The Netherlands was the perfect environment for me to learn and eventually to strike out on my own. I didn’t really have a choice about coming to the… - Azza Karam

It was essentially as if a tsunami had hit everywhere in the world, if you can imagine that—there seemed to be a bit of this primitive instinct to protect one’s own. People looked after their communities as if “It’s me, my church, and I.” That’s what led us to creating a humanitarian fund – to support collaborative efforts around COVID-19 by providing financial support to those who had the will, the vision, and the passion to address the immense needs that the pandemic created and to do so while recognizing the multireligious world we live in.

To actually stand shoulder to shoulder. And at the same time, I feel enormous pressure from the thought of, ‘Oh my god, how can we honour that? How on earth can a staff of fifteen people honour 100 religious leaders and their institutions and their networks who are willing to, and do in fact, commit their time, their effort, their money, their everything, to serving?

We are living in a global context where freedoms, all freedoms, but especially the freedom of thought, religion and belief, are seriously under attack. If religious leaders are not part and parcel of protecting these freedoms for all people of all faiths all over the world, then who is or will be?