A day designed to focus on creating community – and the individual's part in it – drew over 100 to Initiatives of Change's London Centre in Greencoat Place on 15 May, 2004.
Setting the scene for the forum, Peter Everington, a fluent Arabic speaker with a life-time's experience in the Middle East, underlined that this was a moment of challenge and opportunity in the world. 'We meet in the context of tremendous suffering in parts of the Middle East and of Africa,' he said. He hoped that the day would demonstrate what the individual could do to make a difference.
Mary Lean, Editor of the international magazine For a Change, spoke of her voluntary work with the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group. 'Our response to "the stranger at our door" is a litmus test of our society,' she said. 'If we don't go out to people, we miss the opportunity to open our hearts and minds to the world.' Just listening and offering support to detainees or asylum seekers was a challenging and enriching experience that she would recommend to everyone.
Howard Grace described how he had felt compelled to give up his job as a sixth-form Maths teacher after sensing the need in his students for deeper purpose and motivation. In the last nine years he had taken groups of speakers to address 600 sessions with sixth forms up and down the UK. 'I felt God leading me to take this adventurous step, with the full support of my wife. Last term our inter-active sessions concentrated on "vision and values". As one strand in this, students were asked to consider the proposition, "We have everything to live with and nothing to live for."'
Fabiola Benavente from Mexico shared what working with Initiatives of Change (IofC) in the UK had meant for her. 'I have seen that there is a role for me to play as a young person. I no longer think to myself, "I'll just get on with my career and only concern myself with social issues when I retire”. I will return to Mexico knowing there is a wider purpose for me, where I can make a difference right now.'
'Imagine a world where religion binds instead of divides,' said Simon Cohen. He told how his degree in theology and subsequent media experience had combined, so that sixth months ago he had felt led to leave his newspaper job and set up his own company, Tolerance Limited. He had recently helped organise a Faith and the Media conference and was now working on organising a National Conference on the Media and a Multi-Faith Society in 2005. 'People create wars, not religions,' he affirmed.
Another person who shared her vision was Amina Dikedi from Nigeria. 'With all the problems in Africa it is easy to feel defeated and to suffer from a lack of self esteem,' she said. 'You feel there is nothing you can do about it.' Her vision is that a different leadership in Africa can be created. She described how this was beginning to happen through IofC's Clean Africa Campaign.
She was followed by Osman Jama Ali, who had served as Deputy Prime Minister in the recent Transitional Government of Somalia. He told how he had now found a new role as a 'freelance reconciler', helping to rebuild trust between the different communities and factions. The key to credibility in doing this was a public commitment he had made not to seek office for himself.
After these contributions from Africa came a parade of inspiring initiatives. Alexander Pinchook spoke of his work with the NGO Centre Action in Belarus. It was working to mitigate the effects of contamination following the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster.
Vitalie Cracan from Moldova outlined some of the work of the IofC programme Foundations for Freedom in eastern Europe. Ordinary people like himself had been able to find a role in mining out future leaders 'equipped with integrity, purpose and vision'. The challenge for him had been to move from just being a good human being to becoming 'an active and obedient good human being'.
Richard and Meili Hawthorne from Nottingham and Monica McIntosh from London illustrated some of the initiatives they were involved in from another IofC programme, Hope in the Cities. 'Bringing trust into situations is achievable when change starts with me,' said Monica McIntosh. Richard Hawthorne told how he was helping to organise a festival involving the whole community of St Ann's, an area of Nottingham where there had been headline problems in the past. The special day, 'Holding hands around St Ann's', designed to bring healing and new purpose, is scheduled for 17 July.
Participants from the Broadwater Farm estate in North London, spoke of finding courage to stand up for change. In another London borough there was an example of reaching out to befriend Vietnamese immigrants who had all been housed together in a block of flats.
We were reminded that 'even in a middle class English town like Saffron Walden' there was urgent need for tolerance and understanding.
Imad Karam from Gaza is doing his PhD degree in London on 'the impact of Arab satellite broadcasting on young people.' Alongside this he is working with IofC's film division. 'It's not just a case of finding work to support my studies,' he said. 'Here I have found a place where the spiritual combines with the technical and professional. There is a lot to do to counter misinformation and misunderstanding between Muslims and non-Muslims.'
A new pamphlet, The Sound of Silence -- how to find inspiration in the age of information, written by Michael Smith and published by Caux Books, was launched. The message coming through from the day was well summed up for me by Alan Searl, who works in the Foreign Office and had found IofC on the internet. 'On my way here this morning from Tower Bridge,' he said, 'I saw a poster which said in huge letters, “Inactivity is a weapon of mass destruction”. I didn't see what it was advertising, but it's so relevant to our theme today. Unless I can make a contribution, I am not empowered.'
One of the few questions there was time for was, 'Can we have another occasion like this?' Paul Williams
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