Faiths Act Fellows
Thirty outstanding young people have been chosen to serve as inter-religious ambassadors for the Millennium Development Goals.
They need your help. Click here to find out how.
The Faiths Act Fellowship brings together thirty young leaders aged between 18-25 drawn from the different faiths from the US, UK, and Canada to embark on a 10 month journey of interfaith service. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation has launched this initiative in conjunction with the Interfaith Youth Core, which aims to build relationships among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others. Interfaith Youth Core is the co-ordinating body for the Fellowship programme.
Training begins with a 2-month intensive initiative that includes fieldwork with primary health care partners fighting deaths from malaria in Africa. Fellows will return to their home countries for 8 months to mobilize young people of faith to raise awareness and resources to promote the Millennium Development Goals. They will focus particularly focus on fighting deaths from malaria.
Halting and reversing the spread of malaria is one of today's most urgent moral challenges. 500 million people contract the disease each year and one million die, the vast majority under 5 years old and in Africa. Yet, malaria is preventable and treatable. And, progress in the fight against deaths from malaria will speed our achievement of 6 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals.
Young people of faith have a particular role to play in this vision. As change-makers for future generations, they are able to establish new forms of inter-faith collaboration by placing a committed concern for the poorest at the heart of a renewed dialogue of life and action. The Faiths Act Fellows will become ambassadors for inter-religious cooperation in the fight against deaths from malaria and the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals.
Who are the Faiths Act Fellows?
The newly selected Faiths Act Fellows are representative of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu faiths and hail from across the US, Canada and UK. From Saskatoon to Michigan to Belfast they will work in interfaith pairs, reaching up to tens of thousands of people of faith, informing them about the devastating impact of malaria and the opportunities open to faith communities to work together to save millions of lives.
Candidates have been selected who have the potential to become accomplished leaders and were able to demonstrate a firm commitment to work for justice in their own faith community. These are an exceptional group of people who have chosen to devote a year of their life to work as MDG ambassadors, ten months of which will be hard work, travel, workshops, speaking engagements, presentations in a well-planned project devised by them in conjunction with the IFYC. Sara Efetkhar-Zadeh of the selected Canadian fellows expressed to us the roots of her desire to put faith into action:
"I believe that each individual in society has power to reach his or her potential and at the same time share a general responsibility to help those in need. As stated in the Koran, those who help the ones in need, they will have their reward in the end by their lord and this is the belief that I practice in my community. My faith has inspired me to have compassion for other human beings regardless of their religion, race or gender."
The Fellows will work in interfaith pairs in their own faith communities based in host organisations in their countries. Inspired by their different religious traditions, they will motivate and equip young people in congregations, schools and university religious student groups to lead their faith communities in spreading awareness of the MDG challenge, raising life-saving funds for the fight against deaths from malaria and promoting a new inter-religious dialogue of life and action.
What does the programme look like?
The programme will begin with induction first in London lasting two weeks from August 2009, then an educational exposure trip to a malaria hotspot in Africa. Fellows will learn and work in teams in selected African countries, hosted and guided by an organization that is doing excellent primary health care work. In Africa, they will learn about the realities of malaria and the urgency behind the Millennium Development Goals. Both in London and Africa, Fellows will have opportunities to explore the social and cultural life around them and particularly to interact with local faith communities.
On return they will receive further preparatory training in Chicago to equip them to perform effectively in their chosen projects. The rest of the programme will find them working in their local faith communities as interfaith pairs, mobilizing young people of faith to work together in raising awareness of the MDGs and funds for malaria eradication. They will be hosted by a local organization that does related work and will work as a team.
Host organisations
In their home countries, Fellows will be hosted by a local organization whose mission fits closely with this project.
In the UK they are being hosted by Blackburn Cathedral in Lancashire, St. Philips Centre in Leicester, the Christian Muslim Forum and Tzedek and the Jewish Social Action Hub in London who will help them make contact and work with local faith communities.
In America by the Center for Interfaith Action on global poverty (CIFA) , Malaria No More in Washington, Islamic Network Group in California, Inner-City Muslim Action Network in Chicago and Interfaith Action in Sharon, Massachusets.
In Canada by the Micah Challenge Canada in Ottawa, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism in Montreal and the Multifaith Centre at the University of Toronto.
The Faiths Act Fellowship is an initiative of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and is coordinated by Interfaith Youth Core. Please direct all applications and inquiries to FaithsActFellows@ifyc.org.
To find out about what else is happening in the Faiths Act campaign click here:
• Faiths Act • Faiths Act in Africa • Faiths Act Together
