RCF Meets Partners and Peacemakers in Egypt and UAE

The Rose Castle Foundation recently made trips to Egypt and the UAE, to visit various existing and new partners in the two countries.

In Egypt, RCF was delighted to meet with the Centre for Christian Muslim Understanding, as well as our partners at: the British Council in Egypt; the Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism; the office of the Grand Imam of Al Azhar; Anafora; the Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of Egypt; and the Diocese of Alexandria.

Rev Dr Katie Given Kime (Odyssey Impact), Dr Reham Abdullah Salamah Nasr (Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism), Hannah Larn (Rose Castle Foundation), and Zainab Sieddiek (Office of the Grand Imam)

The trip to Egypt was in collaboration with Odyssey Impact, with whom RCF is partnering for the 2022 Odyssey Fellows Programme for emerging faith leaders. This year-long programme involves a residential programme at Rose Castle, and another in Egypt.

In the UAE, RCF visited the offices of our partners, the Muslim Council of Elders and spoke at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair on the topic of building peaceful coexistence among global youth.

Peacemakers and staff of the Muslim Council of Elders and Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, Abu Dhabi

In both Egypt and the UAE, we reconnected with many of the emerging peacemakers, alumni of the Emerging Peacemakers Forum 2018 - hosted jointly by RCF, Muslim Council of Elders, Al Azhar al Sharif, and The Archbishop of Canterbury - who continue to work actively in peace and reconciliation.

Among those we met were Youssef Aroog, who has since founded the innovative international youth dialogue organisation, Mediterranean Youth Foundation, and Dr Sherif Sayed, whose multifaceted career as a social entrepreneur, social media influencer, pharmacologist, and scholar of Islam, is reaching a growing audience of over 350,000 across the Middle East.

Peacemakers together with Zainab Sieddiek (Office of the Grand Imam)

Also joining us were: Hamza Messaoudi, peace researcher; Yasmeen Ebied, voice artist; Kareem al-Sallal, entrepreneur; and Hesham Abdeltawab, TV presenter. RCF is grateful for the hospitality and support of outstanding peacemakers Khalifa Khalid, student leader, and Meera al-Meiri, nuclear industry professional, in the UAE.

Rose is excited to be planning future reconciliation programmes with our partners and alumni, as we continue to grow a global network of reconciling faith leaders, ready to cross divides to build more resilient communities.