The Hummingbird Collective

A story about a young Syrian refugee who stopped waiting, started building, and now carries peace education to hundreds of young people. Displacement is not the end of this story. A question that belongs to all of us: what happens when we stop waiting for someone else to fix things — and start building them ourselves?Over 100 million people have been displaced worldwide. Most are told to wait — for papers, for permission, for someone to open a door. This episode sits with what happens when someone refuses.Mohammad Shahadat has started over more than once, in more than one country. Born in Syria, raised in Abu Dhabi, he returned to his homeland one year before the 2011 uprising began. Two decades of displacement followed. Eight scholarship rejections. Limited choices at every turn. And yet, a refusal to stop moving forward. When UNESCO offered him a scholarship, it opened a question: what if young refugees and the communities hosting them could actually understand each other?In 2019, he founded the Youth for Peace Initiative in Amman to find out. They thought it might take years to reach 100 participants. They now have over 300. The name hasn't changed — because the beginning, he says, should always remind you of what's possible when you just start. A place on the Kofi Annan Changemakers Programme brought him to Geneva — and changed everything. He almost didn't board the plane. He got on anyway.This conversation is about peace education and what it actually means — not the absence of war, but the presence of understanding. About global citizenship built through lived experience. And resilience not as inspiration, but as a daily practice of thinking about others, building bridges of trust across every difference that the world tries to make permanent.🔗 LINKS & RESOURCESYouth for Peace Initiative: Instagram, LinkedinUNESCO Intercultural Leadership ProgrammeKofi Annan Foundation Changemakers Programme👤 ABOUT THE GUESTMohammad Shahadat is a Syrian peacebuilder, youth advocate, and founder of the Youth for Peace Initiative. After living a long refugee journey, he transformed his personal struggle into a lifelong mission to advance education, intercultural dialogue, and youth inclusion in peace processes. Selected as a Kofi Annan Changemaker in 2022, he is a UNESCO Youth for Peace Leader and an active member of the UNESCO Global Youth Community, the One Young World Switzerland National Board, and the EU Jeel Connect Network.📋 SHARE YOUR REFLECTIONFive questions. Your responses help us understand what's shifting — and make the case for more stories like this 👉 https://forms.gle/mf8MVX3cUsqYECrL9 💧 JOIN THE CONVERSATIONShare your drops of water: #HummingbirdCollectiveThe Hummingbird Collective is co-produced by the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation, supported through Sarah Noble's participation in the Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme (2025–2026). Guests speak from their own experience and perspective, which may not reflect the views of the show or its partners.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

A story about skills no displacement can erase, dignity as a social entreprise, and 1,000 Palestinian artists whose names now travel the world — signed on every piece they make.Over 100 million people have been displaced worldwide. Most wait years for a solution. During that time, the world tends to tell one story about who they are: refugees or displaced people. This episode sits with what that story leaves out. The Palestinian women at the centre of this episode carried with them a craft tradition passed down through generations — embroidery so refined it has since been recognised by UNESCO. Alongside the hardship of displacement and living as refugees, that knowledge remained. And when someone asked what they actually needed, their answer was direct: "We don't want charity. We want work. Nothing else. Dignity and work." A social enterprise was built in response to that. Not an NGO nor an aid programme. A business where the artists are partners, where every piece carries their signature, and where 1,000 names now travel to the Hamptons, to Geneva, to Hong Kong. In 13 years, they have never missed a single deadline.When Roberta Ventura arrived at the Jerash refugee camp in 2013, she responded to what she heard — not with a programme, but with a partnership. This conversation reflects on what that has looked like over 13 years: the learning, the complexity, and what genuine allyship asks of those who want to help. It is also about the quiet power of responsible consumption — the choices each of us makes every time we spend money, and what those choices say about the world we want to build and the importance of social entreprise.🔗 LINKS & RESOURCESSEP: https://septhebrand.com/Follow SEP: Instagram | Facebook | LinkedInHummingbird Collective: thehummingbirdcollective.orgUNESCO Palestinian Embroidery Recognition: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/palestinian-bearers-heritage-unescos-representative-list-intangible-cultural-heritage-humanity👤 ABOUT THE GUESTRoberta Ventura is the founder of SEP, a social enterprise working in partnership with 1,000+ Palestinian refugee artists in Jordan. After 20 years in asset management, she took a different path — one built on the conviction that genuine collaboration across difference starts with respect, not rescue.📋 SHARE YOUR REFLECTIONFive questions.Your responses help us understand what's shifting — and make the case for more stories like this one 👉https://forms.gle/mf8MVX3cUsqYECrL9💧 JOIN THE CONVERSATIONShare your drops of water: #HummingbirdCollectiveSubscribe for more stories of everyday courageThe Hummingbird Collective is co-produced by the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation, supported through Sarah Noble's participation in the Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme (2025–2026). Guests speak from their own experience and perspective, which may not reflect the views of the show or its partners.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

The Drop: The Hummingbird CollectiveLifting the illusion of insignificance, one drop at a time.The world feels heavy right now. Storytelling is how we make sense of it — and how we find each other inside it. Between global conflicts, the climate crisis, and the headlines of people losing their homes, it's easy to feel paralyzed—as if we are standing at the edge of a forest fire, wondering if anything we do actually matters. This podcast exists because storytelling changes that. Not by making the world lighter, but by showing us we are not carrying it alone.The Hummingbird Collective is for those who refuse to look away. Inspired by the legend of the tiny hummingbird who carried single drops of water to a wildfire while others stood still, we explore how individual actions create collective change.Hosted by Sarah Noble, a storyteller and Head of Global Engagement, Creative Peacebuilding & Inner Development at the Caux Foundation, this series is a call to action for the "hummingbird" in all of us.Season One: Stories in Motion In this inaugural season, we explore the art of listening and speaking across our differences. Through narratives of crossing borders and building community, we move beyond the headlines to find the human heart underneath.Our Method: Through intercultural dialogue, we bridge divides and remind ourselves that we are more similar than we are different. Every episode ends with a "Be the Change" practice—a tangible step you can take immediately to create ripples of kindness in your own community.Who We Are: This podcast series is co-produced by the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation, supported through the participation of Sarah Noble in the Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme (2025-2026). Guests speak from their own experience and perspective, which may not reflect the views of the show or its partners.Join the Collective: Whether you're 8 or 80, you have a place here. Subscribe and share your drop using #hummingbirdcollective.💧 Website: www.thehummingbirdcollective.org💧 Instagram: www.instagram.com/hummingbirdcollectivepodcast💧 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-hummingbird-collective💧 Facebook: www.facebook.com/hummingbirdcollective.podcastCredits:💧 Production: Visualive Productions www.visualiveproductions.com💧 Theme Song: "Drops" by Leo Carro Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.