middle east

Rain does not fall on one roof alone.

—Middle Eastern proverb

Saadi Shirazi, a 12th-century Middle Eastern poet, said that human beings are all members of one body, created from one essence. He said that when one member is in pain, the others cannot rest.

That’s why volunteering in this part of the world is so important. None of us can afford to rest as long as the Middle East continues to bleed.

Violence only begets more violence. And while volunteers cannot change long-held animosity overnight, they can lay down a stone or two in a path that leads to reconciliation. By starting a dialogue, by holding out a hand, by saying “I’m interested in learning more about you and about your culture,” volunteers can put a toe in a door that desperately needs to be wrenched opened.

The problems in the Middle East are hard to look at, marked as they are by terrible violence and mistrust. But somebody has to try. That somebody might as well be you.

In this chapter, you’ll find lots of opportunities for healing the Middle East—from picking olives with disenfranchised Palestinians to turning abandoned army bases into schools and gardens, from protecting endangered monk seals to painting a mural on a wall.

And one of these days, if we all continue to believe in, and to strive for, a new reality, those walls—the real ones, the figurative ones, even the ones with the beautiful paint—might just come down for good.