October 27. On this date in 1941, Farzam Arbab,
a UHJ member from 1993 to 2013, was born in Tehran, Iran. Farzam Arbab
is the brother-in-law of Gustavo Correa, who was a UHJ member from 2008
to 2018. Several of the Arbabs and Correas lead various
Bahá’í-affiliated NGOs and organizations.
Born in Tehran, Iran on October 27, 1941, Farzam Arbab
would go on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College in
1964 and a Doctor of Philosophy in physics from the University of
California, Berkeley in 1968. Shortly after earning his doctorate, Arbab
moved to Colombia where he quickly established himself in the
leadership in the Bahá’í community of that country and by 1970 was
Chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly. While in Colombia he helped
found Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences (FUNDAEC).
Initially elected in 1993 to the Universal House of Justice,
the supreme governing body of the Bahá’í Faith, Farzam Arbab retired
from that body in 2013. Before his election to the Universal House of
Justice, in 1988, he was appointed to the International Teaching Centre. The International Teaching Centre, whose seat is at the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, is composed of nine Counsellors appointed by the Universal House of Justice and tasked with duties to stimulate and coordinate the Continental Board of Counselors
and assist the Universal House of Justice in matters relating to the
teaching and protection of the faith. All of the current members of the
Universal House of Justice previously served as members of the
International Teaching Centre. In 1980 he was appointed to the Continental Board of Counsellors for the Protection and Propagation of the Faith in the Americas, on which he served for eight years. From 1970 until 1980 he served as the Chairman for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Colombia. In 1980, while still a Counsellor, Arbab was on the initial board of directors for the Anís Zunúzí Bahá'í School in Haiti.
Farzam Arbab's son, Paul Arbab, is administrator at the Luxembourg-based Unity Foundation, which works with Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and "a network of local development agencies assisting them in their
efforts to build capacity amongst populations to take charge of their
own social and economic development." "Born in the US, Paul grew up in
Colombia. He holds an MBA and joined the board of Unity Foundation in
January 2007. Since then he has been able to provide valuable input to
the strategic direction of the Foundation. He is a proud father of two
toddlers and strongly believes in the power of education." Unity
Foundation is "governed by a board of directors which regularly meets to
consult on the strategic direction of the organization. The day-to-day
work is being carried out by the office team. Our external consultancy
body, the Office of Social and Economic Development (OSED)
in Haifa, Israel connects us to grass-root development agencies which
have the capacity to work with external funding organization. OSED and
the [Luxembourg] Ministry of Foreign Affairs act as two filters ensuring
the quality and integrity of our projects."
Farzam Arbab's sister, Haleh Arbab, is currently director of the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity,
a non-profit educational and research organization "dedicated to
building capacity in individuals, groups and institutions to contribute
to prevalent discourses concerned with the betterment of society"
through "working in collaboration with the Bahá'í International Community."
Born in Iran and educated in the United States, Haleh Arbab
previously lived in Colombia from 1982 to 2005 where she worked with the
Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences (FUNDAEC)
and served as Rector of Centro Universitario de Bienestar Rural, a
Colombian Bahá'í-inspired institute she helped found in 1988.
Farzam Arbab's brother-in-law, Haleh Arbab's husband, is Gustavo Correa
who himself has been a member of the Universal House of Justice since
2008. Before his election to the Universal House of Justice, in 2005,
Correa was appointed to the International Teaching Centre. Along with
his brother-in-law, Farzam Arbab, Gustavo Correa was one of the founders
of FUNDAEC and later served as its Director, the position currently
held by his daughter, Bita Correa.
Farzam Arab's niece, Bita Correa,
is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. Aside from being FUNDAEC's current
program director, Bita Correa participated as a member of the Bahá'í International Community’s delegation to the 55th United Nations Commission for Social Development. A recent graduate of Bryn Mawr College, Bita Correa is the daughter of Haleh Arbab, Farzam Arbab's sister, and Gustavo Correa.
Farzam Arbab was one of the founders of FUNDAEC (Foundation for the Application and Teaching of the Sciences).
He served as its Director from 1974 through 1988 and continues to serve
on its board. FUNDAEC was established in 1974 by a group of professors
at the University of Valle
in Colombia who were looking for new strategies to develop the
capacities of people and to generate knowledge in isolated regions of
the country. In 2002, the Club of Budapest
recognized FUNDAEC's new rural education model. The model, known as SAT
(for "Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial, Spanish for "System for Tutorial
Learning") started in 1980 and centers on the use of interactive
workbooks facilitated by a tutor. In Colombia, these tutors are trained
at the Center for Rural Education.
The SAT techniques Arbab helped develop at FUNDAEC have been applied to the Bahá'í community in the form of the Ruhi Institute, which was named after Arbab's father. Centered on Bahá'í study circles, the goal of the Ruhi Institute
courses is to "evoke a transformative learning experience through a
learner-centered, experiential, and collaborative approach facilitated
by a tutor rather than an instructor, a teacher, or an expert." Among
the principles of the Ruhi curriculum is the utilization of service projects to implement learning into tangible action.
The
Universal House of Justice has encouraged the emulation of the Ruhi
model throughout the global Bahá'í community. According to one
researcher, the Ruhi Institute's
method has resulted in "nonhierarchical, self-initiated, self-organized
small groups engaged in study, teaching, and action" and is "becoming
the core of Bahá’í community life worldwide as the outcome of a process
that has sought to nurture the spiritual life of individuals and
families and to establish social foundations for the vision and practice
of religious world citizenship." Paul Lample,
another member of the Universal Hose of Justice, has stated "Doubtless
the institute and its curriculum will continue to evolve, both in
content and form, to a level of greater complexity in regions and
nations within the framework of the administrative order throughout the
various stages of the Divine Plan in the second century of the Formative Age."
For a number of years now, Unity Foundation has collaborated with FUNDAEC and "since June 2013, Unity Foundation has renewed its collaboration with FUNDAEC."
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