Nov22
“WE BELIEVE IN PALESTINE!” said a choir of voices of students and teachers from Birzeit University of Ramallah, Palestine. Today they met students and teachers from Universidade Católica de Lisboa, Portugal, to exchange experiences and share testimonies during a couple of hours. The human framework in Ramallah Dialogue Cafe was quite impressive.
In Lisbon we started with students and a very special teacher: Ines d’Orey, in wheelchair since she had an accident, 20 years ago. Her story and her strong will inspired the Ramallah group and some of the palestinian students asked her to give some details about the way she resists to adversity. RESILIENCE is the key word for Palestinians.
In Ramallah the diversity of areas of expertise was fabulous: from computer engineers to educational field and traditional folclore dancers; from agricultural organizations to human resources and advertising agency; from UN Programs of Development collaborators to visual arts and a supermarket chain experience, almost all areas were debated.
Palestinian people shared their hard political and social reality, and all the participants spoke and added some details about their daily hard life and difficult challenges. Unfortunately while this DC session was in progress, West Bank clashes and riots in the streets of Gaza never stoped.
” WHILE WE ARE HERE TALKING TO EACH OTHERS, TRYING TO FIND WAYS TO HELP PALESTINIAN PEOPLE, OUR CHILDREN AND CIVILIANS ARE BEING SHOT” said a girl, one of the students in DC room.
“WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO EFFECTIVELY HELP!” Here lies the worst frustration of these group of palestinians who cross checkpoints on a daily basis and who have to wait long hours to have some food and water supplies.
When portuguese students and teachers asked them if they are afraid they said YES and when someone asked about their dreams, they answered:
“OUR DREAMS ARE VERY SIMPLE: SEE THE SEA WITHOUT SOLDIERS AND BARRIERS TO CROSS; FEELING SAFE IN THE STREETS, HAVING A HOME.”
In the next future new DC sessions will take place to discuss RESILIENCE and to let europeans know more about real life in real Palestine, under israeli occupation. The good news today? Amira’s 26th birthday! Portuguese and Palestinian celebrated together her life and joy despite all the bad memories and circumstances. Tomorrow we’ll post here the video where all sing to Amira.
Nov15
DC session hosted by Ramallah, Lisbon and Cleveland with students from NOVA University of Lisbon (SBE -School of Business and Economics and Humanities) and IB – International Baccaleaurete – students from Planalto College. Here are their testimonies after their experience of sharing experiences and learn from the Ramallah and Cleveland teams. “Hope” was probably the word that echoes more after this session with a DC working in a city where everything is under control. As Sabri, from Ramallah, said the daily life in Ramallah is full of chalenges and … Hope!
IMG 0693 from Dialogue Café on Vimeo.
IMG 0688 from Dialogue Café on Vimeo.
IMG 0694 from Dialogue Café on Vimeo.
IMG 0696 from Dialogue Café on Vimeo.
IMG 0692 from Dialogue Café on Vimeo.
IMG 0691 from Dialogue Café on Vimeo.
Nov12
We are very excited to announce that  the Robert Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights will manage the Dialogue Cafe Florence, in partnership with the Municipality of Florence.
Dialogue Cafe Florence will be located at the Murati, a former prison and is planned to open later this year.
To learn more about the Robert  Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and the amazing work they are doing in Florence, read:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20085559
Nov12
Wow what a week that was!
Since mid August 2012 the Dialogue Cafe project team at the University of Northampton have been working flat out to set up the Dialogue cafe at the University. Despite the odd technical hitch, worrying whether people would turn up, and loads of first night nerves on Wednesday 7th November the cafe was officially launch with a Golbal House Party.
Over 50 students and staff attended a link up with London and Lisbon to explore what a Dialogue Cafe was and brainstorm how the University could use and contribute to the cafe to the best effect.
The evening was a huge success!!!
The enthusisam of the University community for the space exceeded all of our expectations with over 80 ideas for new events and workshops/ topics for discussion as well as social events suggested by those present… from global theatre productions through to workshops on issues around international development, there was some major creative thinking going on!
We all thought we could take a breather once the cafe was up and running; now we realise that the hard work is just beginning… its great fun though and we are working hard to harness the enthusiasm of the University its staff and students to contribute significantly to the network ..
We are all looking forward to working with everyone in the network to develop and contribute to a programme that significantly adds to the conversations already taking place as well as starting some new ones.
Thanks to everyone who was involved with the launch at Northampton and for making it such a success… more pictures to follow
Nov8
We are very excited with the launch of DC Melbourne@ the HUB last Tuesday (pics to follow), but it sure makes organizing events more challenging:-)
Nov7
We are launching today  Dialogue Café Northampton, in partnership with Northampton University and The Social Innovation Exchange!
The launch of the Northampton University Dialogue Café is a very exciting development and  we are delighted and very pleased to welcome Northampton to the network and developing new ways of working with our members.
Nick Petford, Vice Chancellor said ‘the launch of the Dialogue Café provides students of the University with a unique opportunity to expand their understanding of the world and their place in it, and the opportunities out there for them to create the careers they want for the future. It sets the university apart from others and makes a significant contribution to us becoming the No1 University for social enterprise by 2015’.
The Dialogue Café is situated in the in the School of Education’s space in the ground floor of the library, and will be managed by Christine Morgan from the University’s Volunteering unit, U:eNgage.
The Launch will take place today, starting at 6-30 til 8-30 and connecting Northampton, London and Lisbon.
Sara
