Girls Matter, a nonprofit group focused on boosting self-esteem and leadership skills in young girls, is to host an annual conference Saturday, Oct. 10, featuring workshops for girls age 9-17, their parents and professionals who serve girls in Metro Detroit, 9 a.m.-2:15 p.m. at Schoolcraft College’s VisTaTech Center, 18600 Haggerty Road in Livonia.

WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) news anchor Carolyn Clifford is scheduled to MC the eighth annual event.

Self-help speaker Loren Slocum is to keynote.

“The conference is an effort to educate girls about self-esteem, cliques, aggression, the importance of nutrition and exercise, goal setting, career building, leadership skills, the reality about dating violence, and body image,” the group said in a release.

“We make unique and vital contributions to building happier, healthier and more confident young women and improving and maintaining strong, healthy parent/daughter relationships while working in partnership with community groups, schools and local leaders.”

Visit www.girls-matter.org.

ADC partners with State Department and OSCE

WASHINTON — The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) was represented this week by Kareem Shora, National Executive Director, at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warsaw, Poland. ADC partnered with the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Delegation to the OSCE, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to hold a formal side-event entitled “Challenging Intolerance against Muslims.”

Kareem Shora

The HDIM brought together hundreds of government representatives, experts and human rights defenders to review progress made by OSCE participating states, in which the U.S. is included, in implementing their commitments in the field of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The meeting is the largest annual human rights gathering in Europe.
The event addressed recent surveys and studies indicating that negative attitudes towards Muslims are still high in many parts of OSCE region, in spite of participating states’ efforts to combat intolerance and discrimination and promote respect for diversity.

Participants reflected on how OSCE, particularly ODIHR, can further support educational and awareness-raising initiatives to counter intolerant attitudes and behavior towards Muslims. The discussions revolved around recent developments, key challenges, opportunities and barriers, lessons learned, effective and less effective methodologies and approaches, and examples of good practice from throughout the OSCE region.

Toronto Palestine Film Festival closes second year on a musical note

TORONTO— Despite the wind and rain, audiences came out in large numbers to be a part of the closing night of the second annual Toronto Palestine Film Festival (TPFF). “Laila’s Birthday” and “Checkpoint Rock” closed an incredibly successful week of 35 films, art and forums.

Audiences laughed at the absurd situations Abu Laila, a judge turned taxi driver, found himself trapped in, in “Laila’s Birthday,” directed by celebrated Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi. The film revealed a comedic portrait of a city and a decent man at their breaking point.

The second film, by Spanish directors Javier Corcueran & Fermin Muguruza, “Checkpoint Rock: Songs of Palestine,” entranced the audience with the diverse music and countryside of Palestine. Audience members clapped during and after each of the musical performances in the film, beginning with renowned musician Marcel Khalife and followed by Palestinian rappers, a rock band, a wedding singer and classical musicians. The stories of Palestine were told through the various genres of music.

The festival opened with approximately 1,000 people showing up for “Amreeka.”