An urgent message from Shiri Ourian, Executive Director, American Friends of the Parents Circle – Families Forum
I am devastated by the news that the Trump Administration has cut USAID funding for any cross-border Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding activities. While the saddening news of this punitive measure was announced previously, I was hopeful that our programs would be able to receive the remainder of our grant for 2019. We have now learned that the 2019 funding will likely be suspended giving us just one month to make up for the loss of funds.
The Parents Circle has partnered with USAID for 10 years. Annually, USAID funds make up approximately 30% of our budget. This cut puts several important programs at risk:
- Our Parallel Narrative Experience, an innovative peacebuilding approach that has brought together over 1,000 Israelis and Palestinians to learn about the personal and national narrative of the other and support both sides in moving beyond exclusive truths, building trust, generating empathy and humanizing the other;
- Our Women’s Dialogue Meetings, which has trained dozens of bereaved Israeli and Palestinian women to lead women-only Dialogue Meetings in Israel and Palestine;
- Core funding, which supports our 18-person joint programmatic and administrative staff.
— less than 2 weeks
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