Nine Journalists from across the World have converged in Washington DC, USA for the 2023 Senior Journalists Seminar of the East West Center, EWC.
While in Washington, the newsmen who are all year 2020 alumni of the EWC Journalism Fellowship programme, will participate in a series of meetings and panel discussions to learn more about American religious understanding and engagements on rights and responpsibilities of the body, body politic, and earth body, religion and ecology, conservation, biodiversity and many others issues.
Welcoming the Fellows to Washington DC, EWC’s Vice President and Director of Research, Dr Satu Limaye who had earlier hosted them to a dinner explained that the the Center’s Journalism Fellowship Seminars and Journalists programme offer short term dialogues, field study, travel and exchange opportunities for working professionals and focus on bilateral, cross border, regional and international issues.
“We run a range of programmes, we are kind of the Washington face of our institution, I know you’ll learn more about the EWC in Honolulu, the Institution is congressional authorised, public congressionally appropriated” he said.
The agenda of the Washington leg of the programme handed out by the Coordinator, Dr Emilie Parry also show that the team will observe various religious services, including observance of the Juma’ah prayer at DC’s oldest Community mosque, Masjid Muhammad, also known as “The Nation’s Mosque”, Sabbat Service at Adat Shalom, engaged in building a relationship to Judaism that is faithful to the past and relevant to the present as well as Church service at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, an open, inclusive social and environmental justice Protestant.
From Washington, the team of Journalists will move to Honolulu, Hawai’i, down to Indonesia and Thailand to further engage their peers, experts and citizens of the countries on thematically relevant issues, including: Cultural identity, treatment and representation of religious groups, religious diversity, freedom/rights and initiatives yo reduce religious extremism, etc.Established in 1960, the East West Center serves as a resource foe information and analysis on critical issues of common concern, bringing people together to exchange views build expertise and develop policy options.
Story: Christy Dung
Media: Omolara Omosanya / Radio Nigeria Lagos