Students for Dialogue
Timeframe: November 2009-October 2010
Location: Gaza City - Gaza Strip
Donor/s: UNDP, The Carter Center
Students for Dialogue are young people who are building their capacities in conflict resolution, transformation, tolerance and communication. The project aims to promote a culture of dialogue, reconciliation and national unity among young male and female students in the Gaza Strip and to form a student assembly to represent two of the main universities in Gaza .
Nominations of students representing various student groups were made on the basis of their extensive experience in volunteerism or community activism, academic achievement, good communication skills, open mindedness and respect for diversity.
As part of this pioneering initiative, Sharek Youth Center in Gaza, in cooperation with TIDA (The Center for Strategic Research), held a Question and Answer video-conference session with Professor Noam Chomsky in January 2010. The sessions focused on American foreign policy and Palestinian Statehood.
Project Fact Box
- 40 students were interviewed, 20 students selected
- All student groups engaged in dialogue and activities
- Debate with Noam Chomsky held in January 2010
Working and learning together
Khaled Sa’id Sa’id Nabhan is 21 years of age. He is a student at Al Azhar University studying science. He is the representative of the Students Union Block. Khaled said, “I was motivated to participate in the Students for Dialogue Project firstly in order to meet the representatives of the various students bodies that exist in other universities and to get to know them better and deeper in the hope one day to be friends far away from partisanship. The second reason is to benefit from the project’s activities such as the training courses and discussion sessions”. The most interesting thing in the project according to Khaled is, “the good relations between the participants and their respect for each other”. Khaled also said, “when we cleaned the wall of Al Azhar university it proved that all the student bodies could work together as one”.
