IFA Selected to Host “Faiths Act Fellows” by Tony Blair Faith Foundation & Interfaith Youth Core
Posted Fri, June 05, 2009 11:22 AM
MASSACHUSETTS ORGANIZATION AND STUDENTS SELECTED TO WORK WITH TONY BLAIR TO TACKLE MALARIA
TONY BLAIR FAITH FOUNDATION WITH INTERFAITH YOUTH CORE ANNOUNCE “FAITHS ACT FELLOWS”
April 21, 2009. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, in collaboration with the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), have today announced 12 exceptional young people selected in the US to take part in a youth leadership program established to bring people of different faiths together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and in particular, eliminate deaths due to malaria. Among those selected are Amherst student Rebecca Oyen, 22, Harvard student Miranda Rosenberg, 21, Brandeis student Benjamin Bechtolsheim, 21 and Wellesley student Maya Smith, 21.
One of the Massachusetts students will be working at host organization Interfaith Action, in Sharon, MA. IFA is one of six sites nationwide chosen to host an interfaith pair of Fellows during the eight months of October 2009 - May 2010.
Janet Penn, Executive Director of Interfaith Action, said, “Interfaith Action, Inc. in Sharon, Massachusetts trains teens to actively create a culture of pluralism on the local, national, and international stage. Our partnership with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation Malaria Fellows Project is a perfect way to put our mission into action, by providing young people of faith the opportunity to come together to help solve a complex world problem.”
Hundreds of applications were received and just 30 extraordinary young people of faith have been chosen to be ambassadors for the Faiths Act program. The Faiths Act Fellowship, is comprised of young leaders of diverse faiths aged between 18-25 from the UK, US and Canada. Beginning in August 2009, they will embark on a ten-month journey of interfaith service.
This will involve training in London and Chicago, field work in a malaria-endemic country in sub-Saharan Africa and then eight months working in grassroots faith communities in their home countries to raise funds and awareness about the campaign against malaria deaths. Working in inter-religious pairs, they will reach up to tens of thousands of people of faith through outreach activity, informing them in person and online about the devastating impact of malaria and the opportunities open to faith communities to work together to save millions of lives.
Miranda Rosenberg said, “I’m passionate about justice and I saw the Faith Acts Fellowship as a great opportunity to work with other faiths to help overcome the disparity that has spread throughout the world.”
Benjamin Bechtolsheim said: “I am excited and honored to work with the richness of our cultural traditions to help address a profoundly challenging issue: malaria and the poverty that allows this disease to fester.”
Maya Smith said:” Over the past few years, I have worked with individuals of various faiths in various contexts, including service projects. In those shared moments, I believe we affirm the value of humanity greater than our individual experiences. I take spiritual hope from such experiences. As a Faiths Act Fellow I hope to inspire and facilitate similar experiences among others.”
Eboo Patel, Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, said “I believe in the power of young people around the world to build inter-religious cooperation and advance a transformative ethic of volunteerism. I am pleased to begin working with such an exceptional group of young leaders to mobilize faith communities around the globe to eradicate deaths due to malaria.”
Tony Blair added, “I am delighted we have been able to select such an outstanding and admirable group of young people from the hundreds who applied for a position in the Fellowship. I am certain they will accomplish a tremendous amount. Faith communities around the world have historically achieved great things to combat global problems. I believe that by faiths coming together to tackle the problem of malaria deaths, as part of a global coalition, we can really prevent this disease.”
Malaria kills a child in Africa every thirty seconds. Pregnant women and children under five are the most vulnerable. Yet, these deaths are entirely preventable. Places of worship are present in every village in every part of Africa, forming effective networks in practical ways to reach people in need everywhere. The Faiths Act Fellows will galvanize faith communities in the developed world to support those in Africa, and demonstrate that if faiths work together, they can do even more than what has been achieved apart.
About the Tony Blair Faith Foundation
The Tony Blair Faith Foundation was founded by the Rt Honourable Tony Blair and launched in May 2008. The Foundation’s goal is to promote respect and understanding between the major religions, to make the case for faith as a force for good and to show this in action by encouraging inter-faith initiatives to bring people together to tackle global poverty and conflict. Faiths Act Together is the social action programme of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. The programme encourages multi-faith initiatives to tackle global poverty by working towards the Millennium Development Goals, with an initial focus on eliminating deaths from malaria, bringing people together across faith divides to achieve even more together than they can apart. More information can be found at www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org and www.faithsacttogether.org
About the Interfaith Youth Core
There are millions of religious young people in the world interacting with greater frequency. Where so many of these interactions tend towards conflict, the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) aims to introduce a new relationship, one that is about mutual respect and religious pluralism. Instead of focusing a dialogue on political or theological differences, IFYC builds relationships on the values that we share, such as compassion, and how we can live out those values together to contribute to the betterment of our community. The IFYC is creating these relationships across the world by inspiring, networking, and resourcing young people, who are the leaders of this movement. In addition to the Faiths Act Fellowship, IFYC coordinates the Fellows Alliance, a network of 20 college students around the country working to promote religious pluralism on their campuses and in their communities.
About Interfaith Action
Interfaith Action, Inc., based in Sharon, Massachusetts, was founded in 2004 to inspire, connect and train high school students from ethnically and religiously diverse communities to take leadership and actively create a culture of pluralism at the local, national, and international level. IFA’s Youth Leadership Program trains high school students to reach across religious, ethnic, and racial divides to increase understanding and to turn fear of differences into hope and positive action. With training and a unique mentorship model, the 60 students engaged in the program conceived of, planned, and facilitated the Teenage Interfaith Diversity Education Conference: TIDE, The Wave of Change. The first conference was held at the Pluralism Project of Harvard University in 2007. The March 2009 TIDE Conference was held at Wheaton College, in Norton, MA and brought over 100 people together from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. Teen leaders have facilitated interfaith dialogues and given presentations at conferences at Tufts University, Emory University, the National Interfaith Youth Conference in Chicago, IL., and The Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center in Amman Jordan. Plans are underway to pilot the training program in New York and Boston.
For more information, contact: Joseph Shapiro, Interfaith Youth Core in the USA: 312 573 8901 / (cellular) 847-404-9473. Hannah Wallace at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation +44 (0)207 647 7872 / (cellular) +44(0)7827 886 561. Janet Penn at Interfaith Action: 781 784 0651.