Written by Rasha Ibrahim
Manama, August 22 (BNA) The second batch of King Hamad’s Faith in Leadership Fellow program graduated in a special ceremony in Manama.
The second batch of 16 graduates in the program is raised to 40 graduates amid increasing efforts by the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence to promote among the new generation of young leaders the values of openness, pluralism, cultural harmony and diversity.
These values characterize Bahraini society and reflect His Majesty’s vision of tolerance, peace and religious and human coexistence.
“The real goal is just to make the participants aware that the confidence they already have is in themselves,” said Krish Raval, founder and director of Faith in Leadership.
“They are bright, energetic and naturally talented. We look forward to being the leaders of today and not just the leaders of tomorrow. The program is largely based on a program we have run in the UK and the program consists of three parts,” he said.
The first part aims to enable students to understand that leadership lies in the self. The second part is about leadership from the outside and ways of interacting with others. The third part is about applying leadership to make a difference in society. He added that these young people are so amazing thanks to the investment of “This is Bahrain” and the King Hamad International Center for example, the insight.
“The idea is that we live in mixed societies unless we have entities like the King Hamad Global Center and the program run to bring one community to another, people will remain in silence. We teach the participants that in order to have a larger community we need to bring people together. We know People differ well.”
“This is something very dear to the heart of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa,” said Betsy Matheson, president of “This is the Bahrain Society” and deputy of the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence.
She added: “This is Bahrain and the King Hamad Global Center has the honor to play a role and achieve the same vision and philosophy that peaceful coexistence and religious freedom are the right of every man, woman and child living on this planet.” He said.
“For these programmes, we have been inundated with applications from young people across the Kingdom. This is a testament to the success that already 40 graduates have come out to share their programs with others in the Kingdom.”
She added that leadership skills are capable of recognizing the different types of personality and ways to deal with them.
“Understanding the faith stories of others around the world, learning to choose words and dealing with different personalities, bringing people together and living as one family as we do in the Kingdom of Bahrain,” she said.
The King Hamad Fellowship Program “Faith in Leadership” jointly with the University of Oxford and Cambridge is the first of its kind in the world.
40 graduates and 20 certified trainers are coming out as youth ambassadors to the United States, Brazil, Germany, Italy, France and many more parts of the world to train other young people in the wise leadership philosophy of His Majesty based on the Declaration of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
“I would like to remind everyone that the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Department of State – the first non-governmental organization to do so in the history of the US government. This was based on the King Hamad Fellowship Program for Faith in Leadership and the Declaration of the Kingdom of Bahrain.”
“We are about to go to the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month where the United Nations International Institutes for Training and Research will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with us to ratify the Kingdom of Bahrain’s declaration, King Hamad’s “Belief in Leadership” program and King Hamad’s President. We will work with UNITAR to deliver This program is for young people all over the world and we will be working with them in Geneva as well as in New York.”