In a further outgrowth of the growing impact of the Abraham Accords, a group of 20 Israeli teens departed this week for Baharain as the first-ever youth delegation of its kind to promote partnerships between the two countries. The mission is an initiative of the Jerusalem-based PICO Kids Ambassadors program, designed to promote collaboration between students in addressing specific challenges facing the international community.
In past years, the program has dispatched missions to the Far East and more recently to Dubai, with Bahrain representing the next important step in advancing youth-based relations between Israel and the rest of the world.
The 20 members of the group are all Jerusalem residents who participated in an intensive program focused on public diplomacy, regional cooperation as well as strengthening English communication skills. The group is designed to represent the diverse makeup of the city’s population, including representation from more socially disadvantaged communities within the city.
“Our fervent belief, which has been reinforced by the success of these past missions, is that kids present an opportunity for creative collaboration that sometimes doesn’t exist with adults,” explains Elie Wurtman, Managing Partner of PICO Venture Partners and Founder of the PICO Kids program. “What excites us most about this latest mission is how Bahrain is a culture which represents a distinct type of authenticity and respect for tradition that will be both enlightening for the students but also open doors for lasting relationships that I am confident will lead to real changes for both our nations and the region at large.”
As the first program of its type, planning for this mission took almost two years but the idea gained the strong support of the Embassy of Baharain in Israel.
“The PICO Kids Ambassadors mission is a remarkable example of how the power of the younger generation can contribute to building bridges between our two nations through a spirit of creative collaboration,” said H.E. Ambassador Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma, Bahrain’s Ambassador to Israel. “There is no doubt that the type of innovative thinking that comes from the minds of young Bahrainis and Israelis will be critical for addressing many of the mutual challenges facing our region today and, in the future, and I commend all involved in bringing this historic program to fruition.”
Alongside an opportunity to introduce the students to sites of natural and cultural interest, the main focus of the mission will be on interacting with local students. The Jerusalem participants will team up with local students to collaborate on developing creative solutions to one of the Middle East’s most pressing crises- water scarcity.
“While technological advancements have presented a critical response to this issue, we know that it will continue to challenge our region and the world, particularly as populations increase and urban centers expand,” Wurtman said. “The people who will be most impacted by this issue are the future generations so it is only fitting that they will be the ones to introduce working collaborations to find long-term and increasingly modern answers to this age-old problem.”