In the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 16, the Bridges Builders Program (a URI Cooperation Circle) was awarded the Poliedro de la Paz, for its work in the area of Coexistence and Social Friendship. That program began ten years ago with a grant from the US Embassy in Buenos Aires, and, since then, countless activities have been carried out to cultivate interreligious dialogue and strengthen the culture of peace.
In its first stage, the program targeted students between 18 and 30 years old from Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities in Argentina. The project connected this diversity of young people by promoting among them constructive relations of understanding and trust in shared spaces of study and action. The initiative consisted of generating meeting points among young people who have a similar mindset in order to reduce the tensions created by the fear of the unknown and to excite them in the search for tools needed to plan, commit and support shared solidarity actions.
With the passage of working time and cooperation, Constructores de Puentes (Bridge Builders) became a URI Cooperation Circle in the AL&C (Latin America and the Caribbean) region, and has made visible the work of the interfaith network. URI's Director of Cooperation Circle Support, María Eugenia Crespo, also belongs to this group. She was in a URI meeting in Brazil at the time, so it was not possible for her to be present to receive such a deserved award. However, her coordinating colleagues and members of the CC, Marisa Bergman and Nancy Falcón, were present.
Congratulations to this group on your valuable work and the award received.
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