Inspired and organized by Lebanese national Rony Mecattaf, an Awakening the Dreamer Symposium was recently held for more than 100 participants in Beirut as a follow up to a conference held by a local bank, BankMed, as part of their Happy Planet Initiative. Rony was trained as a Symposium Facilitator in France and was a co-facilitator at the large Algerian Symposium held earlier this Summer. To co-facilitate, he invited Jon Symes, the Outreach Director of the Pachamama Alliance in charge of International Symposium expansion, and Aline Wauters from Belgium who brought a valuable breadth of culture and perspective to a Symposium that included the Minister of Environment for Lebanon.
The symposium was very well received, once again proving that it can transcend differences of culture, awareness and language. The feedback was excellent. BankMed is interested in exploring a partnership, about 50 people want to be trained as a Symposium Facilitator - 12 of who were able to attend a one-day training the very next day (training group name, Dream Green). A full training is planned for the coming months.
The new version of the Symposium (V-2) clearly communicates a more international message than its predecessor and a sharper action focus. There is a real sense of hope and action birthed in a population who have been oppressed and disempowered by centuries of invasion, violence and warfare. Lebanon is also a valuable entre into this region of the world, perhaps the most open of the Arabic countries in the region, and one with a huge transient population of expatriates. This immediately opens up links into other parts of the world and of the greater middle east. We have much to learn and much to offer through our work with this group, its definitely a place where a continuing investment of energy will lead to powerful results.
Rony and the other Lebanese hosts were warm and generous, traits shared by many in this country, and the guests had several fabulous experiences of hospitality. Perhaps the best being the invitation to a Sufi prayer meeting organized in the guest’s honor. Jon Symes said “This experience has done so much for me to help me see my own unexamined assumptions about culture, religion and life in this part of the world. I'm grateful to the people I met who were reaching out with open arms to breakdown the divisions which have sprung up between our worlds and I recognize the chance we have through our work and our relationships to be a bridge between these worlds; I for one want to help others feel more connected with our brothers and sisters in the Arab world.”
