Sharq.Org - Promoting Pluralism

I am a communication strategist and gender specialist with twenty years of experience as a consultant primarily with UN agencies and NGOs in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Much of my work the past two decades has focused on storytelling and the Arab world, because I believe that the former can nurture and bring about change in the latter. I work primarily with non-profit organisations in a bid to call for justice and effect positive change. I enjoy teaching, love learning and almost always work within a team, nurturing and being nurtured by other creative professionals.

As Managing Director of the NGO Sharq.Org, I lead the production of oral history collections that aim to give voice to the silences and promote pluralism in the oppressed countries of the Middle East and North Africa.

Sharq.Org is a registered non-profit organisation that has for a decade been documenting stories of individuals across the Arab region in a bid to instigate dialogue among and between populations struggling to break free from oppressive regimes.

We are committed to promoting pluralism and believe in storytelling and
sharing as a means to promote empathy, understanding and peaceful
coexistence, and hence to elevate humanity.

In addition to being documented and shared online (on the library of Arab world voices at Tarikhi.Org "My History"), these stories have been the catalyst for the production of research papers, books, a play, art installations, poems, podcasts, and animated stories that take on a thematic approach.

We intend to continue to develop the work, reach and impact of Sharq.Org by producing more collections and establishing a strong and wide collective of activists dedicated to pluralism and the documentation of individual stories.

The population of the Arab world countries is verging on half a billion. Hundreds of millions more people of Arab decent live in the diaspora, some the decendents of those who migrated a generation or more ago, some the result of recent migrations brought on by war. They share a comon language (Arabic), a common history (colonisation, authoritarian rule) and more recently a common desire to break free from the shackles of oppression, as highlighted globbaly during the revolutions collectively known as the Arab Spring.

When we began our work documenting individual stories a decade ago, we were often met with suspicion and fear, because the people whose voices and experiences we sought to document had long been denied freedom of expression and had not developed the skills for self-reflection and critical thinking due to weak education systems imposed by decades-old regimes seeking vehemently to hold on to power.

We believe that hearing and sharing stories of and with people from nearby countries with comparable challenges - at the individual, family, community and national levels - can elevate a sense of hope and strength at those same levels.

Sharq.Org has produced hundreds of video and audio recorded stories about culture, livelihoods, resistance, diversity and human rights, as told by individuals in and from the region. These stories have been used to produce books, podcasts, animations and plays (the video link provided related to a theatrical production created based on one of our collections).
Our collections, as well as the platform on which these stories are published - the virtual library at Tarikhi.Org - have been made possible through collaboration with others - from international donors to local activists. Building on the value and impact of our work and this platform will require ever more strategic collaboration and coordination at a regional level. We therefore want to expand our work by formally creating and nurturing - through training, mentoring, and resources - a cooperative of activists, including academics, journalists, cultural actors and NGOs, that will integrate individual storytelling into their work and feed the library, as well as benefit from it to instigate discussion and eventually change within and across the countries of the region and beyond, in countries where Arab world refugees and migrants now reside.

There are a number of beneficiary groups and stakeholders impacted by (and influencing) our existing and future work.

Storytellers: The hundreds of people we interview - women and men, poor and wealthy, young and old, from different national, ethnic and religious backgrounds - all share their gratitude at being heard. During their lives under authoritarian rule, rarely if ever have they been asked about their individual struggles or for their opinion or thoughts.

Activists and archivers: The Syrian professionals we trained to conduct
interviews with refugees as part of the collection "Syrian Histories"
informed us that their experiences interviewing fellow Syrians from
across the country let them see it in a totally different light, far
removed from the government-controlled rhetoric of old.

Policy makers: We have over the past two years been conducting interviews with and studies about migrants in Europe, a region that has absorbed over a million Arab refugees in a short space of time. Ensuring peacful coexistence between established and new communities in Europe has been a priority of its governments, and our studies and recommendations have been received and appreciated by a number of policy makers.

The notion of pan-Arabism is one that has for decades been promoted (and manipulated) by Arab regimes and has repeatedly failed, leaving many to think that synergy across the region is not feasible.

We believe that it is not only possible, but essential. We believe that it is the people, not politicians, who need it and can nurture it. Storytelling and story-sharing can influence people's attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, countering the 'divide and rule' approach adopted by the many authoritarian regimes that have sought to weaken people and communities through policies of sectarianism, religious intolerance and ethnic cleansing.

The Arab Spring revolutions were the initial impetus that led me to establish Sharq.Org a decade ago. I wanted to document experiecnes that pre-dated the resulting conflicts before war erased and distorted memories.

Our ongoing and future plans are based on regular assessment of challenges and achievements following set milestones and the development of strategies and projects to strengthen the processes, reach and impact of our work.
We consult our donors, our collaborators and our beneficiaries, asking what can be improved and what the most pressing issues to be highlighted are.
We are committed to ensuring the sutainabilty of the work we do and have had the opportunity through various networks and partners to include third party content on the platform and run workshops with local NGOs in the region.
Our clear and unwavering objective is the promotion of pluralism in the region and all future endeavours and individual initiatives are a culmination of our experiences and expertise. Prioritising the formal establishiment of a collective will enable us to provide overarching support, strength and sustainability to every endeavour we and each member of the collective engages in.

