The first in our series of workshops, titled The Healing Power of the Word, took place online on March 21, 2023, coinciding with the International Poetry Day as well as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It was led by professor Fella Benabed from Badji Mokhtar - Annaba University, Algeria, and focused on the concepts of psychological resilience and coping skills, empathy, building the students’ racial tolerance and their teamwork skills through various activities. These were centered on Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise”, IFAD’s video "This Is How We Rise", and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Maya Angelou’s poem as well as IFAD’s video and the subsequent discussions introduced the participants to the issues of discrimination and women’s empowerment, while the discussions around MLK’s speech focused on the Civil Rights movement. Other activities focused on fostering the students’ yearning for justice and equality, and the final assignment concerned their self-actualization.