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Julia Fisher talks to Yousef Dakwar - an Arab pastor in Haifa, northern Israel. After starting a church in the city, approximately 20 years ago Yousef became aware of the power of social media and little by little he started a media ministry that today reaches into many countries. Today we hear how he became concerned about the plight of the thousands of refugees who began fleeing from and through Syria to Europe and how he felt compelled to help. Our aim is to build bridges... To build bridges of understanding and support, in a spirit of reconciliation, between believers (both Jewish and Arab) in the Holy Land (Israel and the Palestinian Areas) and Christians worldwide. olivetreefund.org
Ten years after war broke out in Syria, the country remains roiled in conflict. Millions of people have fled their homes, with many of them seeking refuge in neighbouring Turkey. While the government and dozens of aid organisations provide Syrians with housing, healthcare and other basic necessities.. experts say helping refugees become self-sufficient is the only sustainable solution. Our correspondent Mobin Nasir reports on one initiative that's teaching Syrians new skills so they can improve their livelihoods. Our other correspondent Obaida Hitto is in Jarablus in northern Syria, where many homes continue to face a shortage of basic needs, like food and electricity. #TurkeyBusinesses #Syria #Livelihoods
What does empathy have to do with emergency aid? In this final episode of Season 4, Erin Wilson, podcast host and senior field editor, sits down with Jessica Courtney, Preemptive Love's vice president of international programs, for an honest look at what they've learned about themselves as they've cared for others.This episode:Invites you into a behind-the-scenes look at emergency food distributions in Iraq and Syria. Ihsan Ibraheem, who does program documentation, gives an on-the-ground update.Takes you to Venezuela, where you'll hear — in their own words — from new friends who were able to make ends meet because of food deliveries.Welcomes you to peek behind the podcasting curtain, as Erin vulnerably shares about the photos that made her not only cry, but think about her global neighbors — and herself — in a new way, too.Learn more.
This first episode of season four takes you behind the scenes of the Love Anyway tour that took place last fall. Peek behind the curtain into the making of the Love Anyway film, a short documentary we created to explore the ideas around how we can heal what’s tearing us apart. We let you in on some of the conversations that happened before and during the making of the film.We were planning to share this immersive episode with you later this year to go along with a new Love Anyway tour across the US. But because of COVID-19, our spring tour is going online. So we bumped up our production schedule to share this with you now!(Starting April 9, we’re hosting five online, interactive events with Preemptive Love founders Jeremy and Jessica Courtney. Free tickets are available now, but space is limited.)Learn more.
After nine years of political conflict in Syria, more than 5.5 million Syrians are now displaced as refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, with more than 3.6 million refugees in Turkey alone. It is unlikely that many of these refugees will be able to return home or resettle in Europe, Canada, or the United States. Attention has therefore turned to how to improve the ability for these refugees to integrate into Turkey’s economy and society. In this episode of Dollar & Sense, Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Kemal Kirişci joins David Dollar to offer his proposal for supporting refugees by pairing trade concessions with economic inclusion. Specifically, Kirişci recommends extending European Union trade concessions in the agricultural sector to incentivize Turkey to better integrate refugees into its labor market. Dollar and Sense is a part of the Brookings Podcast Network. Send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter.
It’s been a difficult week across the Middle East, from protests in Iraq to the recent news that the US administration is withdrawing its presence from northeastern Syria. On this breaking episode of the Love Anyway podcast, we hear from our Preemptive Love team about how the decision by the US to pull out of northeastern Syria could have reverberations that last generations.We can’t follow the news right now without seeing headlines about US pullout from northeastern Syria. So, what’s happening? What are the implications? Why is this withdrawal so important...and so potentially devastating, not just for our friends in Syria, but for all of us?We speak with Preemptive Love founder Jeremy Courtney, who has lived in the Middle East, including Turkey and Iraq, for more than a decade.We also hear from Erin Wilson, Preemptive Love's senior field editor in the Middle East, who describes the sense she is getting from her friends and neighbors in Iraq, many of whom have Kurdish friends and family in the line of fire in northern Syria.Learn more.
September 11, 2001 changed everything. And each year as this day arrives, we pause to remember. We remember when we heard the news, where we were, how we felt. We remember the fear that rose in our throats, the fear the began to change the way we walked in the world, the way we saw each other. On this episode, we ask some of our colleagues from Iraq, the United States, and other parts of the world to reflect on their memories of 9/11. Some were just starting their adult life when 9/11 happened; others had to process it as children. Some watched from a distance as the Twin Towers fell; others were intimately connected to the loss felt on that day. American or Iraqi, Muslim or Christian, adult or child, September 11 has shaped who we are and the world around us. September 11 also set in motion a chain of events that led to the formation of Preemptive Love. As the United States launched into Iraq, to wage war against an enemy that had nothing to do with 9/11, we launched into Iraq to wage peace. Learn more.
