Momentum for Child Health

Millennium Development Goals campaign I am working on at United Nations. MDG 4: Child Mortality

Momentum for Child Education

Millennium Development Goals campaign I am working on at United Nations. MDG 2: Education

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Karim, Rest In Peace

From first camera workshop with the orphans at Dar Lekbira in Kenitra, Morocco

Karim was one of the first street kids  I worked with and became friends with in Morocco. He passed away at the end of the summer. He was just a teenager.  Karim’s heart and smile overpowered the hardships he had to endure in his short life: poverty, family losses, cancer. His fire, that power, his smile, will live on forever. Love you Karim. You will be missed. My condolences to the children of the Dar Lekbira Association.

Here is a video of Karim during our drumming workshops in 2009:

Children of CHINAR and Arts Diplomacy: Exclusive

Come look, come listen.

See clips from exclusive film project/arts diplomacy workshops with the brilliant youth of CHINAR Orphanage in Kashmir. Here is a summary video of the workshops I did with the orphans this time last year. In particular, these oprhans wrote, directed, and acted in 4 short films tackling issues related to pollution, female education, corruption, and the importance of relgious tolerance in politics.  Politicians will remain incompetent, but the youth have their ears to the ground and much to teach us.
Dedicating this one to the beloved cousin Izhar Wani (Rest In Peace) and my brother Murt who helped make this a reality. Love and prayers to the youth of Kashmir.

IN SEARCH OF AN ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS

 

Here is part one of my new series for the Huffington Post about IIE and UN Alliance of Civilizations Fellowship I participated in this year.

 

Part I: Morocco

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mohsin-mohiud-din/in-search-of-an-alliance-_b_1556620.html

 

Excerpt:

“I observed that an unchallenged barrier to educational partnership and reform in the education sector stems from the lack of encouragement for critical thinking within academics and lack of space for open debates that foster pluralism and a diversity of perspectives.

I encountered an example of this barrier with one Quran teacher in Casablanca who seemed to differentiate between education and critical thinking. In their logic, one needs to first memorize and learn everything before being allowed to debate and form critical thought. In the West, critical thinking and open debate are embedded in education. This gap between education and reflexivity is not limited to how the Quran is taught, but in how educators teach material in many schools in some Arab countries. Critical thinking and reflexivity, which are needed for the conditions of pluralism and cooperation to flourish, seem to be lacking due these mentalities that differentiate critical thinking and education…..” 

United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Fellowship Selection

 

I have been given the privledge of being part of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Fellowship. Myself, along with 12 other emerging leaders, are traveling to the Midd East in April to work meet with government officials and civil society members, in order to learn more about how to improve East-West relations and cultural exchange. Countries currently visiting include: Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia Click here for info: