From Len & Libby Traubman

June 9, 2015

Aryae:

You have asked for succinct information to ground a trustworthy request to OWL participants and others to financially help Offuh James Offuh gather for reconciliation traumatized adversaries of recent severe violence in Cote d’Ivoire near Offuh.

OFFUH’S CITIZEN-DRIVEN INITIATIVE was to immediately respond to the May 27-28 Christian-Muslim youth brutality in nearby Brand Bassam and Dabou. Fourteen citizens including an Imam were slaughtered, many more were maimed, and a mosque and a church were burned down.

Offuh wrote: “To look for remedy to the situation, i travelled to the cities yesterday and meet with victims and consol them. Upon my visit i proposed to the two rival faith traditions for direct dialogue. which they appreciated, in view of thiis situation i invited to them urgently, the different Religious leaders representative today at 16h.00 GMT for a Dialogue meeting in Abidjan today.”

Responding to Offuh’s vision and recent successes, community citizen-leaders eagerly accepted Offuh’s proposals for a two Youth Interfaith Seminars, one of 100 participants in each town.
The dates will be Saturdays — June 20th and July 11th.

This kind of reconciliation is not something in that governments or large institutions have the inclination, vision, or skill to enact.

You can see Offuh’s bravery and genius to bring people together recently — http://ufpacidialogue.net/en/ and http://traubman.igc.org/vidnigeriaivorycoast.htm

OFFUH’S NEED in the days just ahead is $6,000 to facilitate this potentially-historic reconciliation of 200 Muslims and Christians, and to document on film. The detailed budget is attached. The OWL community could seize this moment to help fuel this real-life illustration of how citizens create and lead into our future together.

Here is the way we responsibly transfer money to Offuh:

1. OWL participants and others can see responsible documentation of Offuh’s extraordinary courage, know-how, and recent success story at http://traubman.igc.org/vidnigeriaivorycoast.htm and http://ufpacidialogue.net/en/
2. Tax-deductible gifts would be to the Living Room Dialogue’s fiscal sponsor 501(c)(3) non-profit Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center (PCRC) — Middle East Dialogue.– http://pcrcweb.org
3. Checks can be mailed to our home — L. Traubman, 1448 Cedarwood Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403
4. Online donations also work well, but that mechanism costs 10% of the donation if made at http://traubman.igc.org/donate.htm</li>
5. After seeing and approving of a project’s budget, money to Offuh is wired from our personal bank account to his in Abidjan.
6. Upon receiving Offuh’s expense receipts after a project concludes, PCRC reimburses the Traubmans for the money we wired from our personal account.
7. PCRC charges 10% of such an outgoing check, which is subtracted from the Dialogue’s account with them.

We are pleased to help transfer funds in this way for OWL people who are moved to help Offuh succeed.
Please tell us if you need more information.

Libby and Len
LTraubman@igc.org
20 Years of Palestinian-Jewish
Living Room Dialogue (1992-2012)