Status Report

Many people have kept asking us about the status of the caravan and wondered if the project was dead, postponed or in process. Many, many thanks to all of you for your interest! The answer is: We keep on trying.

But we had to learn and to admit to ourselves that our first appeal for the realization of the Qafila-t-as Salamt remained - sorry to say - almost without any constructive success: We do not get that dimension of political support it takes to get the money for the caravan. Furthermore, we had to learn and to admit to ourselves that, for reasons of time and money, we will not be able to continue our efforts as intense as we did that over the last three years.

Yet, we are still convinced not only of the fascination of the Qafila-t-as Salam, but also its necessity in this tangled situation of our world. Therefore: We must keep on trying.

As a consequence, we (the organization team) met again in July 2002 in order to discuss different possibilities of how to continue. In the course of this meeting, we decided in general to try to find partners from industry, trade and services as well as artists and private people.

Some concrete steps have been taken:

• Changing the route: only traversing black Africa – see FAQ
  
• In a worldwide appeal to artists we invite artists from all fields of art to take part in our "virtual caravan".
  
  
• In a worldwide appeal to industry, trade and service companies we ask for material support of the caravan. This appeal also contains suggestions of what different companies / branches could do to help the caravan on its way.
  
  
• activities in Africa and Europe: German bakerie in Bamako (Mali) / African music in Düsseldorf (Germany)
  
  
• letter to the (German) industry

In addition, anybody wanting to support this project in a certain way, please send an email to organization@dialogofcivilization.com and let us know what kind of support you would like to offer. - You are welcome!

Thank you very, very much for your interest.