“Active Citizens” is a social leadership programme launched by the British Council that promotes intercultural dialogue and social responsibility around the world. Through its programme, Active Citizens brings together people with different beliefs and perspectives to learn from and share their experiences with each other. They train participants in the skills and knowledge needed to affect social change in their communities.

Women are vital actors of society, and must be empowered to foster equality, dialogue, and peaceful coexistence. Women empowerment can take the shape of different practices and activities such as exhibitions or workshops. Exhibitions of women’s portraits can transcend religious differences, and empower women to share their narratives and experiences through pictures, thus focusing on the vital role they play in their communities. Exhibitions can be organized as a one-time event where it is initially organized, or can become a traveling exhibition, either within the initial country or from one country to another.

Moreover, in the religious sphere, women rarely have a leading role. The initiative “Women of Faith” gives women the opportunity to shine and lead in spaces where they are often marginalized. This initiative wishes to empower women to share their experiences and their perception on what their role is in modern religious communities.

This practice is excellent for individuals or organizations working in a radio station or who wish to launch their own. “Radio for Peace” is an inclusive model of a radio channel that addresses social issues and matters of cohesion between different interreligious or intercultural groups, such as indigenous and non-indigenous people. The radio can focus on different topics such as interfaith, intercultural or intergenerational problems in society.

People affected by HIV have to face prejudice and stereotypes and tend to be isolated from the community, especially in religious contexts. Interfaith communities can be mobilized to unite and tackle the issue of HIV, and support patients, therefore including them in their communities, breaking stereotypes, and fostering coexistence. Different religious communities or interfaith groups can work on a solidarity program with a specialized organization, to show solidarity with affected patients.

Support for HIV patients can take the form of a video project that breaks stereotypes around those the virus. It shows people of different backgrounds dealing with the virus, their hardships and the social pain they go through. Sharing different narratives proves how anyone can be affected by HIV and challenges the stigma around it.

A theatre group can also engage people of different religious backgrounds and affected by HIV to raise awareness of their reality through theatre. The aim is to raise awareness of HIV within religious communities, to create safe spaces for affected individuals.

Peacewalks are an interreligious practice that can be carried out in different manners. For instance, visiting tours can be organized to take people to different places of worship in different areas of a city. This provides an opportunity for people to learn about their neighbour’s religions. They can also make public statements on their commitment to peace and reconciliation. Another practice involves organizing a march on the remembrance day of a massacre, war, or genocide, therefore retracing the principal steps of history, and uniting people from all points of view to promote unity and reconciliation. It is a way to honour survivors or victims’ families and their memory, and an opportunity for perpetrators to apologize.

Interreligious courses are an effective method to foster interfaith dialogue, as they educate. Different projects and pathways can be used to establish curricula and courses on interfaith coexistence, such as a national interfaith civic education. This can be formulated and organized by an interfaith organization that works closely with the education ministry of a given country to implement it. Through this unified national education curriculum, the youth are taught about understanding and accepting others’ beliefs, and that their citizenship entails a respect for all people regardless of their faith. Another project involves offering a year-long University course on interreligious issues, after which participants are awarded a diploma of interreligious affairs. The goal behind such a course is to inform students about our multi-religious world. This can be implemented in primary schools as well, through basic instructions on different belief systems and practices of their respective countries’ religions. Outside the school context, an educational activity can be conducted in parishes to bring together children of different traditions, such as Jewish and Christian faiths, on weekends to learn about the teachings of both religions. Other programmes and projects can offer a set of classes to learn about the history, development and contemporary practices of the world’s major religions. Such a program is designed for individuals seeking additional and informal education, and willing to participate in evening classes scheduled after work or university.  

Interfaith learning through international and interfaith travel to different countries, as well as weekend immersion trips to local houses of worship help build trust and relationships. In every conflict or area of tension, there are different sides to the story. The dual narrative tourism initiative is meant to provide visitors with two successive different narratives from two different guides, each one narrating their own perspective, for them to build their own opinion and expand their understanding of the situation. This practice can also take the form of visits to different religious spaces. Opening one’s religious space to others is a way of showing a facet of one’s religious identity and break down misconceptions. Inviting people to visit a place of worship is an opportunity to increase awareness and educate participants about a particular religion, answer questions and reinforce one’s faith through.

