2. “The US is changing rapidly. Young people
need to embrace it not be overwhelmed by
diversity. There are two paths: tolerance or
intolerance and we can look to young people
to help us lead to tolerance. Face to Faith is
an amazingly inspiring and powerful way to
learn, and create more space for this
important dialogue”
US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.
3. “At this time of so much war and
misunderstanding between folk around the word
we feel that these Video Conferences are key to
unlocking students understanding of their
equivalent and their kin abroad.
They are accessing a 'key' to look into other
cultures and learn about their lives, able to ask
whatever questions they wish of each other with
virtually no adult input - live - actually
communicating live with folk thousands of miles
away”. UK Parents.
4. “Palestinian children will have a special
opportunity through technology, to learn
more about other cultures and accept and
respect other views leading to dialogue and
negotiation. It’s a new experience for
Palestinian children to be affiliated globally
but not overlooking their national
aspirations.” Her Excellency Lamis al-
Alami, Minister of Education for the
Palestinian Authority.
5. “The VC helped me gain self-
confidence. It also helped me feel
comfortable interacting with
students my age who belong to
other faiths. I hope to do this again
because I have more to share and
learn”
Student – the Philippines
6. “I think the advantages of Face to Faith
forum is getting to interact with people from
all over the world and knowing their beliefs
and their view points about faith. I think
being involved in an online community helps
us to also understand other faiths that we're
not sure about. It helps us to understand
how religion works all over the world and
also how others think about faith.” Student
- UK
7. "Pak-India have history of war
but we the young people are
creating the history of peace
through Face to Faith, we are
becoming friends across two
boundaries" Student - Pakistan.
8. “Face to Faith program has added a valuable dimension to the
school curriculum which was hitherto missing. The school
works to promote intercultural dialogue through varied
interactions with peers across the globe. Face to faith brought
an inter faith dialogue into focus and help pupils discover the
roots of their identities. In the process of self realization this
is proving to be a vital tool for all participants. Pupils have
learnt to accept diversity of faith and action and are learning
to be more respectful towards them. They have displayed
great enthusiasm for the program as well videoconferencing
linking with peers overseas. This program is going to be an
inherent part of all future pupil development programs and
policies.” Vice Principal - India
9. “I have no doubt to say that Face to Faith programme has already
brought positives impacts in my school’s life. It’s a program coming
from foreign country but it meets the need of schools in
Indonesia, my school particularly, in developing positive values of
the students. Video Conference that I observed was showing that
the students have good understanding of differences and how to
respect them. It also promoted a sense of equality – the students
were more aware or confident that they were equal with their
peers from everywhere around the globe. I test the student’s
attitude. I will strongly support teachers and students to
participate in any events organized by Face to Faith and will help
promote Face to Faith Programme to other schools too”.
Principal – Indonesia.
10. “Face to Faith is considered to be an essential path that
enables our students to express themselves in a way that
will show different people from different cultures their
own potentials, beliefs, and dreams. Our students felt
more mentally mature since they have to exchange topics
of an essential importance such as
faith, environment, and culture. Students are becoming
more self-confident and more open to other cultures.
The project was applied for about two months but we
can sense the change in their characters and their
feelings of acceptance and respect to other people
regardless to their religious or cultural backgrounds”.
Teacher - Jordan
11. “The experience of our students who
participated in the virtual dialogue that
morning returned home not only better
informed about the religious traditions of
India, but also more experienced in an
increasingly important 21st-century
skill: the art of dialoguing with people who
are different from themselves.”
Teacher Philippines
12. “From my point of view being involved has had a great impact engaging the
pupils and helping them to see that what we discuss in the classroom is of
interest to people in the wider world. We trailed it this year with Y9 and our
option numbers have increased at a time when other people are seeing a
massive drop. To me this suggests that involvement in F2F has had a real impact
on our students. for us the best aspect has been the blogging. This allows
students to take things further than a one hour lesson a week allows. it has also
given a voice to some of the quieter students who rarely talk in class and this
has been a real insight for us as teachers and for other students to have the
chance to hear their opinions. An added (and unexpected, but very current)
impact has been to improve literacy. Many of our students were shocked at how
well international students could write in English. This led to a discussion about
the need for them to check spelling, punctuation and grammar when writing on
the site. Apparently this is something they have never thought about before!
The involvement with Face to Faith helped the above Lancashire school gain a
Gold in the new Quality Mark – and also a good SMSC contribution from RE to
gain recognition in a recent Ofsted inspection where the school
received ‘Outstanding’ .” Teacher - UK
13. "After 30 years of engaging in Religious
Education with the goal of promoting
interfaith dialogue among different
religious traditions and peoples, I have
finally glimpsed a way forward without
parallel. This is clearly a brilliant idea
whose time has come." Professor Harry
Stout, Yale University.
14. "I have never liked school more than
this year. Sure, I still hate it, but the
English tour (FTF) is something
special. This year has taught me
how to communicate with others. It
taught me how to live right. Now I
know how to deal with people.”
Student - Lebanon
15. “There is so much that goes on in the world
that I have not experienced or truly
understood despite having seen it all on the
news. Actual contact with someone in a
certain situation is far more meaningful to
me than seeing someone analyze it on TV. It
also puts a face to situations that I would
probably otherwise consider distant or
unimportant.” Student - USA
16. We had an amazing experience with
Face to Faith [1st videoconference] at
[school]; I cried, it was so powerful. We
managed to get two superintendents
there and two Newspapers who did an
extensive interview. Thank you so much
for allowing us to be a part of the
process. Teacher – Canada
17. “The Face to Faith program enabled me to
connect with others around the globe,
allowing us to share experiences within
our daily lives. We discussed the topic
‘being a man for others,’ and I was
surprised that other people my age in
New York City had similar ideas and were
also trying to be men for others. This is
one way that religion can be important in
people’s lives.” Student - Australia
18. This program has given our students the opportunity to
dialogue around issues of faith, beliefs and values and
their experience of developing their own identity in
relationship with others, their own religious tradition and
the religious traditions and beliefs of others. In our ever-
changing world where our students are growing up to be
citizens not only of Australia but of the globe, this
program has given them the opportunity to learn how
other people think, their motivations behind their actions
and, indeed, to challenge their assumptions about others
simply because they come from a different geographical
area or religious tradition. Teacher - Australia.
19. ...they felt awesome at the end of VC, when they found out they
could be persuasive and change for a moment the opinion of
their counterparts in US towards Egyptians. I would like to
mention that what they discover more was how much strength
and power the faith is giving them and that they are not wrong
in what they believe. There were some very challenging
questions from their counterparts which allowed my students to
discover themselves more than ever. Also I can say that for the
first time they learned how to dialogue and not debate about
religion as this is a sensitive topic here. Personally I think it is
very helpful and a privilege to teach students how to be
civilized, it is enriching, spirit lifting and definitely the best
psychological, sociological, educational subject I have ever
taught. Teacher - Egypt
