Arigatou International Geneva Office and United Religions Initiative (URI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their working cooperation to foster children's well-being in the world.

From left: Mussie Hailu, URI Director of Global Partnerships; Mrs. Maria Lucia Uribe Torre, Director of Arigatou International Geneva; and The Rev. Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr, Executive Director of URI.

The agreement was signed on December 18, 2019 by The Rev. Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr, Executive Director of URI, and Mrs. Maria Lucia Uribe Torre, Director of Arigatou International Geneva.

The two organizations have agreed to the following preliminary and overarching areas of cooperation:

• Collaborate to promote education for learning to live together, enhancing interfaith collaboration and action both within their constituencies and outside;
• Work together to advocate for children and youth participation in fostering learning to live together and encouraging global citizenship;
• Jointly organize training workshops on the Learning to Live Together Programme for URI Cooperation Circle members;
• Support the implementation of the Learning to Live Together Programme with children and youth.
  About Arigatou International.

About URI

URI (United Religions Initiative) is a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world. The purpose of URI is to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously-motivated violence, and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings. URI has UN NGO consultative status with both the Economic and Social Council of the UN, and with the Department of Global Communications of the UN.

URI envisions a world at peace, sustained by engaged and interconnected communities committed to respect for diversity, nonviolent resolution of conflict, and social, political, economic, and environmental justice.

URI implements its mission through local and global initiatives that build the capacity of its 1,035 member groups and organizations in 108 countries, called Cooperation Circles, to engage in community action such as conflict resolution and reconciliation, environmental sustainability, education, women’s empowerment, youth and children’s programs, advocacy for human rights, and promoting a culture of peace and interfaith harmony.

www.uri.org 

About Arigatou International

Arigatou International is an international, non-profit organization committed to building a better world for children. Arigatou International is “All for Children,” and draws on universal principles of common good to offer compelling new ways for people of diverse religious and cultural backgrounds to come together to address children’s issues.

An initiator and sustainer of partnership-based initiatives to secure child rights and foster children's well-being, Arigatou International seeks to maximize the potential of interfaith cooperation, and always strives to empower and involve children and youth.

Holding special consultative status with UN-ECOSOC and consultative status with UNICEF, Arigatou International liaises and works jointly with UN agencies and other NGOs to foster cooperation within a rights-based approach to the profound issues faced by children and youth today. In 2008, Arigatou International and its Global Network of Religions for Children, in collaboration with UNESCO and UNICEF, launched Learning to Live Together – An Intercultural and Interfaith Programme for Ethics Education.

Learning to Live Together is a programme for educators (teachers, youth leaders, social workers) to nurture ethical values in children and youth that will help them strengthen their identities and critical thinking, ability to make well-grounded decisions, to respect and work with people of other cultures and religions, and to foster their individual and collective responsibilities in a global community.

Learning to Live Together has been implemented in more than 30 countries and benefited more than 400,000 children and youth. More than 1,200 facilitators have been trained on how to use the manual.

For further information please contact:

Arigatou International Geneva

Email: geneva(at)arigatouinternational.org 

www.ethicseducationforchildren.org