Interfaith travel can involve visiting different regions or countries. Interfaith region consists of touring one given region to shed light on similarities in terms of religious integration. Hence, this practice uses travel and tourism to focus on the question of identity and culture regardless of faith, and fosters interfaith unity through initiating discussions on interreligious similarities and differences.

Moreover, in countries where there are still indigenous communities, city-dwellers and these communities are not well-linked, as they live far away from the cities and are rather isolated. Interfaith travel can enable people from the city to reconnect with their backgrounds and the way their ancestors use to live, in order to recreate a link between all communities and to promote and support the indigenous way of life.

The practice of interfaith theatre can be utilized in different ways to suit the context of the subject matter in question. For example, one practice called Bibliodrama invites participants to understand and discuss the main religious figures present in the holy texts of a religion other than their own. Another form of interfaith theatre brings together youths of different faiths to act together in a play based in a zone of conflict between groups of different religions. Another example is “The Hindu and the Cowboy”, which is a theatrical production created from the stories shared by the residents of Kansas City. It showcases how interfaith communities in a city do not need to be viewed as a ‘melting pot’, but rather as a mosaic, in which each faith has its own integrity and identity and contributes in their own way to the beautiful full image. Lastly, the “Theatre of the People” is a mobile theatre where people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds create and perform a play, and travel together for representations. Along with all the preparations and performances, the theatre troupe engages the masses through workshops in schools and public spaces, and promotes inclusion and reconciliation through art and theatre.

Several religious leaders of majority and minority groups act as volunteer consultants for national institutions of a certain country or try to resolve conflicts between groups. The individuals and groups will be able to advice on how to approach their communities and transmit knowledge about cultures and traditions in their respective beliefs. Through this, bridges are built and contact among groups and between the executive and citizens becomes more trustful.

It is important to train and empower the youth to engage in interfaith dialogue and activities, for they are the future of societies, communities, and nations. Youth can be engaged through intensive activities and events for high school students from various religious backgrounds. Students can gather from across a country to participate in discussions, visit different houses of worship, engage in workshops on religions, spirituality, peacemaking, and leadership, and translate beliefs into action through service and justice events. The practice is supervised by mentors, and empowers young people to be leaders for social change and to foster relationships across religious communities. The youth can also be trained to be successful peace ambassadors. Young individuals of all faiths receive training on peace and interfaith dialogue throughout the year. The organization in question thus insures that the next generation is putting their learned skills to good use, and is capable of taking on responsibilities in the future. Other activities can also teach the youth conflict mediation. For example, “Better your Country”, a two-day event based on interfaith dialogue as a means to appease tensions among society, puts the youth at the forefront of mediation, and engages them in discussions on conflicts or issues affecting the country. This event aims at gathering young people from different cultural backgrounds and beliefs to display and share a variety of narratives and opinions.

Classrooms are also a great environment to foster interfaith dialogue and youth empowerment. An easy activity that can be implemented is the Love Dice, a paper-made educative tool. It aims to teach students about shared human values by playing with the Love Dice each morning and establish a goal for each day. On each side of the Dice students write universal values of caring and love, and thus playing with the Dice empowers them to share their cultures, beliefs, and their values based on the chosen universal value that they throw for that day. This goal revolves around treating others how one would wish to be treated, regardless of their cultural or religious identity. Moreover, interfaith dialogue and empowerment can be implemented through the educational curriculum.

Extra-curricular activities such as camps and scouts are a rife space for youth engagement and training. The InterFaith Youth Camp gives youth the opportunity to engage in change and contribute to their society and community. This small camp provides them with knowledge and gives them a space to build friendships from different religious, faith, and cultural communities. Similarly, the scout movement can enable young people of different backgrounds to meet through the scout movement. In Madagascar, people of the three different Scout branches (Catholic, Protestant and Lay) have decided to join hands in order to create more collective activities.

This practice welcomes children of all backgrounds and embraces their individual identities. It acknowledges the child’s experience, affirms their core sense of identity and belonging, and seeks to nurture their developing sense of environments and communities (home, school, local community, and faith or belief community, civil society). It endorses the youth’s faith and belief, thus it influences their sense of identity and belonging while it nurtures their sense for justice and peaceful coexistence.