WeAreMENA Vision Statement
A Regional Vision Statement for Educational, Cultural, and Spiritual Cooperation among Moderate Organizations in the Middle East and North Africa
“O mankind… We made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.”
Qur’an, Surah Al-Hujurat 49:13
“Seek peace and pursue it.”
Jewish Bible, Psalm 34:14
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
New Testament, Matthew 5:9
From the shared teachings of the three great monotheistic religions that emerged from the Middle East and North Africa – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – rings a clear message: choose peace, pursue it, and recognize the other as neighbors and extended family. Yet the ideas of brotherhood, compassion, and hope are not exclusive to these three. They echo across the region’s many faiths and spiritual traditions, among Druze, Yazidis, Bahais, Zoroastrians, Mandaeans, Yarsanis, Samaritans, and others.
These traditions share a deep and enduring call for peace. But they also contain counter-trends, doctrines and movements which call for dehumanization and glorify violence and seek to erase the other. We, the younger generation, choose not to ignore these destructive trends but instead to confront them with responsibility, openness, authenticity, and hope. Our network brings together organizations whose people rise each morning to resist these trends of despair within their own societies and instead work to strengthen the path of peace. From our multiplicity of voices for hope, we seek to create a living, inclusive, and connected network in which every identity is respected, and every story has a place. A regional network of education, dialogue, action, and collaboration.
The WeAreMENA Network connects youth and future‑oriented organizations across the region. Each operates in its local context, across sectors and at times within official frameworks, yet all share a belief in the power and responsibility of young people to build a better future. In a region as diverse as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), we celebrate the varied political, cultural, and institutional landscapes in which our members operate. Our collaboration is adaptable and respectful of local realities, rooted in our people’s pasts and focused on educational and ethical commitments rather than political positioning.
The network serves as an educational, cultural, and spiritual commons for deep dialogue, inter‑organizational learning, and initiatives that promote knowledge‑sharing pedagogical innovation, and experiential exchanges which can connect minds and open hearts. The network draws its strength from each organization’s meaningful grassroots action in their own societies. By fostering a sense of self deeply rooted within our traditions; while promoting encounters across our differences, we build partnerships and processes around identity, memory, culture, shared values and shared dreams.
We draw learnings from the past, with our eyes on the future. The Middle East and North Africa are undergoing dramatic transformations: political, economic, social, and environmental. To navigate these shifts constructively, our societies need youth‑led, cross‑border partnerships.
Our work is anchored in two core commitments. First, we affirm the equal and legitimate historical belonging of all peoples and communities of the Middle East and North Africa to this region, and their right to live in dignity, safety, and mutual recognition. Second, we categorically reject discrimination of any kind, hatred, murder, and all forms of violence beyond the minimum necessary for self-defense. We strive for a region where diversity is not merely tolerated but celebrated, a region where violence and hatred are no longer imaginable.
At the heart of the WeAreMENA Network lies a clear set of principles:
- Grassroots action within our societies: Change begins from within, through youth‑led initiatives that address local needs, build resilience and foster hope.
- Re‑humanization between our societies: We confront fear and mistrust by creating opportunities to listen, connect, and see one another as human.
- Education and encounter: Structured exchanges that enable deep mutual learning of identities, histories, languages, and narratives to transform relationships.
- Respect, dignity, and pride: Appreciating every identity, language, and tradition in the MENA region, and for the sanctity of human life as the most fundamental expression of that respect.
- Pragmatic peace‑building: Working towards peace through pragmatic, realistic and context‑sensitive solutions that strengthen trust and cooperation between and within societies.
These principles shape our methodology, from curriculum design to partnership‑building across divides.
This Vision Statement is an open call to youth organizations across the region, not only as individuals, but as communities of education, values, and action, to join the WeAreMENA Network. We do not offer a rigid, uniform framework; we set a standard of commitment to shared values, mutual learning, long‑term action, and trust‑building across communities and borders. By connecting organizations rooted in their own contexts and reaching tens of thousands of young people, we can work together for a better future, a future in which the younger generation not only carries the past but actively shapes the future.
By signing this Vision Statement, we commit to building a growing regional network that strengthens inter‑organizational collaboration, fosters meaningful encounters among young people, and advances a better future for our region – one with the power to positively impact the world.