'Face to Faith' with Tony Blair

Teachers from eight schools across Northern Ireland had the rare opportunity to chat with Tony Blair during a video conference at Stranmillis University College. The teachers were participating in a one-day training event for the ‘Face to Faith’ programme run by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF) which aims to facilitate inter-faith dialogue through video conferencing and online collaboration. During the session Mr Blair told the teachers: ‘Young people have an enormous appetite to learn about others who are different from them’ and he emphasised the positive value of enabling pupils to dialogue about faith issues and beliefs.

Jo Malone, UK Coordinator of TBFF, introduced teachers to the basics of video-conferencing as well as the learning materials and cooperative learning techniques at the heart of the programme. During the day there were also international contributions from experienced inter-faith facilitators in India and Lebanon who stressed the benefits of Face to Faith for not only encouraging dialogue and empathy between young people but helping them to connect with their own faith traditions. In the coming months the teachers hope to embed some of the programme within their own classrooms and C2K video-conference manager, Eamon McAteer, has promised they will be enthusiastically supported by his organisation. The schools are also keen to explore ways in which they can facilitate dialogue about faith and beliefs between local children as well as internationally.

The event was organised with assistance from the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, Queen’s University Sharing Education Programme and Stranmillis University College.

You can find out more about Face to Faith by visiting the website or by contacting Jo Malone.