Giraffes in Nigeria!

Giraffes came to Nigeria in November, 2008 and not the four-footed kind!

Giraffe Heroes Project President John Graham spent eleven days in the country, speaking, leading workshops and meeting a wide variety of Nigerians committed to the social and political transformation of their country.

Building Bridges to the Muslim World

Sitting atop most of the world’s oil reserves, all of it in religious ferment, most of it estranged from the West, some of it a source and haven for international terrorism—the Muslim world today is one of the most powerful, and certainly the least stable, player on the world scene.

The dangerous divide between the Muslim world and the West continues to widen. Some of that is the inevitable consequence of jihadism—the ultraconservative forces now resurgent in Islam. Some of it is the war in Iraq. Some of it is Israel/Palestine. Some of it is the continuing lack of sensitivity of each side to the other.

Whatever the causes, clearly it’s important for the stability and well-being of the world that this dangerous divide be bridged as much as possible. This effort has been a focus of John Graham’s international work for the last four years. It has included:

Working with Initiatives of Change (IC), a major behind-the-scenes conflict-resolution group, to bring Israelis and Palestinians together in safe,private, non-blaming discussions on the issues that divide them.

Talking to anyone with the power to affect peace in the Middle East. This has included talking to the leaders of a Hamas-controlled Palestinian refugee camp in South Beirut,listening to their side of the decades-old struggle. It was this trip that may have landed Graham on the Bush Administration’s “No-Fly Watch List"

Giraffes in Kyrgyzstan

Giraffes Kyrgyzstan, modeled after the U.S.-based Giraffe Heroes Program, in late 2008 honored its first class of "Kyrgyzstan Heroes"--people working to help solve the public problems in that troubled country. These Heroes will be models for other Kyrgyz citizens, especially rural youth. Initial funding for the group included an $18,000 grant from the U.S. Embassy. The initiative was formed after conversations between John Graham, President of the Giraffe Heroes Program, and Timur Baiserkeev, the Kyrgyz organizer. Graham continues to advise the group.

The Young Leaders Integrity Alliance

As part of the World Ethics Forum in Oxford in March 2006, John Graham also led a "Youth Forum," working with a group of dynamic young leaders from 28 countries intent on changing the world. The role-play techniques pioneered by the Giraffe Project proved very powerful with this group. In one very emotional segment, Graham showed a young activist from a country under repressive rule how she could keep her passion, control her anger, inspire her colleagues and develop the street smarts to organize student resistance to the regime without getting thrown in jail-or worse. She's now back home, her mission underway. In another segment, Graham worked with a young Lebanese lawyer to develop a strategy for starting a new political party in Lebanon that might provide what is now so lacking in that country—common ground.

The participants in the Youth Forum refused to let the idea die. Out of their connections at Oxford has sprung the Young Leaders Integrity Alliance, a group linked by Internet technology that is pooling collective ideals and energies to fight corruption and press for good governance in their respective countries and in the world. Graham is coach and mentor to the group, which is growing rapidly.