Meet Our Family Diplomacy Ambassadors

Starting in January this year, Learning Life began weekly meetings of what we call “Family Diplomacy Ambassadors,” otherwise known as FDAs. FDAs are young people in their teens to 30s who are volunteering about four hours weekly to help grow Learning Life’s Family Diplomacy Initiative (FDI) in 2021.

As Learning Life’s flagship program, FDI is connecting families worldwide on Facebook to share and learn together, with an eye to nurturing a more caring, connected world by elevating the voices of families in the long-term. This year, via FDI, Learning Life is organizing a series of six live, international, family dialogues via Zoom focused on the question “what do families worldwide need to be safe and healthy?”

To engage an increasing number of people in FDI, and ensure strong, wide participation in this year’s six planned live dialogues, FDAs are busy collectively inviting 1,000+ people per week, individually, mostly via Facebook, but also Linkedin, to join FDI on Facebook, and for those interested, to volunteer as FDAs or Family Diplomats (FDs). FDs are two or more members of any family worldwide willing to take part in 4-6 of the six planned live dialogues this year.

Since the first FDA meeting on January 3, which began with three FDA candidates in Nigeria, the team has grown as of May 2 to eighteen FDAs based in the USA, Mexico, Cameroon, Nigeria, Tunisia, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. FDAs meet every Sunday at 8am or 1pm EST (NYC/DC time), depending on their time zone and preference, to report on progress toward FDI growth goals, receive updates, and to discuss any organizational questions or issues. In the latter half of the meeting, FDAs get to learn more about each other and the world through discussions on a variety of questions of shared interest, from “What is the most beautiful place you have seen on Earth?” to “What do you think is the most serious issue facing your country?”

The photos in this post feature the FDA Western Team (the larger group above, in mostly western time zones, launched in January) that meets Sundays at 1pm EST, and the FDA Eastern Team (smaller group below, in Eastern time zones formed in March) that meets Sundays at 8am EST.

As one FDA Western Team member based in Turkey put it, “I always like to meet people from different cultures with different values. As a Family Diplomacy Ambassador, I get the opportunity to connect with other people across the world who share my passion to learn about cultures. Learning Life is like a second family once you get involved in it.”

For more about FDI, and the FDA and FD roles, including how to get involved, click here.