Connecting Cultures: 2009 Dialogue in the Desert
The MBI Al Jaber Foundation is proud to announce its continued support as the leading sponsor for Connecting Cultures with a grant towards its girls desert journey in Oman in December 2009.
Our support for this project adds to the previous grant that the MBI Al Jaber Foundation gave in 2005 to support the Connecting Cultures Arctic expedition and to the Desert Safari in 2007 and to the 2008 Girls Desert Journey.
This year, Connecting Cultures will take 18 young strangers, western and Arab women, on an expedition together for 5 days in the Oman desert, where they will engage in cultural and educational exchanges to give them a new perspective on the world, and each other.
Connecting Cultures hopes to engage thousands of young people on this journey through its interactive website that shares blogs, diaries and videos from the students and a series of downloadable English and Arabic lesson plans for teachers to use in the classroom developed in partnership with UNESCO.
In Istanbul at the UN Alliance of Civilisations Market Place of ideas for innovative projects on April 6th 2009, Connecting Cultures was identified as one of the world’s most innovative civil society projects in the field of intercultural dialogue.
Connecting Cultures’ 2009 desert journey is also endorsed and supported by the UNESCO office in Doha and ISESCO.
Established in 2004, Connecting Cultures is a unique educational initiative that promotes face to face dialogue with young people from the western and Arab world via short wilderness journeys. The aim of this dialogue is to celebrate cultural diversity, break down stereotypes, identify shared values and in so doing promote understanding and help reduce the polarisation of cultures. Based in the Sultanate of Oman, Connecting Cultures works in partnership with governmental, corporate and charitable sectors. It is endorsed by UNESCO and works to support the key aims of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations. DHL are the main corporate sponsors of the Connecting Cultures programme.
Further information on Connecting Cultures including more on this year’s journey can be found on their website http://www.connectingcultures.co.uk/.