I am a European-Arab, a child of exile and inherited trauma. My grandfather was Libyan, my father Palestinian, I identify as Syrian, my daughter as Lebanese. Each migration was the result of an exile brought on by conflict, themselves brought on by destructive attitudes and beliefs.
I was among the privileged who was born and raised in London, able to benefit from the freedom and education it offered. But I also longed for "home", for a place that reflected my identity, and so moved to Syria a few years before the Arab Spring, only to be ejected from it when a brazen regime seeking to silence the people went on the attack.
I do not belong to one place, but am the amalgamation of the different experiences and people who have nurtured my intellect and creativity. I am motivated by my privilege, my sense of duty and my pain over the losses borne by innocent individuals and communities that I understand and can communicate with. I want them to have the privilege to speak freely as I can, to be heard as I am, to feel secure as I do.

Sharq.Org is a registered non-profit organisation with a strong reputation among various donors, including UK FCO, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Creative Commons, the Swedish Institute, the Arab Human Rights Fund.

Through the organisation's work - bolstered by mine as a consultant who has worked for and with UN agencies, academic and cultural institutions and NGOs in different countries - we have formed connections, cooperations and alliances with activists and organisations throughout the region.

Sharq.Org has collaborated with over a hundred professionals of different nationalities through the various projects we have completed over the past decade, and as such we have a network of skilled and dedicated individuals on whom we can call to offer support and expertise.

Our reputation as an organisation with a demonstrated expertise in storytelling and research has enabled us to also take on clients, including International Alert, UNFPA, Terre des Hommes, Drosos Foundation.

People management is challenging, particularly when working with individuals of different ages, capabilities, experiences and belief systems. Each individual requires a tailored approach.
The safety and comfort of our storytellers is essential, particularly as most are in vulnerable precarious positions. Some rescind their consent after we have invested time and effort in documenting their story. I never pressure them, but rather aim to fully understand their concerns, explain the challenges and options, give them full control of their story and come up with a solution that ensures their comfort.
Erasing or putting on hold a story that a collaborator has worked on and been enlivened by also means I need to manage the interviewers' expectations and needs. I spend time explaining both the big and small picture, the importance of long-term relationship building, the opportunity for skills development. Project funding can also limit the longevity or of a formal relationship with collaborators, so I maintain contact, offering resources and free training, assist in CV building or proposal writing, and support their development to ensure the network remains strong and its individuals feel empowered and appreciated.

Our largest collection of stories - "Syrian Histories" - includes over 120 interviews conducted and documented in Lebanon and Turkey over a two year period. It involved training and mentoring over 40 young Syrian professionals and activists, each with their own challenges and traumas, who would go on to conduct the interviews.

In addition to managing their needs, across various borders, I was responsible for a team of technical consultants from and in different countries working on curriculum development, translation, editing, website development and the like.

Once the stories were documented, edited, translated and published, I hired and managed a team of analysts and researchers to produce a book based on the stories and a review of available literature.

In addition to managing people, I managed donor requirements, budgets, and relations with storytellers and other stakeholders; and was responsible for ensuring the quality, accuracy and ethical concerns associated with the material produced.

We are a non-profit company registered in and working out of Lebanon. With the country facing a plethora of challenges over the past year - including a freeze on banking transactions and looming domestic instability - we have registered as a non-profit company and are now headquartered in Cyprus.

The overall work of Sharq.Org in general and the proposed prioritisation of the development of a regional collective of activists in particular - is transnational, can be conducted and promoted remotely, engages people from different national, ethnic and religious backgrounds, brings together professionals from disciplines, and provides resources and content to different sectors, including media, academia and the arts.

Training, mentoring and networking professionals across the region will enhance cooperation in various fields, in turn enhancing the quality of their outputs and the dialogues they instigate, intensifying their social impact.
Reaching out to, engaging, and providing opportunities for exchange (through storytelling and listening) among diverse communities across the region who share a common language, will strengthen their empathy, influence their attitudes, support countering of hate speech instigated promulgated by authoritarian regimes, and in turn enhance peace-building and peaceful coexistence. It may indeed also support the development or support of future grassroots movements seeking to bring about democracy in the region.

Within one year:

- To expand our reach and recognition across the region through traditional and social media campaigns

- Two produce two more thematic collections of recorded stories

- To increase the amount of third party content on the virtual library (stories related to the Arab world documented by other parties. e.g. The Arab American National Museum and the World Bank have both agreed to have their relevant content included)

Within five years:
- To establish a formal collective of trained and dedicated professionals seeking to promote pluralism through storytelling
- To launch an app that will enable all individuals in the region to record and share their stories to the virtual library in a professional format

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is our main donor.

We have received funds in the past from the Swedish Institute, the Arab Human Rights Fund, the UK Foreign Office, and Creative Commons, among others.

We collaborate with various local NGOs in the region, as well as with larger entities such as UNFPA, to produce and promote story collections and resulting creative outputs.

We have received donor funding for the past ten years and over the past five have also taken on paid work from clients who recognise our expertise in storytelling, media development and the Arab region.

We have presented "our project" in this application in the broad sense of our work as an established organisation dedicated to the promotion of pluralism and the production of oral history collections. We have also highlighted our desire to focus on the formalised development of a collective that will sustainably engage in and support our mission and work.

The Konrad Adenauer is committed for the next two years at leats in funding our work in the production of oral history collections and related creative outputs. We have not however sought funding specifically for the the development of a collective.

Our current 2020 budget stands at approximately $150,000.

Our planned budget and activites for 2010 currently stands at $200,000.