It is amazing what you, Claudia, and others around you, have created in such
challenging times. Thank you for that recap below. You are an inspiration to
all of us.
Your opening of space is creating light that is so crucial in this path towards
more democracy. That light also warms up our hopes for you and for everyone on
this planet.
Wishes of love and peace for the new year.
My heart is with you,
Diane
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Dr. Claudia Gross <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 8:48:58 AM
Subject: [OSList] Open Space development in Egypt 2011
Dear All!
A great year is about to be over soon - and another wonder-ful year is ready to
start.
In Germany, we call this period between Christmas and New Year "between the
years" and this is exactly how I feel right now:
Having a look back on the TaDa's of 2011 (its high points, successes, joys) and
dreaming about 2012 ;-)
It's the perfect time to have a look back on the development of Open Space in
Egypt.
As you already have seen in Eslam Erman's post, the short movie about one of
the OS events documents our work "live and in colour":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l7iZ955QH8&feature=share . It was so fantastic
and encouraging to receive your great comments and feedback - highly
appreciated! :-)
In total, 10 Open Spaces were facilitated (+ 1 happening on Dec 31st -
insha'allah) on topics as diverse as "Egypt at the Crossroads", "Unity in
Diversity"/ interfaith dialogues, refugees in Egypt, voluntarism, effective
citizenship - just to name a few. Over 400 women and men from over 20 Egyptian
governorates have participated in the events. They are still in contact by
closed fb groups and are now working on the next steps initiatives they have
identified.
Additionally, the website Open Space Egypt was created by Eslam
(http://www.openspaceegypt.com/) and has its own fb group
(http://www.facebook.com/groups/257887974253169/). Thanks to Ramy Mortada we
have new great posters with the five OS principles, the law, butterflies &
bumblebees and the final admonition in Arabic and English. We are currently in
the process of translating more material as Arabic resources for the coming
Open Space events.
To respond to the need of having Arabic speaking Open Space facilitators, I
have trained a group of 13 who are now able to facilitate their own events.
Right after this training, I was asked by others to repeat the training, so the
basis of Arabic speaking facilitators will increase in 2012 again. The weekend
after this training, the new facilitators already run their first Open Space on
Informal Areas: two of them facilitated it and five were assisting them as a
core team. Can't tell you how proud I was when I saw all of them making this
event happen - it was a big and inspiring success! :-)
The development of Open Space in Egypt has gained momentum: The new
facilitators are planning to organize more Open Spaces, we all want to increase
the PR to attract more sponsors and interested participants, we continue our
OSLEX meetings to have an exchange on our learning, and we keep on translating
and developing useful materials to support the facilitators regarding their
important work.
I personally believe it's just a matter of time until we start supporting other
countries in the Arab world in facilitating their own Open Spaces ;-)
Wish you all a great year 2012 filled with health, love, joy and peace!
Warm regards from Cairo,
Claudia
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