Afghan author, poet and interpreter Shabibi Shah gave a personal insight into her courageous life story at the launch of the latest edition of her book Where do I Belong? She answered questions put to her by journalist Mary Lean at a Greencoat Forum held in the London Centre for Initiatives of Change on 11 November.

The upskilling of local people in building bridges of trust across a diverse community is one of the aims of the Hope in the Cities Dialogue Group in Nottingham. In October they held a four-day training course at the Sycamore Community Centre on how to facilitate community dialogues.

The Times, London, on its Saturday ‘Faith’ page, 8 November, carried an article by Michael Smith, following his IofC website commentary on the financial crisis.

A new report is available of a visit to Northern Ireland and England by a group of six young professionals from Iraq on a cultural exchange programme, 6 -19 September 2008, with a focus on leadership and community-building training.

On the initiative of those from the minority communities a ‘People’s Day’ was held, for the first time ever, in the Hove Town Hall on 5 October. The aim was to show some of the things which go on in the city about which many are totally unaware. Some of these were cultural, some religious, some commercial and some charitable. Forty stalls displayed goods and information to show the life of the city.

John Bond, former Secretary of the National Sorry Day campaign in Australia, captivated Nottingham’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Gul Nawaz Khan, and the audience at the St Barnabas Cathedral when he spoke about Australia's Journey of Healing.

Summer 2008 marked the 100th anniversary of a transforming experience of Frank Buchman, founder of IofC. A very diverse group of seventeen people journeyed from Keswick in the UK, to Sweden, Germany and Caux, Switzerland. In this new DVD they explore the essence of Buchman’s spiritual journey, what developed from it, and its significance for today.

‘Language: division or opportunity?’ was the subject of a symposium held on 10 October at Bangor University’s Business School. It was organised jointly by North Wales Police and the Welsh Language and Heritage Centre at Nant Gwrtheyrn.

Alan Channer reports on the French version of the award-winning documentary film The Imam and the Pastor, screened at CINÉMA VERITÉ, the world’s most prestigious celebration of films that highlight humanitarian and social causes, in Geneva on October 10th and Paris on October 12th.

Declaring that the job of farmers was ‘to see that everyone in world is fed’, Jim Wigan, coordinator of an international Farmers’ Dialogue programme, spelt out a number of major ‘interlocking’ issues to achieve this goal, at a time of famine and food shortages. He was speaking at a Greencoat Forum in the London centre of Initiatives of Change, 7 October.