Jan13
Multiple sessions between Portuguese students of Management at Nova SBE and Deema Mimi, from the Youth Council in Ramallah, and Zeina Soudi, Manager at Dialogue Cafe, on issues related to learning and training skills in communication, since both were speakers at TEDx Aveiro in June 2013.
Deema Mimi and Zeina Soudi had to learn to stand on stage to communicate to audiences of hundreds of people, and sharing this experience was important for the dozens of students from the Communication, Leadership and Ethics course, who came to Dialogue Cafe. Naturally all discussed the political and social issues related to the daily lives of Palestinians and these topics were of great interest for Portuguese students.
Jan4
Experimental session between portuguese Ubuntu Academy students and leaders, and David Munir, the Dialogue Cafe Manager in Beirut, Lebanon. This session was very lively and the discussion was very illuminating, since dozens of Portuguese students came to Dc in Lisbon.
In Lebanon was a Syrian journalist, correspondent for the Washington Post, who gave his testimony as a freelance journalist forced to live in exile in Beirut. After the session all these students had a lecture on the political issues in the Middle East, and particularly in countries like Lebanon, Syria and Palestine
Dec13
The University of Northampton launched a short film to continue to push for the need to place Early Childhood Development at the heart of the United Nations post-2015 development goals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6twHsJD864
Dr. Eunice Lumsden, University Teaching Fellow and Deputy Divisional Leader (Early Years) School of Education in The University of Northampton, brought to Dialogue Cafe an impressive group o experts to match with portuguese peers on this subject.
The aim of the ‘Dialogue’ was to share what is happening in England to support the Post 2015 agenda and how others may look to take it forward in their own context to really place early childhood on the agenda.
At Northampton University were: Dr Nurper Ulkuer–former chief ECD UNICEF; Prof Denise Hevey Head Early Years University of Northampton (UoN); Dr Jane Murray (UoN); Dr Jane Payler (Head of Early Years Research Winchester University); Pam Calder (Chair of Early Childhood Studies Network); Carolyn Silberfield (University of East London–co chair ECS degree network); Sharon Smith (Senior lecture early years and health background
Dr Celia Doyle social work background and child abuse guru joined, as will representative from OMEP.
Dec4
Amal Ramsis, from Egypt, Cemre Asarli, from Turkey, and Necati Sönmez, also from Turkey, came to Dialogue Cafe to meet students in Lisbon and share their testimonies and stories as documentarists who keep filming and interviewing people before, during and after the recent revolutions in the Arab world.
Necati Sönmez is the director of a documentary film festival in Istanbul. After studying aeronautical engineering, he worked as a film critic, photographer, and journalist before starting to shoot and produce documentary films. His debut work, Theo’s Gaze (2003) looked at the work of Greek director Theo Angelopoulos. His award winningTo Make an Example of (2007) explored the reasons behind the death of the hundreds of people executed since the founding of the Turkish republic. Sönmez is founder of DOCUMENTARIST – Istanbul Documentary Days, which presents films from the Arab world, ethnographic documentaries, and films exploring the post-communist era. The festival also raises the issue of human rights in Turkey.
Amal Ramsis, author of Forbidden, repeated what she already said to the press: “This film is not about the Egyptian revolution. The film explores the idea of society as both the inhibitor and facilitator of the forbidden. It handles the contradiction between everything being off limits and people doing what they please”.
Ramsis explained how she got the idea of the movie: “Six months before the revolution, I and many people noticed that everything is forbidden. It has become a big problem. ”
Ramsis interviews several people, ranging from the filmmaker Arab Lotfy to activists such as Nawara Negm to a housekeeper called Sama, who participated in demonstrations. Through the interviews, the audience unravels all that is forbidden, ranging from the participation of women in the community to holding hands with loved ones.
Nov25
Meeting between experts in rare books and rare libraries from Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisboa, and Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris.
Oct29
Luciana Borsatti, a journalist of Ansa’s Foreign Newsroom who presented her book “Beyond Tahrir” in the Robert F Kenndey Center for Justice and Human Rights” of Florence; and Gilberto Mastromatteo, a Peacelink Reporter during the Arab Spring, came to Dialogue Cafe to meet journalists and students.
We had the opportunity to joint them and gain a greater understanding of the effects on Egyptian society of the June 30th 2013 revolution, which saw President Mohammed Morsi removed from office. It has been a wonderful occasion to meet with peers and experts from different countries for productive dialogue and information sharing on a region and issues that are affecting the entire world.
