|
Editorial
Where are we now?
A few observations on Tharwa’s progress
Ammar Abdulhamid
July 11,
2004
Several months have passed now since the official launch of the Tharwa
Project Website, and the Tharwa Team is fast approaching the end of the
Site’s trial period. The trial period was intended to help us further
define the particular mission of the Website, taking visitors’ comments,
interests and queries into account.
Despite the low-profile that we have kept at this early stage, the
Website has, nonetheless, generated much interest both regionally and
internationally, as the number of reviews and interview requests that
have so far been made and the combined total of visitors for the Arabic
and English sites clearly demonstrate. Indeed, the total has so far
exceeded 5000 visitors with over 30,000 hits per month, which is a
pretty respectable figure at this early stage for such a serious
website.
In fact, we have been caught off-guard to an extant by all the attention
that we have received. Very quickly, we found ourselves having to grow
at a much faster pace than we had originally planned, and we suddenly
found ourselves with our resources stretched to the limit. This was
reflected for a while on our ability to operate the site, that is, to
keep it updated on a more regular basis and to commission articles and
studies written specifically for Tharwa, as many of our visitors have
noted.
Eventually however, we have managed to survive this chaotic period, and
we are now reemerging, albeit slowly, armed with a greater sense of
purpose and organization. Meanwhile, our team has grown and will
continue to grow over the next few months, and the scope of our
operations will soon be expanded to cover other parts of the Middle
East, and not only Syria. For this is, as our Mission Statement clearly
says, a regional and not simply a Syrian initiative.
Moreover, Tharwa is not only a website. It is indeed an
ambitious program designed to work on the
grassroots and academic levels as well. Organizing events such as
community meetings and conferences is, therefore, part and parcel of its
Mission.
Indeed, in May, and on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in
Amman, the Tharwa Project Team organized a meeting of regional and
international scholars and activists concerned with the issue of
religious and ethnic minorities in the region. The meeting helped
provide certain guidelines and recommendations for future Tharwa
activities and provided a welcome opportunity for the expansion of the
Tharwa Network to include many new regional and international partners.
Soon thereafter, our application for joining the Pax Christi
International Network was approved, a development that further
consolidates our position as an advocacy organization committed to
helping raise the standards of civic awareness in the region (for more
information on these recent developments, please check our Events
Section). With this, our organization, DarEmar, is slowly being
transformed into a larger region-wide institution, as it was meant to
be. Ours, then, are not haphazard efforts and steps, but carefully
studied ones meant to help empower and inspire civil society activists
in the region by building a larger and more effective support network.
We do realize, of course, that we are still in the embryonic phase and
that what has been achieved so far is simply too miniscule in comparison
to what needs to and can be achieved.
Nonetheless, we do also realize that, over the last few months, we have
managed to take several important steps on the long and winding road
towards fulfilling our Mission for transforming our religious and ethnic
diversity and our differences in opinions and intellectual trends into a
vital source of strength and wealth for all concerned, as, indeed, they
should always be.
|
