenging and difficult. But sometimes things happen that change one's life. The world keeps going and one has to go with it and to maybe accept the reality that there is.
For me early on when I arrived in Berlin I was full of excitement because there was a sense of freshness. Then slowly the sense of homesickness would wash over me and I would think about my family, my friends, my colleagues, the wonderful young people that I was privileged to work with. It is very hard to answer that question of finding refuge or finding hope.
Given the fact that what is happening in the world and how one conflict occurs and another will come and sort of replace that. In August, the focus was Afghanistan, then it shifted to Ukraine. Then it shifted to Israel and Palestine…And then the people forget about the old one and it goes on and on. It has always been and always will be. It is difficult to see that.
what keeps me going…is that thinking or hoping against hope that there would be a difference sunrise in Afghanistan and democracy resurfaces again so that I can travel there and go and sit at the top of the mountain overlooking my village…
For me personally, it's been so amazing to have the support of so many wonderful people to make this transition less painful.So that I find a sense of home here (in Berlin) while also thinking about home, about my family. And what keeps me going…is that thinking or hoping against hope that there would be a difference sunrise in Afghanistan and democracy resurfaces again so that I can travel there and go and sit at the top of the mountain overlooking my village and feel the valley rays cool my chest and relive old memories. And to see how beautiful that would be or someday when there is peace and security in the country for everyone, not only the citizens of the country but also other people would be able to travel in Afghanistan to see the beauty and the richness and the vitality that there is.
Those are my hopes…that one day there would be change. One day there would be those that are silenced at the moment, the young women and girls would again, come in the mainstream and spearhead the changes as they did in the past 20 years. Though they are hidden and kind of you know box in the corner of their homes, someday they will re-emerge and there will be changed.
I think each person has a responsibility to contribute, to raise awareness and to help. We look to politicians, but if there was peace and tranquility and joy, we wouldn’t need to choose politicians.So the government could work on other things. So I think as citizens, we need to think about this and how we could contribute to that.
Janessa - I think you bring up such an important point and my heart goes out to you…that there is this short attention span. It’s just the most immediate fashion statement of war. It just breaks my heart that when we weren't talking about Gaza then the Palestinians felt forsaken and forgotten and now you must feel that we've abandoned the whole topic of Afghanistan and yet you are dealing daily with the repercussions.
I invite all of us into this question. We can't be so overwhelmed. For me, what helps is to look at the patterns. It's not one at the expense of the other. These patterns of conflict and systems of oppression and violence are interconnected and that they're linked and so it's not one taking our attention over another. It’s seeing that though all those patterns are reinforcing, and so are the solutions. When we do address one, we’re addressing all of them. That’s one way I’m trying to look at it. I invite us all into that question and to hold you and all those in conflict in our hearts.
Ronny Edry (01:00:58)
Janessa - With all of those in conflict in our hearts today and in our mind for solutions I'd like to turn to Ronny who has just given his class a break so that he could join us. Ronny Edry from Tel Aviv was our second visionary of the year and he really struck me with this amazing story. It was a time of heightened conflict and tension between Iran and Israel. He was posting hundreds of pictures and not getting any traction. And then he posted this one. He's holding his daughter, there's a big heart and it says We love you Iran we will never bomb your country. And he awoke up the next morning to thousands of likes and messages that had gone viral and he had all of these private messages from Iranians that he didn't know, thanking him, saying we love you back, this meant so much to us.
What I wanted to ask you is especially pertinent right now with the war in Gaza and how everything is playing out in such a new context with the media these days. I want to ask you what role do you believe media and social media is playing in the current conflicts to either humanize or dehumanize and how can we tip the scales towards the former – using it as a tool for humanity?
Ronny - When we met, almost 10 years ago, it was because social media and I guess at that time using social media was a nice answer that helps connecting people. And today I think that social media is mostly responsible (I’m not sure it’s their goal to do on purpose)…for polarization and radicalization. You have to choose a side. It's very hard to have an opinion that’s not 100% pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli. It's very hard to be sad for the children on both sides. You have to be a hundred percent on one side.
Those conflicts are very complicated and you can't have just one view. It can't be just the good on one side and the bad on the other side.
Those conflicts are very complicated and you can't have just one view. It can't be just the good on one side and the bad on the other side. It's never that simple. And social media is mostly, from what I see, is mostly radicalizing people. It’s created dehumanization. If you’re on the Israeli side, all Palestinian are bad people. If you’re on the Palestinian side, all Israeli are the devil. It's very, very hard to have an opinion that is in the middle. It's very hard to call for peace. It's very hard to even say the word peace. It's very complicated to ask for a ceasefire and social media is not helping.
