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Facebook kicked off its inaugural Social Good Forum in New York on Thursday by introducing a range of fundraising and community safety updates. [...] Keeping things charitable, Facebook also announced it is expanding its Fundraisers tool (which lets people raise money for select nonprofits). The company claims users can now add a donate button to their Facebook Live broadcasts.

The Women’s Situation Room (WSR), a women’s peace building mechanism that mitigates conflict before, during and after elections in Africa has been replicated in Ghana. It is a non-partisan and neutral process that mobilises women in collaboration with the youth to engage stakeholders to support the women’s call for peaceful elections as a peace and security measure in accordance with UNSCR Resolution 1325.

To strengthen inter-religious dialogue, combat fundamentalist ideology at the root of war and violence, relaunching the peace projects involving personalities of all faiths in a common path of encounter and discussion: These are some of the objectives outlined in the fourth Christian-Muslim Summit, which was held in Tehran (Iran) from 6 to 9 November. The meeting, which was widely reported on Iranian media, was hosted by the International Center for Interfaith Dialogue, which belongs to the Organization for Islamic cultures and religions.

UNICEF recently announced its first portfolio of investments in open-source technology solutions. These include tools that improve connectivity, real time data collection, identity technology and learning. The fund is supporting 9Needs, a South African startup that uses blockchain and advances in identity technology to create better management systems for early childhood development service, Blockchain News reported.

Only three weeks after her arrival via Turkey under Canada’s Syrian refugee resettlement program, Alkak is already making new friends through the Cultural Exchange and Support Initiative of the U of T Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations department. Since the project’s inception in the spring, Syrian youth eager to learn English have joined U of T student volunteers keen on brushing up their Arabic every Saturday.

Conflicts such as the war raging in Syria have led to the displacement of more than 65 million people world-wide, the group says. To bring home the full impact, Doctors Without Borders has opened an interactive exhibit on Independence Mall where aid workers like Stewart walked visitors through exhibits describing the ordeal. Called "Forced From Home," the exhibit that opened over the weekend will be closed Monday but will reopen at 9 a.m. Tuesday and run through Nov. 13. 

International and regional experts convened at The Economist’s Global Crisis of Obesity Summit in Dubai this week to discuss the need for a monumental shift in the way public and private sector organizations, and the wider society, approach the challenges presented by obesity, and resulting diseases including diabetes.

In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono initiated Rock & Roll Diplomacy which, as with most things John and Yoko, was avant-garde: Bed-Ins, Bagism and the Live Peace in Toronto 1969. As a premiere, they involved a politician, the then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 1971, George Harrison pursued that path, in his own way too: the New York Concert for Bangladesh.

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