We are young digital natives reaching out across seemingly impenetrable national, social, political, ethnic, and sectarian barriers, employing the freedom created by media platforms to demand and create our own civil discourse.

Soliya: Building Bridges Between the West and the Arab World

January 11th, 2008Mohammad Azraq (Jordan)

In a previous post, I mentioned an initiative called Soliya,I didn’t elaborate on it back then as I wanted to dedicate a post to talking about this wonderful initiative that brings youth from the west and the Arab world together to dialogue and form a common ground of understanding.

Founded by Locas Welch, Soliya utilizes 21st century technology to bring students from the West (mainly the United States and Western Europe) and the Arab world in a credit worthy online interactive class of conflict resolution, where students see and hear each other through web cams and headsets, and engage in facilitated dialogue sessions on topics selected based on a curriculum set by the universities in partnership with Soliya. Universities in the U.S and Europe include Harvard University (US) , Georgetown University (U.S) , University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) , University of Bergen (Norway) and Dublin City University (Ireland) , in the Arab world AlAkhawayn University (Morocco) , University of Bahrain ( Bahrain ), University of Jordan ( Jordan), American University of Beirut (Lebanon) and American University in Cairo, see complete list here.

I will be working as a volunteer with Soliya facilitating sessions next semester, it’s an experience I look very much forward to , and will definitely be sharing it here.

We will start an online training for the facilitators next week, we were given articles and texts as reading materials for the training that I’m enjoying reading so much.

I leave you now with an approximately 6-minute report that CNN made on Soliya, it gives a very good insight about what Soliya is all about, in case you don’t have time to read on its website!.

YouTube Preview Image
Retweet Share on Facebook Arabs, Creativity, Education, General, USA, Youth
Report this post Print Trackback Follow RSS

5 Responses to “Soliya: Building Bridges Between the West and the Arab World”

  1. #1 PeacefulVanguard - January 12th, 2008 at 6:45 am

    I will be working as a volunteer with Soliya on facilitating sessions next semester, it’s an experience I look very much forward to , and will definitely be sharing it here.

    Per usual, Mohammad, you are doing some really cool work. Please do keep us updated.

  2. #2 Blue! - January 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    Thanks PV,I’m just trying my best to make a positive effect on the world no matter how small:-)

  3. #3 zak - January 17th, 2008 at 3:59 am

    hi there
    Salam,I pick up your adress from a site in the internet and i really find

    it interesting.

    Well,to introduce ourselves , We a Moroccans youth intersting to
    creat an association called
    youth for peace and Dialogue between cultures,we are looking to build a
    world where young poeple from diffrent religions backgrounds come togather
    to create understanding and respect by servibg thier communities.

    I’d like you ,please,to send me any informations you find it relevan
    to my interests and participate at any training or an exchange program to
    know and learn from each others

    thank you,

    Love and Peace

    Zakaria El hamel

    The President,The Founder

  4. #4 Blue! - January 17th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

    Thank you very much Zak, that sounds really noble, if at all possible you could send me an e-mail at azraq@mideastyouth.com , with more details about your project, and I would love to help you out.

  5. #5 Global Youth Dialogue Conference, Amman, May 29-31 - Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead - May 27th, 2008 at 8:57 am

    [...] this was soley due to the fact that I’ve been way over my head involved in a variety of youth initiatives that took me a way from blogging!.Last year, I participated in an American Jordanian youth dialogue [...]

Feel free to take part in our discussions and debates. Please be respectful and aware that what you say is only your opinion and may not agree with other points of views. Absolutely no hate speech or defamation will be tolerated. Be smart and comment smart. Read our comment policy to find out how not to annoy us.