No one is trying to make the connections we had ten years ago, when it was way easier to talk with people from the other side. Ten years ago, I had dialogue with Palestinians. And it seems now it's not happening. I see people arguing. Most of the time they are arguing about how it started. Who's responsible? It’s issues about timeline and maps and politics. And then most of the time it's not people trying to resolve things on the human.
Janessa - Thank you, Ronny. It is sad and yet I know that you consistently use this as a tool to make your voice heard. I see your posts. I follow you. I see the reaction you get. I love that you are consistently pushing back. You get all kinds of reactions to your post and yet you are fearless in your support of and your humanization of both sides. You do not back down, you engage people in the fight for peace and I appreciate how you have used the tool as a way to humanize.
And I just heard studies that say social media has not swayed people one way or the other, like in large ways. In fact, it's hardened their position. But what it can do is humanize a perspective. If a friend or someone you know and respect is articulating something thoughtfully, then it does put a human face on it. I think that you are doing that for so many people in this conflict, even if it's a lone voice in the wilderness. You are showing up and your audience is there and it's large and I appreciate how you use this tool not to separate and divide, but to bring us together. So thank you for being here and showing up.
James Offuh (01:09:03)
Janessa - I want to turn it now to James Offuh, a peacebuilder from Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire, the founder of an organization called United for Peace Against Conflict International. He's also become a member of the Euphrates staff. He has been integral to the success of our peace programs.
James is amazing. He was the only one who was successful in reconciling two warring tribes in Cote d'Ivoire, the Gueree and Dozos. When everyone else said, no way, this is not possible, you for some reason were like yes way we're going in here and I'm going to take on this challenge of reconciling these two tribes which you have documented. I want to know what gave you the inspiration and the courage to go into that darkness and actually do something about it, to bring the hope? What inspired you to take on that challenge that everyone said was impossible?
Offuh - Thank you so much, Janessa, and thank you so much to my colleagues that have shared beautifully.
I’m coming from a background where my family suffered greatly in the Biafran War in Nigeria. My parents suffered so much. From 1967-1907 claimed the lives of up to 3000 people. When you join that as you turn to the wars we are seeing globally today, Ukraine has more than 500,000 casualties, and Gaza more than 15,000. On both sides death tolls are rising.
I think this is why I'm called into this mission. In 2012 when I got a vision to set up a nonprofit after the Ivory Coast local government slaughter that claimed up to 5,000 souls, dead bodies on the street that changed something in my life. I asked myself one question. Why must communities, nation states use violence to seek political or social change. Why not dialogue? Why not negotiate? Why? That is what inspired me to take up the cause and my spiritual belief inspired me too.
I remember April first in my barber shop very early in the morning during the heat of the war. In 5 am in my meditation as I always do, I heard a voice that spoke to me “Unite communities for peace to save humanity from destruction.”
I go to create hope and create faith and love among the antagonists and the protagonists. I think I have made an impact in my mission.
Something Sami shared struck my heart when he spoke of an eye for an eye - that keeps the whole world blind. He said let's reimagine us all living together. That has been the inspiration that took me to Duekoue 400 kilometers from the Ivory Coast when the government, the United Nations Civil Affairs, everyone said it's a red zone. No one goes there. If you go, you must die. But one thing that came into my mind I said, It must be someone. Someone must stand in the gap, notwithstanding I'm a father of 4 children. But I ask myself what? What purpose am I here on the earth? When I see this place - death, despair, pregnant women massacred, children dead on the streets. Who will go? I told my team we are going there. If there is nothing else, I will achieve on my mission. I go to create hope and create faith and love among the antagonists and the protagonists. I think I have made an impact in my mission. And that was exactly what took me on my team to Duekoue.
Janessa - Wow. That's amazing. And I just love the sense of conviction and power that you're bringing to this gathering. We've always said you you're like a preacher, viewing us all with a sense of hope and passion to take on the greatest challenges
Q & A / Reflections (01:15:30)
Sharon - My question is we were talking about hope and reasonable amount of hope. Is there any problem with just dreaming really, really big? Like through all of the darkness just continuing to push to dream bigger and bigger. Because I believe that our creator, always dreaming bigger and bigger. That's my question. Is there a problem with it? Just something to ponder. Doesn't need answered.
