 By Rikko Voorberg, Director of the Network
These are busy days at A World of Neighbours. The end of the winter is closing in on us, so it’s time to get ready for the seasons of Spring and Summer. We are preparing several meetings at the same time in Brussels in April. AWoN Board, Staff and available Team members will get together to plan the Network’s next moves. And while we are in Brussels anyway, why not do more? We’ll be hosting a public presentation of our book “Living in a world of Neighbours, activists and academics in conversation about Multi Faith Refugee relief” on April 9th. This book is such a gift to anybody working in this environment or interested. So we will celebrate it, invite NGO’s, Thinktanks and Politicians - and of course the next generation of Practitioners. The Youth Branch of A World of Neigbhours will organise its second parallel gathering and work with artists from the Netherlands to cocreate an online Magazine. And, finally, just to make sure we use our time in the best way, we also throw in a day of retreat for all AWoN-Members that can make it to Brussels!
Every minute spent on these gatherings is gold. It will ripple out across Europe, through practitioners who feel supported, connected and organised. It will bring headspace and courage. And that will find its way to communities and organisations, to people on the move and people in power. That’s what we have seen, that’s what we believe in for the future, that’s how we work towards a World of Neighbours.
PS. Besides my dedication to AWoN, I’ve dreamed up a project that is different but so related too. The Peacewalk Europe to Jerusalem, to Al-Quds. It started on February 1st in Spain, I am grateful it’s supported by AWoN. You can read more about it below.
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LEARNING & EXCHANGE WEBINAR |
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Jewish Peoplehood in Europe today: challenges and visions (part 1) |
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AWoN Practitioners are warmly invited to a two-part exciting webinar focusing on the experiences, challenges and visions for Jews in Europe today. Those sessions aim at giving a more in-depth background for what it means to live and practice as Jews in Europe in 2026, beyond the current media attention on rising anti-Semitism, the war in Gaza and conflicts in the Middle-East.
The first session, on March 10 at 5pm CET, will be dedicated to a historical overview of Jewish presence in Europe (Dr. Jan Schwarz), contemporary European Jewish peoplehood (Rabbi Rebecca Lillian) and Jewish migration in Europe and beyond (Ilan Cohn, director of HIAS). The panel will be followed by an interactive conversation between presenters and the audience.
Learn more about it here and join us on March 10!
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Join the 'Call-to-Action' co-creation session in Brussels! Young-A World of Neighbours |
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Are you a young advocate dreaming of a more humane, diverse and welcoming Europe, based in Poland or the Netherlands? Then this one is for you!
YAWON (Young A World of Neighbours) is a European youth initiative bringing together young people aged 18–35 from diverse cultural, religious, and social backgrounds, with a strong representation of participants with lived migration experience. Rooted in the vision of A World of Neighbours, YAWON creates spaces where dialogue, creativity, and civic engagement come together.
Following an initial community-building meeting in Warsaw, YAWON now enters a key moment of its first year: an in-person gathering in Brussels from 8–12 April, a creative lab and a civic action space, focused on co-creating the first YAWON Call to Action magazine to bring youth voices directly into Europe’s political heart.
Funded by Erasmus+, YAWoN is supported by A World of Neighbours (interfaith network of migration practitioners in Europe), Arteweda (collective for community-based arts and cultural work in Poland), and Voicify (European network of migrant youth organizations).
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It is still time to share with us your Promising Practices!
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AWoN Researchers are still collecting your Promising Practices!
Whatever one hears about migration in Europe, it’s bad news. But we want to bring good news into the world and share what is working! This is why we are putting together a booklet of A World of Neighbours’ Promising Practices.
Think about your work with people on the move. What do you think works so well
that it would be worth sharing it with others? From something major and political to something minor and personal, we want to hear about all the helpful things you do, so that we can share them with the world.
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The Peacewalk 2026 Has Begun – Walking Europe Towards Jerusalem
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On February 1st, the Peacewalk 2026 – From Europe to Jerusalem officially began at Finisterra, Spain — literally “the end of the world.” From there, walkers are following the Jerusalem Way, the longest peace path in the world, crossing Europe step by step toward Jerusalem, where we aim to arrive in May 2027. Other Walkers will start at different major cities, like Berlin, Spain, Amsterdam and Ljubljana - like a river it comes together in Eastern Europe. Our director Rikko Voorberg, who initiated this incredible journey, will join from Budapest till Jerusalem.
The Peacewalk is not a protest, but a shared practice. It is a collective pilgrimage inviting you and anyone to walk for an hour, a day, a week, or the entire route. Along the way, we listen, learn, and connect — inspired by Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilders who have a vision for peace and justice for all people. It’s a Walking and Living Collection of Peace Inspiration from every village, city and country on the way. This journey is deeply connected to A World of Neighbours: we grow connections, where there are divisions. We connect and include different faith (and non-faith) perspectives. We believe in a diverse and welcoming future.
How does it work?
Check out the route at Peacewalk.info - Click ‘Join the Walk’ and tell where you would like to walk or to help organise. You will receive the information on the stages and days as they are being organised. Or you help to find places to sleep, or eat, organisations to connect to and much more. Join the walk in any way you can — with your feet, your voice, your support. Follow the journey, subscribe to the Peacewalk newsletter, follow on the socials ‘Peacewalk2026’. See you at the Peacewalk.
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A World of Neighbours’ mission is to empower migration practitioners through maintaining an interreligious and cross sectoral peer-to-peer support network of practitioners. We foster a “community of practice” among those working on the front lines of accompaniment of people on the move, and social cohesion.
AWoN is the only network of its type - and we need your support to keep up the good work.
Would you consider making a donation to keep us going?
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We're on a mission to support migration practitioners and to expand our community of practice. Subscribe and follow us! |
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Support for AWoN projects was provided by a grant from UMCOR.
Top photo: AWoN Practitioners exchanging coffee and stories, September 2025. By Pedro Amaro Santos.All rights reserved.
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