Women2Women Jordan - "Leadership in Action"
ABOUT W2W JORDAN - LEADERSHIP IN ACTION
During the last week of June, fifty young women leaders from around the world converged in Amman, Jordan for Women2Women’s first-ever alumni conference. This weeklong conference, featuring W2W’s most promising alumni from the past three years, provided the participants with practical opportunities to explore and demonstrate “Leadership in Action.”
The young women participated in several civic engagement projects throughout the country. They first enjoyed a day of service at the SOS Children’s Village, where children who can no longer live with their biological family can grow up in a healthy and loving family setting. The delegates also participated in a beatification project on the grounds of the Queen Rania Family and Child Center, where they also served as teachers’ aids. Through workshops and a speaker series, the alumni met with international women leaders who shared their advice and experience, encouraging conference delegates to work towards bringing about positive social change.
Empower Peace also hosted an international webcast from the Columbia University Middle East Research Center in Amman called “1000 Voices for the Future.” The discussion centered on elevating the global status of women and attracted an audience of 3,000 young people from 60 different countries via the Internet. To showcase the importance of community involvement and volunteer service, Empower Peace created a new program, The Global Village. Over 200 Jordanian youth attended this unique volunteerism and civic engagement fair featuring keynote speaker Her Excellency Hala Latouf, Jordanian Minister of Social Development, and over a dozen of the country’s NGOs.
The week’s intensive seminars and service projects were also interspersed with visits to important historical and cultural sites within Jordan. During a guided tour of Amman, delegates visited the Citadel – an ancient site occupied as early as the Neolithic period and home to a number of ruins dating as far back as 1800 BC. Here, the young women visited the Jordan Archeological Museum, which houses part of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a collection of other impressive antiquities. The group also donned Abayas (long black robes) to enter the ornate King Abdullah Mosque where we were given a tutorial on Islamic prayer traditions and the history of the great blue-domed structure.
Later in the week, the group traveled to Mount Nebo, from which, according to the Bible, the prophet Moses viewed the Promised Land before he died. Standing atop the mountain, we could see as far as the West Bank, the Dead Sea and – without the fog cover – Jerusalem. Boarding the buses, we continued on to the Dead Sea where many mud-covered travelers soaked in the therapeutic waters and tested their buoyancy.
On our final day together, we ventured three hours south of Amman to the ancient city of Petra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the new Wonders of the World. Delegates traveled by foot, horse and camel through a long, narrow passageway that opens up into a breathtaking landscape of red rock buildings carved into the surrounding mountainsides. Marveling at this remarkable human achievement together was a perfect way to finish the week.
Throughout the week, the young women strengthened their friendships forged in past conferences and made lasting bonds with other participants from all over the globe.
During the last week of June, fifty young women leaders from around the world converged in Amman, Jordan for Women2Women’s first-ever alumni conference. This weeklong conference, featuring W2W’s most promising alumni from the past three years, provided the participants with practical opportunities to explore and demonstrate “Leadership in Action.”
The young women participated in several civic engagement projects throughout the country. They first enjoyed a day of service at the SOS Children’s Village, where children who can no longer live with their biological family can grow up in a healthy and loving family setting. The delegates also participated in a beatification project on the grounds of the Queen Rania Family and Child Center, where they also served as teachers’ aids. Through workshops and a speaker series, the alumni met with international women leaders who shared their advice and experience, encouraging conference delegates to work towards bringing about positive social change.
Empower Peace also hosted an international webcast from the Columbia University Middle East Research Center in Amman called “1000 Voices for the Future.” The discussion centered on elevating the global status of women and attracted an audience of 3,000 young people from 60 different countries via the Internet. To showcase the importance of community involvement and volunteer service, Empower Peace created a new program, The Global Village. Over 200 Jordanian youth attended this unique volunteerism and civic engagement fair featuring keynote speaker Her Excellency Hala Latouf, Jordanian Minister of Social Development, and over a dozen of the country’s NGOs.
The week’s intensive seminars and service projects were also interspersed with visits to important historical and cultural sites within Jordan. During a guided tour of Amman, delegates visited the Citadel – an ancient site occupied as early as the Neolithic period and home to a number of ruins dating as far back as 1800 BC. Here, the young women visited the Jordan Archeological Museum, which houses part of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a collection of other impressive antiquities. The group also donned Abayas (long black robes) to enter the ornate King Abdullah Mosque where we were given a tutorial on Islamic prayer traditions and the history of the great blue-domed structure.
Later in the week, the group traveled to Mount Nebo, from which, according to the Bible, the prophet Moses viewed the Promised Land before he died. Standing atop the mountain, we could see as far as the West Bank, the Dead Sea and – without the fog cover – Jerusalem. Boarding the buses, we continued on to the Dead Sea where many mud-covered travelers soaked in the therapeutic waters and tested their buoyancy.
On our final day together, we ventured three hours south of Amman to the ancient city of Petra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the new Wonders of the World. Delegates traveled by foot, horse and camel through a long, narrow passageway that opens up into a breathtaking landscape of red rock buildings carved into the surrounding mountainsides. Marveling at this remarkable human achievement together was a perfect way to finish the week.
Throughout the week, the young women strengthened their friendships forged in past conferences and made lasting bonds with other participants from all over the globe.
“I can’t express enough how much W2W has shaped the way that I view the world. I always had an interest in international affairs and foreign policy but the forum and the environment that W2W creates for international discourse for girls…is invaluable…The first thing my mom said to me after I told her about all the amazing things that happened at the ’08 conference was, she said, ‘You are not the same daughter we sent to Boston a week ago.’”
- Lindsey Young from Pennsylvania
- Lindsey Young from Pennsylvania
