MEM provides high quality filmmaking and leadership training throughout the Middle East. To date we have trained over 12,000 people in media and development, and at least 240 of our former trainees are now working professionally in media in the region.
Some of our current training priorities include leadership training for young leaders from the persecuted Church in North Africa, and filmmaking and discipleship training for Gulf believers from a Muslim background. Through media, Middle Eastern Christians can continue to meet virtually when meeting physically is impossible, and are enabled to reach out to their own people in their own language.
Future Leaders
Future Leaders aims to train and equip at least young Christians as spiritual leaders and role models with advanced leadership and media skills. Since 2017, over 200 Christian leaders, age 18-35 have been trained in all tracks of media production, across the region – trainees from Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Sudan.
Future Leaders has been developed to enable the church in the Arab world to grow, remain relevant and sustainable in a time of fast and exponential change. In a region where extremist groups such as ISIS are using media to spread hatred and fear, it is timely and vital to empower local Christians with media skills to counter them with virtual messages of love, reconciliation and hope. Integrating media training and leadership development, this ground-breaking project equips young Christians to impart transformational messages to their peers in the conflicted communities around them. It also gives the church the capacity to remain in close contact during times of persecution, enabling them to at least meet virtually when they are unable to meet physically.
People of the Land
We want to equip and mentor new believers from the Gulf, to train them to create Christian media in their own Gulf dialect to reach their own people, including some of the 'On Bended Knee' productions (read more here). The hope is that at least 2 of them will join our Gulf team full time. The participants will be holistically nurtured on a spiritual, emotional basis as well as given practical media production skills. It is our hope to build bridges between these individuals and other believers, so we can learn from them and they learn from us in a safe environment while producing media that millions of their countrymen will have access to online and on Christian satellite TV.
Filmmaking training
Youth media training (North Africa)
We train young people (age 7-17) and youth workers in the Middle East to develop creative ways of communicating the things they feel passionate about. Our filmmaking training equips young people to communicate their thoughts, beliefs and ideas in a constructive and creative way through modern media and gives young people the practical skills to find employment. With a long waiting list, our aim is to give priority to some of the region’s most underprivileged children, including young people with disabilities.
