Tuning in to Peace: Bilingual Radio Program in Cyprus Initiated by HasNa Wins Award
This January, Cypriot radio stations Radyo Mayis and Radyo Astra were chosen to receive the famed Kutlu Adalı Award for Talk of the Island, a bi-communal radio program broadcast across Cyprus in both Greek and Turkish.
The Kutlu Adalı Award was created in memory of Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adalı, who was assassinated in 1996. The award is given every year by the Cypriot Press Laborers’ Union in recognition of media professionals working to promote peace in Cyprus.
Talk of the Island is the result of HasNa’s 2005 program implemented with the Management Centre located in north Cyprus and the Future Worlds Center (formerly the Center for Neuroscience and Technology Institute) in the south. Talk of the Island aims to foster communication, understanding, and respect between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots by covering issues that affect both communities. Through bilingual news, music, and discussions that include listeners from the north and south, the program uniquely enables Cypriots to interact and learn about one another across the “Green Line”.
- Broadcasting peace live at Talk of the Island
Osman Kalfaoğlu (Radyo Mayıs) and Aral Moral (Radyo Astra) received the award in recognition of the bi-communal broadcast. Speaking about the award, Osman Kalfaoğlu stated: “This is the first time [the Press Laborers’ Union] has awarded a bi-communal program. We should encourage more bi-communal cooperation between journalists and explore ways to allow journalists to be able to exchange information daily across the divide. There is a lot of misinformation about both communities reported in the media and if there was more cooperation between journalists, this could be prevented.”
Visit the Talk of the Island website to listen to live and past recorded airings of the award-winning program.
HasNa has implemented peacebuilding programs in Cyprus focusing on media and communications since 2002. Click here to find out more about HasNa’s related Cyprus programs.
HasNa Article in the Peacebuilding Post
“What happens when you bring diverse individuals from Turkey and Cyprus to the U.S. for training in professional skills, communication skills, and conflict resolution? As HasNa, Inc. has discovered over the last thirteen years, lives change, communities transform, and peace grows…”
With all the attention that HasNa’s programs are receiving in Cyprus and Turkey, it is clear that HasNa plays an integral role in the international peacebuilding community. The Alliance for Peacebuilding, an association of organizations that promote collaborative action for peace and security world-wide, selected an article on HasNa to appear in the initial 2012 online publication of the Peacebuilding Post. The article highlights the experiences of participants in HasNa’s successful water and agriculture programs and captures the impact that our conflict resolution training has had on their lives. HasNa has been an active member of the Alliance for Peacebuilding since 2007.
Click here to read HasNa’s article in the Peacebuilding Post…
Cyprus Friendship Program highlighted in Cypriot newspaper
“This is not a story about the Cyprus problem. It’s a story about the solution.”
Writing in the Cyprus Mail, a leading Cypriot newspaper, journalist Poly Pantelides commended HasNa’s Cyprus Friendship Program (CFP) as part of the solution to the ongoing conflict in Cyprus. The author of the article, titled Teen Turnaround, purports that amid the usual political banter of the Cyprus conflict, CFP rises above as a model for peaceful engagement. HasNa board member Warren Muir founded CFP in 2008, which since then has become so successful that a new volunteer-run organization is being created to operate the program.
HasNa Partner Featured in The New Yorker
You can’t fly very far in Turkey without spotting a HasNa project.
“Natural Histories: A journey into the shadow of Ararat,” appears in the October 24, 2011 edition of The New Yorker and follows avid birdwatcher Çağan Şekercioğlu, founder and president of the Turkish environmental NGO KuzeyDoğa. One of HasNa’s partners in eastern Turkey, KuzeyDoğa works to prevent species extinction and ecosystem collapse while ensuring that humans also benefit from wildlife conservation.
Cagan Sekercioglu, founding president of HasNa partner KuzeyDoga
The feature mentions HasNa’s ecotourism projects implemented by KuzeyDoğa around Lake Kuyucuk in Kars, Turkey. These projects in 2010 and 2011 trained local residents in environmental protection, conservation of natural resources, conflict resolution, hospitality, and other aspects of ecotourism. The most recent of these trainings helped 20 Turkish women from diverse backgrounds attain the management skills necessary to run bed and breakfasts in the region in order to attract more domestic and international tourism. Elif Batuman’s article in The New Yorker describes the many socioeconomic challenges that remain in the region, but projects such as these provide hope for real environmental and economic improvement.
