An international group of religious leaders representing Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions convened in Abuja, Nigeria from 11 to 21 April to explore opportunities for interreligious collaboration and to plan grassroots projects in their communities. The religious leaders, representing ten countries from all over Africa, were brought together by the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) as part of the KAICIID Fellows Programme, a programme for training, empowering and supporting dialogue practitioners globally.
During the meeting, the Fellows took part in dialogue training offered by KAICIID experts and practitioners, visited Abuja’s houses of worship and designed grassroots interreligious dialogue projects to promote peace and social cohesion in their communities.
“KAICIID Fellows are contributing to advancing the field of IRD and promoting peace every day in more than 40 countries. We are counting on the Fellows in Africa to be Messengers of Peace, a force for promoting harmony and peaceful coexistence,” said Anas Alabbadi, Senior Programme Manager of KAICIID. “We sought Nigeria specifically because of the country’s rich diversity and tradition of dialogue. We hope that by bringing together such a diverse cohort of religious leaders, we can spread effective dialogue for social cohesion, led by Africans, for Africans.”
The Fellows were selected for the Programme because of their work in interreligious dialogue and their passion for promoting peace, and through the Programme, KAICIID will further develop their skills and support them in cultivating mutual understanding and social cohesion in their own communities.
Many of the Fellows work in conflict regions and in regions where there is inter- communal tension, and the goal of the Programme is to empower these individuals to bring people together through dialogue. Following the training, the Fellows will implement 20 different grassroots interreligious dialogue projects all over Africa; previous projects have included community dialogues, dialogue capacity building for youth, dialogue toolkits and interreligious dialogue manuals.
After graduating from the programme, the Fellows will join the KAICIID International Fellows Network, a network of more than 100 Fellows from more than 30 countries representing 8 world religions. These Fellows have reached nearly 7,000 people worldwide through 100 initiatives, and continue to work in promoting dialogue and social cohesion globally at the community level.
The African Fellows come from the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Chad, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
For more information, visit kaiciid.org/fellows.
About The KAICIID Fellows Programme
The KAICIID International Fellows Programme is a one-year learning and training programme that will empower institutions that train future religious leaders by providing capacity building to select teachers and dialogue practitioners. The aim is to facilitate dialogue encounters by giving these teachers the tools, experience, networks and knowledge to pursue interreligious dialogue and further be able to prepare their own students and community members to become facilitators and leaders in interreligious dialogue. In addition to interreligious dialogue training, the Fellows will also learn how to train their own students in conflict transformation so as to be active peace advocates in their respective communities.
KAICIID in Nigeria
KAICIID works in Nigeria with the Nigerian Interfaith Dialogue Platform for Peace (IDFP) to build an inclusive and long-lasting platform for interreligious and intra-religious dialogue, bringing together religious and interreligious actors with governmental and civil society partners. The IDFP is composed of representatives from all regions of the country. The IDFP members adopted the Constitution for the Forum in 2017 and elected its organs, including an Executive Committee and Central Coordination Council, in charge of coordinating its activities.