By Jeffrey Feltman
Jeffrey Feltman serves as the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.
"The Obama Administration has made it a priority to broaden U.S. engagement around the world — reaching out to a wider range of partners, in and beyond governments, to discuss and work together on shared challenges, concerns, and opportunities. To see this approach in action, you don’t have to look further than Secretary Clinton’s February 13 – 16 trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which I was privileged to join. The Secretary traveled to the BMENA Forum for the Future in Morocco to reinforce the importance of civil society and announce programs to support citizen empowerment through education technology, and other meansThe Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) is ramping up its support for local activists and organizations with home-grown agendas for progress — these projects now make up more than half of all MEPI-funded projects." (Read full article).
Thumbs-up for a Persistent MEPI Alumna:
For First Time in Lebanon Mothers Allowed to Open Bank Accounts for Children
On Thursday, December 17, 2009, Mrs. Barbara Shahin Batlouni, Country Director of Amideast, walked into the headquarters of the Bank of Beirut and the Arab Countries (BBAC) in Clemenceau at 12pm and opened a bank account for her child. In so doing she became the first mother in Lebanon to exercise the right of guardianship over her child’s financial future.
Wafaa Abed, President of the Institute of Progressive Women (IPW) in Lebanon and a MEPI Alumna – US Elections Program, launched an initiative to allow Lebanese mothers open bank account for their minors. Working with Attorney Dr. Paul Morcos, a MEPI (Permanent Civil Peace) and State Alumnus, to draft the laws and petitions advocating for this basic right, Wafaa Abed overcame legal and stereotype challenges to see her “dream”, as she describes it, come true. (Read more).
Responsible Citizenship is the Concern of Moroccan Youth
The Arab Foundation for Development and Citizenship (AFDC) in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program—Information and Communication Technology for Development of Arab Region (UNDP– ICTIDAR) and through the support of MEPI organized in November 2009 two workshops on "the Concept of Responsible Citizenship" in Casablanca, Morocco. The workshops, which were attended by forty young Moroccan men and women, come as part of the AFDC's project to spread the culture of responsible citizenship, which is based on the balance between rights and responsibilities. (Read more)
“The Free Man with a Wink”
On December 7, Association Theatre Aquarium raised the curtains onits first performance of “Al Hor Bel Ghamza” (The free man with a wink) supported by the US Embassy Rabat. The play portrays four different experiences with corruption.
Association Théâtre Aquarium, a registered Moroccan NGO, implemented a MEPI project called “Anti-corruption Public Awareness Campaign through Theatre” to coincide with the International Anti-Corruption Day. The play is the first of a series that will be performed across the country to raise awareness about the threat of corruption and the importance of fighting its pernicious effects on society. (Click here to read more details on the play).
Targeting 12,000 Moroccan citizens, the project will utilize 30 theatrical performances in partnership with NGOs to educate people about transparency, accountability and integrity in governance.
Young Arab Leadership Program: Students Council Activism
Young Arab Leadership Program (YAL), project targets secondary school students aged 14-17 and recent high school graduates to built multidisciplinary leadership skills through youth programs that encourage them to think globally, act locally and work toward constructive change within their local communities.YAL formed leadership groups in each participating school. These groups focused on raising awareness in their schools about crucial issues effecting their communities. By enlisting the students in supervised volunteer programs and community-service with NGO’s the leadership groups fostered change-oriented attitudes and developed abilities in the target students. This framework achieved successes for a wide range of projects.