How much should kids be involved in shaping our communities? Should we shield children from news about violence and war? In this episode, we attend a vigil with the Oestreich family, who believes community involvement is a core family value. Diana Oestreich has been the key relationships officer with Preemptive Love for nearly four years. Before that, Diana was a combat medic in the Iraq War. Her experience as a veteran shapes her views on everything, including how she and her husband Jake raise their kids Zelalem and Bridger. What does their commitment to showing up for their community look like? Recently, Diana and her sons joined their community at a local Lights for Liberty event, a vigil for children seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border, and they let us come along with them for this episode. Learn more.
Immigration is a complicated topic, even for adults. Some of us are afraid to say the wrong thing. Others of us fear those who are different. How do we talk about immigration with family members? With kids? On this episode, we start by listening. On our second episode of the season, we hear from José Chiquito, a college student who came to the US with his family as an undocumented child. We also talk with Luisa, whom our colleague Billy Price met at the US-Mexico border after she traveled with her grandchildren from Honduras to legally seek asylum. And Laura Pontius, an immigration attorney, shares why the language we use about immigration matters. We also provide a field update about the aid and assistance you've made possible to families seeking asylum on the US-Mexico border. Learn more.
Can kids be peacemakers? Preemptive Love founders Jeremy and Jessica Courtney share how living in Iraq has influenced how they raise their children. With host Erin Wilson, they explore how culture, technology, and war changed their perception of parenting—and invite us all to enter into difficult conversations with the young people in our lives. Their kids, Emma (14) and Micah (11), dive into their perspectives on growing up in Iraq, sharing thoughts on violence, media, and what makes home to them. Kids are often shielded from bad things, but what happens when that’s not possible? This episode also includes a call with Molly Goen, a teacher who confides what students taught her after they survived a traumatic act of violence in an Iraqi classroom. Young people absorb more than we might imagine, and they understand more than we may assume. When we examine what it looks like to love anyway, we often come up with complicated answers. But ask a kid in your life what it means to love anyway, and you might be surprised at the depth even simple responses bring to the conversation.
In the trailer for season two of the Love Anyway podcast, host Erin Wilson and Preemptive Love founder Jeremy Courtney share why it’s important to enter into hard conversations with all kinds of people—including kids. In season two, we’ll explore the fears and questions kids—and the adults in their lives—have about violence, racism, media, cultural differences, and war. Children are often left out of hard conversations. But what if we welcome future generations to the table, now? Join us as peacemakers of all ages share true stories of hope, exploring how to broaden the picture of what it looks like to love anyway. Learn more.
We're inviting you to a behind-the-scenes look at the people and stories behind the Love Anyway podcast. Host Erin Wilson joins Ben Irwin, director of communications, for a casual conversation recapping season one with producer Kayla Craig. Hear Erin share her favorite episode and what she finds most challenging about hosting a podcast. (And experience her infectious laughter that those of us at Preemptive Love get a front row seat to every day.) Discover the episode Ben was most skeptical of—and how it turned out to be his favorite. You'll also catch an exclusive sneak peek into Season Two of Love Anyway, which launches in July. Learn more.
They fled some of the world’s worst violence. Their future is uncertain. How can you stand in the gap for asylum seekers at the border? This special bonus episode of Love Anyway features behind-the-scenes staff calls with Preemptive Love’s programs manager Jennifer Meyerson and donor relations coordinator Matt Malcom, discussing Preemptive Love’s time-sensitive response to what’s happening at the border between Mexico and the US. While others wage partisan wars, we can be the people who love anyway. Learn more.
What makes home feel like home? As our work has shown us, restoring homes ruined by war is a first step to bringing whole communities back to life. Preemptive Love co-founder Jessica Courtney shares stories of her Iraqi and Syrian friends who have been displaced and are now remaking their homes. We also hear never-before-heard stories from the field, as Jessica shares her experiences of visiting homes that are being built after being destroyed by war. Learn more.