By highlighting these efforts, the article shows that advancing sustainable and inclusive development in the region is a shared goal. Through our relationships in the U.S, Turkey, Cyprus, and beyond, HasNa aims to make this goal a reality. When it comes to building peace, saving habitats, and improving livelihoods, birds of a feather do flock together.
To read a preview of the article online, click here!
Happy Hour at Madam’s Organ
HasNa’s third annual Happy Hour Fundraiser at Madam’s Organ went off without a hitch. The evening began at 5:00 and the bar was packed by 6:00. We were delighted to spend the evening enjoying great conversation, food, and drinks with everyone.
Click to view photos:
This year we had four special guests at the event. The English teachers from HasNa’s English Training for English Teacher’s Program were here in Washington, DC studying at Georgetown University. They had a wonderful time at Madam’s Organ and expressed how impressed they were by Americans’ spirit of volunteerism.
Our supporters play an integral role in HasNa’s work. The money we raised will help us achieve HasNa’s mission to promote cross-cultural understanding and economic empowerment in culturally divided areas of the world.
We would like to thank all those who attended. And to those who didn’t—we hope to see you next time! We are already excited for next summer’s happy hour at Madam’s Organ.
By Alexsandra Fischer
Update: English Language Skills for NGOs
“You know when you came here I couldn’t express myself and now I’m talking!” The goals of HasNa’s English Language Skills for NGOs were not only to improve comprehension and grammar skills but also to help participants gain confidence using English.
We inaugurated HasNa’s English Language Skills for NGOs in Diyarbakir, Turkey on May 9th, 2011. We were English teachers in Turkey as Peace Corps Volunteers in the 1960s. Our Turkish was rusty, but we welcomed the chance to teach again in Turkey, to see some of the southeastern region, and to further the goals of HasNa.
We taught English for three weeks to 20 staff members of the Development Center, one of HasNa’s local NGO partners in the region. Class was held nightly from 6-8:30 PM at the English First language school following a full day of work by the participants. The classroom setup presented a challenge to the interactive style of U.S. language teaching, resources were limited, and the students were tired. Nevertheless, the participants caught on quickly to exercises with partners and team work and responded to the active communicative goals of the course. We used dialogues, role play, word bingo games, the phonetic alphabet—all to get the students using English.
We planned lessons daily at the Development Center offices and were taken sight-seeing in the historic area on the weekends. We had a chance to visit historic sites in Diyarbakir—the six kilometers of 3rd century volcanic rock walls encircling the old city were quite impressive as was the centuries old and still active Assyrian Orthodox church. The nearby cities of Sanliurfa, Harran, and Mardin were wonderful to visit with participants in the course. The Turkish elections were an added bonus. Sound trucks blaring music drove throughout the city. Flags from the various political parties decorated the streets. The Development Center was next door to the headquarters of the most popular political party in Diyarbakir, so we even saw some candidates walking the neighborhood.
The students and the host families were all warm and welcoming and the food was delicious. We are now communicating with some of them by email—in English. We made good friends and after three weeks it was hard to say goodbye.
By Pat Lowther and Kathy Scruggs
Cyprus Friendship Program 2011
HasNa’s Cyprus Friendship Program (CFP) is in its 3rd year!
CFP focuses on fostering trust and understanding through friendships between Turkish Cypriot teens and Greek Cypriot teens. CFP prepares these future leaders to find bi-communal solutions for living harmoniously together in Cyprus.
An impressive turnout--over 200 parents and teens attend a CFP briefing in Cyprus.
This year the program is expanding tremendously. The group of 60 young, future leaders from Cyprus will live in Oregon, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, as well as Washington, DC and Northern Virginia for a month of leadership training, team building, and community service. This is a big step forward since CFP began in 2009 with 20 teens living in Washington, DC and Northern Virginia.
The enthusiasm for the Cyprus Friendship Program continues to grow as well, as both teens and host families prepare for the arrival in the U.S.
HasNa would like to recognize the extraordinary efforts of the volunteers that made CFP 2011 possible:
Warren Muir, Executive Director and Chair
CFP IN THE U.S.
Cheron Calder, Portland, OR Coordinator
Cassie Cleverly, New Hampshire Coordinator
Tom McCarthy, Maryland Coordinator
Mike Messinger, Northern Virginia Coordinator
Liz Swenson, Connecticut Coordinator
Priyanka Komala, Webmaster
Kim Bell, Transportation Coordinator
Don Guziewicz, Transportation Coordinator
CFP IN CYPRUS
Nicos Anastasiou
Sarper Ince
Sotia Adamidou
Cise Sakalli
Simge Kahvecioglu
Theano Kalavana
Meral Akinci
By Ciara Masterson
