CFP Alumni Newsletter – Third Edition

Are you looking for a chance to hone your communication and leadership skills, learn how sharing a common language can offer a path toward peace, or connect with alumni from around the world on Zoom?

Whether you’re feeling career-focused and committed to activism, or simply looking to let loose and relax, this newsletter from the Alumni Team at Creating Friendships for Peace (CFP) is for you!

Second CFP Institute Program: Friends and Family Welcome

The CFP Institute’s second program will bring together speakers from bicommunal organisations in Cyprus to discuss the role of culture and language in peacebuilding.

This session will highlight how grassroots initiatives are fostering mutual understanding and bridging divides between communities on the island.

Our guest speakers represent two inspiring organisations:

• HADE! – A multi-communal group that provides language lessons and exchanges in Turkish, Turkish Cypriot, Greek, Greek Cypriot, and Cypriot Maronite. Their mission is to encourage members of each community to learn each others’ languages, fostering empathy, communication, and cultural exchange as tools for peace.

• Cylingo – A cultural initiative dedicated to archiving and teaching the Cypriot dialects spoken across all communities of the island. By preserving and promoting these dialects, Cylingo works to strengthen cultural identity, celebrate shared heritage, and bring people together through language.

Through this program, participants will gain insight into how language learning and the celebration of local heritage can act not only as a bridge between communities but also as a foundation for a more inclusive and peaceful future in Cyprus.

This special program will be open to the public, and you can register via the following link: https://forms.gle/avDSzGwmu8mWN3LV8.

Please invite your friends to join you for this program and open discussion.

We are also beginning our preparations for our third CFP Institute program in February 2026, which will focus on the Middle East.

About CFP’s Alumni Network

For nearly 40 years, Creating Friendships for Peace (CFP) has been dedicated to creating friendships across divided homelands.

Begun in Northern Ireland, CFP has continued its work in Cyprus and the Middle East.

Joining CFP as youth and teens, our alumni voices become increasingly strong as we go off to universities and careers.

We strive to collectively be a powerful voice to advocate for peace in our homelands.

CFP Alumni Around the Globe

At the end of August, over a hundred Cyprus alumni and friends of the program came together for a night of live music and re-connection.

A total of 20 alumni musicians and volunteers worked together to help organise the Peace Concert, which we believe to be the biggest alumni event in years.

A team of CFP alumni has been working behind the scenes to launch the first-ever CFP Alumni Newsletter.

Its inaugural edition was distributed in June, followed by the second edition in August, and now the third edition today.

CFP has added alumni pages to the CFP website where alumni are encouraged to reflect on their experiences with CFP and share what they are doing.

There is also the newly launched CFP Institute, which will be providing quarterly programs on communications, the biology of conflict, leadership, project management, and much more.

Its first program, “Conflict Resolution Styles: ‘What is Yours?’” was held on August 3rd, for which over 30 CFP’ers registered from Cyprus and the Middle East.

Please join us on November 23 for our second program (described above).

To contribute to alumni initiatives:

• Tell us what skills the CFP Institute should focus on via the designated form and help us shape future programs.

• Connect socially and with purpose by engaging in alumni activities and online meet-ups.

• Feature your story of hope or activism in our newsletter by emailing cfpalumni@friendships4peace.org.

• Submit a “Meet the Alumni” profile for the CFP Alumni pages on the website and/or social media via the relevant link.

• Show how and where you connect with other alumni on our CFP Connections Map.

• Become an active member of your local alumni network by filling out the form with your availability. All alumni are welcome!

Please send us your thoughts and feedback – we want to hear from you!

CFP Collaboration with the Parents Circle

The Parents Circle, located in the West Bank and Israel, creates meaningful, heartfelt connections among those who have lost family members or close friends from all sides of the Middle East conflict.

CFP alumni (ages 18–27) who have experienced personal loss were invited by the Parents Circle to apply for their program.

The program involves two one-week connections in major European cities.

We hope that CFP alumni who are eligible seriously considered this opportunity.

CFP and the Parents Circle are exploring other ways to collaborate in the interest of building real, lasting connections.