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About the Workshop
The workshop had
a noble cause as it is the case with the Arab Education Forum in connecting and
uniting Arabs in their deferent countries by getting them together and trying
to extract from them their educational and awareness experiences in the various
fields of work they do weather it is education, art, culture or care for the
environment and youth as it was the case of our workshop. For me it was an
inlighting couple of days to meet people from many NGO's who work in the
environment from three neighboring countries to us in Jordan and to get this
worm feeling of togetherness which is reassuring to me and this reassurance is
necessary when you think you are carrying an almost impossible task alone in
the field and suddenly you find out you are not alone.
I really liked what the Garbage
collectors in Egypt are doing in the field of recycling specially when you see
that these recycling skills came out of the need to survive and make a living
which makes it a sustainable task while our experience in recycling in Friends
of Environment Society - Jordan has just started and it is purely for
environmental concern and limited to recycling paper and not yet sustainable
but we hope it will be, and here again it is the problem of garbage separation
at the source (homes and businesses) that we seek to establish here but it will
take some time and effort. Other NGO's in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine are
working hard like us to educate the public and youth in there societies on
sound environmental practices through various programs they have, of course the
Palestinians god help them have an extra job of trying to survive occupation
and war conditions and deal with impossible environmental issues also...
Another idea I think we need to
stop at and consider that is what Serene talked about combining education and
awareness with artistic and cultural events and I think this is very important
aspect for two reasons one of them is leaving a lasting experience in our
memory form both the learning materials and the artistic and cultural events we
experienced while learning and the second reason I think we here in the Middle
East are starving for art and culture and we don't know how enriched and
satisfied these activities can make us feel, so we always need to have these
activities included in our agendas.
Finally I would like to ask every body not to hesitate to contact us regarding
any input you think we can be of assistance.
Asem Faqir
President
Friends of Environment Society - Jordan
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