Ten people from eight different countries in the Middle East met during the regional meetings. Some people already knew each other from working together, but most didn’t know each other. Each person had a chance to introduce themselves and talk about their organisations, area of work and interests. Vision for education to be a tool for empowerment, women, relationship of geography with the way people interact, social change, role of technology in capacity building, and use of mind maps were some of the topics that were mentioned.

It was discussed that there wasn’t an opportunity or enabling environment for people to share their views very much and the group decided to form an email group to keep in touch and share information. 

During the meeting, Barbara Ibrahim from the American University of Cairo, invited participants to send abstracts to the upcoming conference of the centre for philanthropy and civic engagement The conference will focus on regional research in areas related to civic engagement and philanthropy. It will be held in Amman and currently foreseen to take place either in April or May 2011.

Foundation of the Future is also organising conferences with the first one on the role of Civil Society Organizations in combating human trafficking in the BMENA region in Amman, Jordan. The second conference will address assessment of the impact of donor assistance on democracy development in the BMENA region in 2011. A Middle East listserve will be set up and in place shortly.