Meeting up in Amman

Coming from all walks of life and four countries the ambassadors of dialogue to come joined together in Amman and learned about empathy, active listening, acknowledging the other, and also how facilitate dialogue spaces.

By Rana Gaber

“It’s the first time after the pandemic for me to meet all these people together in one room, it gives me relief that we are back, back to life,” Yasmine Wartani from Tunisia says.

After one year and nine months, the international team of Ambassadors for dialogue was able to meet. The Covid-19 travel restrictions have made it very difficult for the youth volunteers, whom we call ambassadors for dialogue, to meet. Yet, the seminar was finally implemented in October 2021 for 10 days.

Jordan hosted the ambassadors from the 4 partner organizations, The Danish Youth Council, The Tunisian Scouts, The Danish Egyptian Dialogue Initiative, and also volunteers from the host organization in Jordan the WE Center.

“We are four different nationalities meeting up and exchanging views and trying to find common ground, to find similarities,” Michala Pedersen from Denmark says.

The international seminars are the space where the ambassadors are trained on how to be in dialogue with themselves, how to be in dialogue with the other, and how to host dialogue spaces. As simple as this may sound, coming from all walks of life, the experience itself becomes rich with diversity and an opportunity where the ambassadors are challenged about their opinions, values, and their views of the world.

Photo by Amany Fayed

The ambassadors experience

“The exchange of experience helps you see how to change the world around you,” Peter Nabil from Egypt says.

The ambassadors go through an intense training process where they learn about dialogue by being in dialogue. These dialogue spaces inspire them to look further into their views and opinions, reflect on their values, and vision of the world, and learn practically the tools that can help them stay in dialogue when its most difficult. Active listening, explorative questions, mirroring, and acknowledgement are only but few tools the ambassadors learn and practice together.

Through this learning journey they get to learn about themselves, the other, and also the world. Not only that, but also learn the different ways and methods for them to bring it back to their own organizations when they are back home.

When asked about how they felt during the seminar most of the answers were talking about how connected they felt to each other, how alive they felt from the dialogues they had together, feeling open like they have never been before, and finally feeling inspired to change the world to a more dialogical one.

“I felt so grateful for the existence of people, we all share the same sufferings, the same happy moments, yet we are all so different and diverse,” Mira Magued from Egypt says.

photo by Amany Fayed

Taking it further

“Being an ambassador for dialogue is like being in a continuous learning process” Dhia Dali, Tunisia

When the journey of the seminar ended and every country team was getting ready to go back, that did not mean a goodbye, it meant see you later. In spring 2022 this team will be meeting again, this time for a training seminar in Denmark, where they will get a chance to learn more about facilitating dialogue workshops, and also practically facilitating dialogue workshops for youth in Denmark whether in schools, universities, or different organizations. In addition, all teams will be active on the national level within their countries learning and teaching dialogue all year long.

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