[OSList] Open Space development in Egypt 2011

[Dr. Claudia Gross]

Dear All!

A great year is about to be over soon - and another wonder-ful year is
ready to start.
In Germany, we call this period between Christmas and New Year "between the
years" and this is exactly how I feel right now:
Having a look back on the TaDa's of 2011 (its high points, successes, joys)
and dreaming about 2012  ;-)

It's the perfect time to have a look back on the development of Open Space
in Egypt.
As you already have seen in Eslam Erman's post, the short movie about one
of the OS events documents our work "live and in colour":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l7iZ955QH8&feature=share . It was so
fantastic and encouraging to receive your great comments and feedback -
highly appreciated! :-)

In total, 10 Open Spaces were facilitated (+ 1 happening on Dec 31st -
insha'allah) on topics as diverse as "Egypt at the Crossroads", "Unity in
Diversity"/ interfaith dialogues, refugees in Egypt, voluntarism, effective
citizenship - just to name a few. Over 400 women and men from over 20
Egyptian governorates have participated in the events. They are still in
contact by closed fb groups and are now working on the next steps
initiatives they have identified.

Additionally, the website Open Space Egypt was created by Eslam (
http://www.openspaceegypt.com/) and has its own fb group (
http://www.facebook.com/groups/257887974253169/). Thanks to Ramy Mortada we
have new great posters with the five OS principles, the law, butterflies &
bumblebees and the final admonition in Arabic and English. We are currently
in the process of translating more material as Arabic resources for the
coming Open Space events.

To respond to the need of having Arabic speaking Open Space facilitators, I
have trained a group of 13 who are now able to facilitate their own events.
Right after this training, I was asked by others to repeat the training, so
the basis of Arabic speaking facilitators will increase in 2012 again. The
weekend after this training, the new facilitators already run their first
Open Space on Informal Areas: two of them facilitated it and five were
assisting them as a core team. Can't tell you how proud I was when I saw
all of them making this event happen - it was a big and inspiring success!
:-)

The development of Open Space in Egypt has gained momentum: The new
facilitators are planning to organize more Open Spaces, we all want to
increase the PR to attract more sponsors and interested participants, we
continue our OSLEX meetings to have an exchange on our learning, and we
keep on translating and developing useful materials to support the
facilitators regarding their important work.
I personally believe it's just a matter of time until we start supporting
other countries in the Arab world in facilitating their own Open Spaces  ;-)

Wish you all a great year 2012 filled with health, love, joy and peace!

Warm regards from Cairo,

Claudia
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