To mark the World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, Casa Árabe is collaborating with the First Conference on Good Practices with Migrant Students: Joining Worlds, organized in Lorca on Saturday, May 21 by the J. Ibáñez Martín Secondary School (IES), as part of the European Erasmus Plus K1 project “Joining Worlds” (“Sumando Mundos”), with the participation of NGOs and youth organizations. The one-day conference has been promoted by the City School Board and endorsed by the Autonomous Community of Murcia’s Department of Education.

It will consist of a series of lectures, workshops, testimonials and round tables on migration experiences, diversity management in education and various initiatives carried out by educational associations and institutions working on the issue. The official opening will be given by Paulino Ros, a journalist from Onda Regional de Murcia, as well as a sociologist and the author of the blog Islam in Murcia.

Casa Árabe is collaborating on the closing ceremony, with a conference by Noha El-Haddad, a doctor and co-founder of ACHIME (Association of Muslim Girls in Spain), who will be introduced by Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator.

On the basis of past experience, the project intends to create an Equality Plan for centers to help combine efforts at all levels in the educational community, thus making it easier to include diversity in everyday work, while also proposing the foundations for designing a comprehensive plan to help migrants.

Specializing in Family and Community Medicine, El-Haddad holds a Master’s degree in Urgent Care, Emergencies and Catastrophes (CEU San Pablo), a Master’s degree in Integration and Clinical Problem Solving (University of Alcalá) and a Master’s degree in Advanced Studies on Islam in Contemporary Europe (UCM). She currently works at the emergency medical service of the Hospital del Henares. She co-founded and is a former president of ACHIME (Association of Muslim Girls of Spain). She is involved in youth activism and women’s empowerment. Inspired by spirituality and religious values, she works mainly to develop a strong Spanish-Muslim identity among Muslim girls and youths. She has written articles for various newspapers and magazines in Spain, including Contexto y acción and El Diario.