Project Areas

The Open Hands Initiative is committed to fostering dialogue and goodwill worldwide, with a special focus on improving people-to-people relationships with the United States and developing world. Our work takes place in the spheres of everyday life - health, culture, education, and recreation - and stresses that each and every country has much to teach and learn from one another. Specifically, our initial projects focus on improving mutual understanding and interaction through the following areas:

• Culture & Creativity
• Disability & Accessibility
• Media & Democracy
  

Ongoing Projects

Our inaugural project took place in August 2010 in Damascus, Syria where we held the first ever Youth Ability Summit. The Summit brought together 26 youths with disabilities who envisioned the superhero character called the "Silver Scorpion." Issue 1 of the comic book series introduces Bashir, and was given away in the U.S. on Free Comic Book Day and in Syria. The Open Hands Initiative plans to distribute the comic book to schools throughout the Middle East as a way to improve people-to-people relations while spreading awareness about the rights of people with disabilities.

 

Past Projects

A second component to the Youth Ability Summit, mentioned above, was the creation of the "Ensuring Rights in Development" manual. It is a practical, cross-cultural guidebook for implementing the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and contains case studies from the Middle East and North Africa. This book is directed at civil society organizations, practitioners, and policymakers, and is a joint work produced by the experts who led the Summit in Damascus: Victor Pineda, Valerie Karr, and Chavia Ali. Learn more about "Ensuring Rights in Development."

In the spirit of bringing together Americans and Egyptians, the Open Hands Initiative partnered with international news website GlobalPost to produce a 10-day Reporting Fellowship in Cairo, Egypt in October 2011. The program brought together 17 young, rising stars in media in order to build their investigate reporting skills, and to develop stronger bonds between the people of our two countries. The result of the program is a 25-part series about the impact of the revolution in Egypt. This "Special Report" is available on GlobalPost where it has been read by more than 2 million people.

The Music Exchange Program facilitated the production, distribution, and exchange of local Syrian music, working to encourage growth of the domestic amateur music scene while also sharing this music to American audiences. As part of this program, we connected local artists with American counterparts, to provide education, training, and mutual sharing of local techniques. The resulting music will be distributed digitally and freely in the United States to expose Western audiences to the rich and vibrant Syrian music scene.

Future Projects

The Open Hands Initiative has temporarily postponed, and intends to carry out in the future, a third program in Damascus, Syria: a cross-cultural art exchange program. This workshop will bring together Master artists from Syria and the United States, as well as aspiring student artists from both countries to improve their understanding of each other, build on their artistic talents, and create lasting bonds of friendship. Art from the program will subsequently be displayed at top galleries in the United States and Syria.