Soliya

Mission:

Soliya is an international non-governmental organization that seeks to bridge the divide between the "West" and the "Arab & Muslim World” by empowering young adults to play a constructive role in creating a more informed, just and peaceful global society. Using groundbreaking online collaboration and communication technology, we are providing a new intercultural generation of young adults with the skills, knowledge and relationships they need to develop a nuanced understanding of the issues that separate them.

Description:

Soliya’s flagship program, the Connect Program uses the latest web-conferencing technology to facilitate dialogue between university students in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and the United States. In a time when media plays an increasingly powerful role in shaping peoples’ viewpoints on political issues, Soliya provides students with the opportunity, skills, and tools to shape and articulate their own viewpoints on some of the most pressing global issues facing their generation. Soliya’s Connect Program is facilitated by a cross-cultural team of young leaders drawn from over 25 different countries.

Facilitation Training:

To prepare these facilitators to fulfill their role, Soliya offers a 20 hour facilitation training course which provides facilitators with transferable collaborative leadership and conflict resolution skills that they can use both via Soliya’s programs, and in other contexts at a local, regional, and global level. We’re recruiting facilitators all throughout the year and accept applications at anytime.

Nahdet El Mahrousa - Soliya partnership:

Soliya and NM share similar ideas and strive for the same goals in many ways. Both organizations believe in empowering youth as well as the role they can play and their potential of being catalysts for social change. While NM’s mission is to engage and mobilize young professionals to have an impact on Egypt’s development and future, Soliya’s programs reach beyond the Egyptian context and mobilize young people all around the world to have a positive impact on global society. Accordingly, both partners agreed to have a fruitful partnership that will best utilize and mobilize youth.

The link between NM and Soliya was established with the help of Ahmed Zahran, an NM board member, a previous Soliya volunteer facilitator and a long time friend of Soliya. Given the terms of partnership, Soliya has been using the NM premises for Soliya members based in Egypt and has had access to NM’s wonderful network of contacts which has proved to be very beneficial. NM members such as Alia Mossallam, Ola Shahba, Waleed Nassar and Essam Hassan, just to mention a few, have been involved with Soliya activities as facilitators for the Connect program. Soliya has given priority to NM members and volunteers to participate in its valuable programs. We hope that this partnership will continue to yield benefits to both parties.

Contact Information:

For further information about the program, please visit Soliya’s website at www.soliya.net, write an email to Ms. Sonja Arnold, our Program Coordinator in Cairo, by phone: 011 804 3448.

If you are interested in working as a volunteer facilitator, please send a brief cover letter and resume to facilitator[at]soliya[dot]net.