I am a quadriplegic. I sustained a spinal cord in 2016. I live in a nursing home. And right after I became paralyzed there was a bombing the Pulse Nightclub shooting here in Orlando and it just dawned on me that it's so awful that bad things can still happen to us just from having a body. But people actually going out to harm each other is so heartbreaking. But through my quadriplegic and everything, I've just continued to dream bigger and bigger. I found a place of immense hope. I just want to leave that question with everybody to ponder over the next few days. Is there a problem with dreaming too big? I encourage you through my own wisdom to continue to dream really big through these dark times because I believe that we are going to push past the breaking point and we're going to get there.
Janessa - Thank you, Sharon. And knowing your circumstances because I know you in our in our other circles, how much light you bring and humor to your circumstance, it inspires all of us. Thank you so much!
Rafi - Hi everyone. My name is Refito. I'm coming from Lebanon. I was actually an exchange student and I lived with Janessa and her family, and it was such an amazing experience. I feel like Janessa and what she has gone through truly inspired me and like the visionaries and when they were talking about their experience in a sense resonated with what they said.
I’m in university right now studying political science, international affairs and I'm minoring in conflict analysis and resolution. I feel like I live in Lebanon and it's mostly militias or political parties that are in power. There's not much you can do if you do not belong to a party, especially when you want to change.
Before going on the exchange program, I had my mind set to become a doctor, but I was inspired by people like Janessa, Janessa herself, and I joined other circles and meetings with her and that was truly inspirational.
In my university we've been having a lot of events that support the Palestinian cause and I feel like that has brought a lot of hope to a lot of people especially me with my fellow exchange programme, Kerim Al-fadi. He lives in Gaza, he's from Palestine. They lost their house, his family, and they've been going through such a hard time. I've been trying to stay in contact with him as much as I could, and I've been just showing him how the Lebanese people were supporting the Palestinian cause and the people of Palestine. I feel like it's important for us to show the people in Gaza that people around the world do support them and support their peace.
I really hope to get enough power in the future, or influence, to change what I can in Lebanon – how they view the conflict and then maybe try to find the middle ground that is best suited for everyone. I feel like there's hope if you look for it.
Janessa - Thank you, Rafi. My host friend, thank you for being here and all that you're doing in Lebanon.
Salome - I'm calling from Nigeria. We don't have power. That's why it's black there. My question is around the use of social media. I agree with Ronny that it is actually responsible for the polarization of information on stories that we have, but at the same time, it can still be a tool for positive change. How can we better engage social media positively to pass the message of peace across our world.
Janessa - That's a huge question, and I think it would be a good one for a future Euphrates Global Connection Call. It's so important and we're each, it's so important and we're each, you know, using this tool. So that would be wonderful.
Wazieh - Thank you so much for all the visionaries we. It was so powerful, and inspiring. I was meditating while the call was going on. Here we have a community of about 113. Given the sharing on social, it can be a tool to divide and unite. We see how we always judge who is at fault. And I believe our culture or religion has placed great impact or a great role in this.
My thoughts that I want to leave with everyone who has been here and been inspired by all that has been shared here is what actions can this community of 113 do? Imagine when we go to our various places and in our peacebuilding work in our community, what actions can we implement to ensure that how we as individuals can look beyond this and see beyond ethnicity or culture or custom or traditions. Thank you so much.
Janessa - Thank you all so much. But this has been so powerful and heartwarming for me personally and thank you to our visionaries.
Closing (01:23:38)
Katy - Thank you, everyone. This is then such a beautiful call.
One of the reasons that we've come together today, first and foremost to hear from our visionaries and to remember the importance of turning to the light in times of darkness. Another reason we're coming together is that we are making a shift into our, in our visionaries of the year award program. Going forward, we're not going to have one award each year. Euphrates will be shifting from an annual award program, to recognizing and uplifting visionary peacebuilders in new ways. Our global community has grown tremendously and it has become clear that we need to expand beyond one award to recognize the visionary work happening at the grassroots level in all corners of the world. Our call today marks a shift from the Visionary of the Year Award to a celebration of the vision of so many in our global community doing the courageous work of peacebuilding. We are grateful many of our award recipients are back with us today to “pass the torch” to this next generation of visionaries and celebrate this new chapter.
In order to sustain our work in 2024 and beyond we are asking our community for contributions. If you are able to donate this giving season we invite you to do so on our website and we can put the link in the chat.
I want to thank Sami, TH, Nousha, Ahmad, Ronny, James and Libby for representing the light this world so desperately needs. I also want to thank all of you for .We all have this opportunity to practice peace in our lives and whole vision for peace with ourselves and our relationships in our communities and the world.
We all have the opportunity to practice peace in our lives and to hold a vision for peace with ourselves, our relationships, our community and our world. We look forward to seeing you in 2024 when our Global Connections calls resume!