The workshop had a noble cause as it is the case with the Arab Education Forum in connecting and uniting Arabs in their deferent countries by getting them together and trying to extract from them their educational and awareness experiences in the various fields of work they do weather it is education, art, culture or care for the environment and youth as it was the case of our workshop. For me it was an inlighting couple of days to meet people from many NGO's who work in the environment from three neighboring countries to us in Jordan and to get this worm feeling of togetherness which is reassuring to me and this reassurance is necessary when you think you are carrying an almost impossible task alone in the field and suddenly you find out you are not alone.


I really liked what the Garbage collectors in Egypt are doing in the field of recycling specially when you see that these recycling skills came out of the need to survive and make a living which makes it a sustainable task while our experience in recycling in Friends of Environment Society - Jordan has just started and it is purely for environmental concern and limited to recycling paper and not yet sustainable but we hope it will be, and here again it is the problem of garbage separation at the source (homes and businesses) that we seek to establish here but it will take some time and effort. Other NGO's in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine are working hard like us to educate the public and youth in there societies on sound environmental practices through various programs they have, of course the Palestinians god help them have an extra job of trying to survive occupation and war conditions and deal with impossible environmental issues also...


Another idea I think we need to stop at and consider that is what Serene talked about combining education and awareness with artistic and cultural events and I think this is very important aspect for two reasons one of them is leaving a lasting experience in our memory form both the learning materials and the artistic and cultural events we experienced while learning and the second reason I think we here in the Middle East are starving for art and culture and we don't know how enriched and satisfied these activities can make us feel, so we always need to have these activities included in our agendas.


Finally I would like to ask every body not to hesitate to contact us regarding any input you think we can be of assistance.

Asem Faqir
President
Friends of Environment Society - Jordan