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By Rikko Voorberg, Director of the Network

“May you live in interesting times” - is a supposed curse. Interesting meaning: times of turmoil and darkness. Well, A World of Neighbours is created for interesting times.

And no one could have predicted a decade ago how interesting these times of today would turn out to be. So what to do in this worsening climate? We are busy organizing our single most important meet-up, the Annual Summit, in Poland off all places. Right at the border with Belarus. And we are doubling our efforts on Young A World of Neighbours, organising a parallel Youth Summit also in Poland and early next year in Brussels. What to do when times are tough? Meet-up and organise. Meet-up online and offline. Organise our way through this, slowly and steadily. And just as important: breathe, help each other to breathe. To remember we are not doing sprints, not even a marathon, we are on a life long journey - taking new generations along while we are doing the work.

After presenting some stories of my recent visit to the Westbank and the People’s Peace Summit in Jerusalem, sharing stories on the Palestinian Circus School - one practitioner said: 'if they can still do Circus Schools in the Westbank and in Gaza, then I am for sure not going to give up'. At AWoN, we are working our way into the future together with our partners, practitioners, funders and all people of all kinds of faith for a diverse and welcoming Europe.