How do we move past fear? Travel with producer Kayla Craig and her pastor husband Jonny as they visit a mosque in the middle of Iowa. Saadia Qureshi, Frontline Coordinator with Preemptive Love, shares her experience as a Muslim woman, chatting with Kayla about what to expect when visiting a mosque. Kayla talks with Shahed, a leader from their local Islamic Center, about why the mosque decided to host an open house for their community. And Preemptive Love editor Kim Mireau visits a Friday prayer service in Indiana with other non-Muslim friends Shannan Martin and Laura Pontius. We also hear from artist Propaganda, who confides his past hesitations about visiting a mosque. Learn more.
It’s easy to say love anyway. It’s a lot more challenging to live it. We might not all come face-to-face with a literal enemy who wants to kill us, but we all have chances to risk something on behalf of another, by stepping out in love, every single day.In this episode, we ask the questions: Is love worth the risk? And what does it really look like to love your enemy? In episode 1, we told you about the night our friends Sadiq and Ihsan nearly died delivering aid in the Iraq desert—one at the hands of ISIS, and the other when he was targeted by coalition air strikes, mistaken for ISIS. In this episode, "The Enemy," we share the story-behind-the-story: What happened just days before that longest night in the desert? It’s a true story almost too hard to imagine. Because when Sadiq stayed with the delivery trucks, it wasn’t the first time his life was affected by a close encounter with ISIS.
What happens when ISIS attacks your team’s aid delivery truck in the middle of the Iraq desert? And what do you do when, that same night, another aid vehicle bringing basic necessities to desperate people, gets shot at in the middle of a US airstrike—mistaken for the very ISIS fighters attacking your team? Travel with us back to 2016 to experience a pivotal turning point in our organization’s history. Experience a night in Iraq that made us press into pain. A night we’ll never forget. A night that changed...well, everything. Hear from members of our team who nearly lost their lives. Hear about us frantically tweeting coordinates to the US military, trying to get them to stop the bombing. But most of all, hear about how, even in the face of death, and in one case, even coming face-to-face with ISIS, we chose to love anyway. Learn more here.
Jeremy Courtney, co-founder of Preemptive Love, and host Erin Wilson look ahead to episode one and share the vision behind the first season of Love Anyway. What can you expect when listening? Creating peace between communities at odds. Remaking what was broken. Ending war. Healing hearts across enemy lines, beginning with our own. And discovering that we really do belong to each other. Love Anyway is a brand new podcast by Preemptive Love, premiering April 17. Learn more here.
This season, Love Anyway will push beyond a simple story. It’d be easy to paint a one-dimensional picture of people and places in the Middle East. But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here to share where we find hope. Where we find possibility and beauty. Because we believe that all of us could use a better story right about now. Join us for the journey. Don’t miss an episode—subscribe now. Learn more at preemptivelove.org/podcast.
This episode is all about our relationship with the AIGA and more general feelings about design community and discourse. Annie, Matt, and Andy are joined by new contributor Nicole Killian to discuss our relationship with the AIGA and centralized representation of our industry. Why do so many of us feel distanced from our de facto professional organization? Links AIGA 2016 Design Census The AIGA AIGA Member Benefits MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design) Walker Insights Design Lecture Series AIGA Annual Punk Rock SCAD Union (Matt’s Rogue Design Club) Make Trump’s branding great again: in-house experts talk campaign design AIGA Diversity and Inclusion Initiative How do you do, fellow kids? Design Observer Art Director’s Club Type Director’s Club RGD (The Association of Registered Graphic Designers) Justified: AIGA Annual Design Competition AIGA: Unjustified by Paula Scher 50 Books | 50 Covers competition David Rudnick’s Tweet and Explanation Design Thinking Very Busy Andy 4 Corners Project is One Designer’s Solution to Help Syrian Refugees Resist Logo SpaceX makes aerospace history with successful launch and landing of a used rocket
On this weeks episode, we talk to Sarab Al-Jijakli, a well known Arab-American community organizer who has been at the forefront of organizing efforts in the United States on behalf of Syrian Refugees. We discuss various organizations working on this issue and ways for Americans to get involved and show support. In this episode, we highlight the following organizations (in order of mention): Network of Arab American Professionals (http://www.naaponline.org/) International Rescue Committee (http://www.rescue.org/) Sarab's Blog (https://sarabiany.wordpress.com/about-sarabiany/) Islamic Relief (http://irusa.org/) Karam Foundation (http://www.karamfoundation.org/) Arab American Association of New York (http://www.arabamericanny.org/) Arab American Family Support Center (http://www.aafscny.org/) Muslim Consultative Network (http://mcnny.org/) Muslims Giving Back (http://www.muslimsgivingback.org/) Syrian American Medical Society (https://www.sams-usa.net/foundation/)