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Discovering Interfaith Dialogue
Discovering Interfaith Dialogue
Start date: Jul 1, 2014,
End date: Jun 30, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
We plan for the activities to take place between 25.09 – 03.10.2014 and 14 – 22/10/2014. The main venue for both courses will be the ASHA Centre, located near Mitcheldean, Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
This is an Erasmus+ - Key Action 1 - The trainings will include two eight-day residential training activities for young people, volunteers, youth workers and activists of 10 different European organisations. The project is set within the context of an increasingly important place in contemporary European public life of religions, in particular of Islam and religions of the East. They become increasingly important not only as a result of migration processes (e.g. changes in local communities affected by new incomers) but also as a result of global affairs (e.g. the influence of the conflict in Syria on Islamic communities in Europe). Various phenomena arising from the growing presence of new religious communities are usually simplified and stereotyped in the media, which leads to exclusion and marginalisation based on lack of knowledge or lack of willingness to reach out to people of different faith. This is where interfaith dialogue provides an exceptional and distinctive tool of education. The main objective of these two training courses is Interfaith Dialogue and its impact on intercultural learning in youth work, notably in European context. The attention of this project will be on religions of the East (these religions include Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Bahaism, Taoism and Confucianism), and their relationship with other religions present in Europe. The main aim of the activities is to provide participants with competencies of interfaith dialogue as a concept bridging religious divides, as well as practical educational tools which can be used in work with young people coming from different cultural and religious backgrounds, fostering tolerance and dialogue between them. It also aims at increasing participants' knowledge of Islam and other religions of the East thus enriching their competencies in working with young people of different faith backgrounds. The methodology of the course is based on non-formal education. Participants will come from 8 different organisations (4 participants from each organisation). They will be youth workers/volunteers/youth activists working on a daily basis with their sending organisations. The organisations will come from: UK, Greece, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovenia and Bulgaria.