News

We have the dates for the Authentic Relating Youth Exchange in Drugan Bulgaria! July 21-29 our team of four young people and one youth leader will join our colleagues from Palestine, Bulgaria and Georgia for this Erasmus+ youth exchange.

Authentic Relating (AR) is a mindfulness practice in which we express our moment-to-moment experience in the company of others. It is about revealing what is – feelings, thoughts and observations in the moment – instead of hiding or changing ourselves to appear different, more socially acceptable or else.

The project will be hosted in SolidarityWorks’ Center for Learning, Sharing, and Exchange (CLSE), located in the village of Drugan, 10 kilometers away from the town of Radomir. CLSE consists of a newly renovated rural house transformed with the help of countless volunteers.

We are taking applications for participants. You can use this link to register your application. Or, send us a private message at straitupbmxtangier@gmail.com for more information.

Our Challenge colleagues were part of a great discussion yesterday, debating new models for peace. A wide range of experience was presented, from Bosnian experts, Palestinean activists, religious scholars, Jeruselem politicians and academics of federalist systems.

The description below is theirs:

“The stagnation of the Peace Process in Israel-Palestine, and the evolution of a very problematic “One-state” reality on the ground, are making the search for a new alternative the most interesting development of the last decade in civil society and academic circles. In 2020, Challenge launched a new program named the “Federal Forum”, in which they have gathered together Israeli and Palestinian activists, scholars, professionals and practitioners, who have been independently developing their own federal ideas and models. Federal models offer new possibilities for addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Regional solutions. By exploring governance structures that balance national self determination with shared governance, ranging from confederations, federations, or other forms of structured partnership, can we promote security, autonomy, and cooperation between communities, and lay the groundwork for sustainable peace?”

Momentum for innovative, grassroots approaches is growing in anticipation of Israel’s 2026 elections. Listening to intelligent, pragmatic and optimistic dialogue was refreshing and motivating. Congratulations to all involved and thanks for including us.

We are still waiting for feedback on four different proposals that were submitted to the NATO Civil Resilience Fund back in January. We addressed topics of Women’s Innovation in defense technologies in border areas, polarization and misinformation online, and a comprehensive education package on civil resilience for Israel and Palestine.

The mood has shifted in geopolitics. We are curious to see which of our ideas NATO will get behind.

The team has been selected and we are preparing for the next YICF adventure. After the kick off meeting in Romania in March 2024, Moha, Cristina and Marina ventured to Norway for the training. Then we invested in online training and preparing the team. Next we will meet our partners in Napoles for a week of intercultural learning on how to create youth festivals.