Euphrates Cooperation Circle

Our purpose is to improve relations between the Middle East and West by providing educational, cultural and interpersonal dialogue and programming which focuses on what unites us rather than divides us. We want to provide fresh views and accurate information to begin to build a movement of North Americans who are better informed about the Middle East and the common ground that exists between the three Abrahamic monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Euphrates currently operates in four main areas:

A) Travel Study. Euphrates is partnering with the Center for Ecological Living and Learning (CELL) (www.cellonline.org) to offer its first student abroad program to the Middle East. The Winter 2011 program focuses on a theme of sustainability and peace building.

B.) Student Fellowships & College connection. Euphrates’ “Campus Base” program finds Euphrates currently partnered with Principia College (www.principia.edu/college) and working with undergraduate student Fellows in our think-tank, research branch. Euphrates’ student Fellowship program calls upon undergraduates to achieve a baseline understanding of important players in the Middle East, to look beyond headlines and politically motivated arguments, and to make connections between their own lives and then Middle East.

C.) Media activities (documentary, video shorts). On the 6th anniversary of the U.S. invasion, Euphrates filmed interviews with top-level Iraqi government officials as they talked about political evolution, and covered street scenes and conversations that provided viewers with a taste of Baghdad in March 2009. Filming will continue in the future. Short films are also being created by the Euphrates student Design Team, both for promotional and educational purposes, and these will be made available as a resource on the web.

D.) 9/11 Summit. Euphrates Institute and Principia College’s George A. Andrews Distinguished Speaker Series, will host Transforming the 9/11 Era. This gathering is the first of its kind in the mid-western US, which will bring together thought-leaders in the areas of religion, politics and environmental sustainability who are working concordantly on relevant issues in the Middle East all collaboratively from a place of common purpose, humanity and compassion.