Tour for Change - About Tourism Guide Elad Vazana

About Elad vazana

Tourism guide for social change
Program development and Leadership Trainer
Mediation and Dialogue Facilitator

Elad Vazana is an educator, multi-narrative tour guide, an artist and experienced mediator and facilitator of successful face-to-face relationship building for social change. For the last 20 years Elad has helped Palestinian and Israeli youth and adults — Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others — build trust while experiencing that **“an enemy is one whose story we have not heard.”**

Elad is a licensed tour guide with more than nine years of experience. His tours emphasize the encounter and human experience and include stories, music, workshops, exciting encounters with diverse inspiring people and organizations, experiencing the magic of nature and visits to special places hidden from the crowds.

Clients & Collaborations

My Story

"I chose to study and lead tours in this land because the wonderful places and people here fascinate me. I love to discover and meet them, to remember each time anew how diverse and complex life is, To uncover the wonderful riches and creativity that lie within us, and to bring together people and culture in order to learn about life from diverse perspectives and make the "other" more human in our eyes.

I grew up in the development town of Ofakim. There I learned about the simplicity and human warmth of people.

I went to school at Sde Boker Academy where I learned to fall in love with nature and to live with it in peace.

I was a tank commander in the army, I fought in Lebanon and in the territories and I learned about the pain and suffering that war brings.

I traveled the world for 3 years and I discovered that we are not the center of the world and there are as many points of view as there are living people.

I founded a successful high-tech company and left after two years because I wanted to work with people and not with computer screens.

Since then I've devoted my life to connecting people from diverse backgrounds and cultures and to remembering that the "other" is a human being whose story is rich and as complex, like ours.

A turning point in my dedication and ability to help people engage was the 2006 Palestinian-Jewish Family Peacemakers Camp in California. It was co-created by Camp Tawonga and facilitators from the Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue in California, with which I remain partnered to this day. Their practices and skill-building tools continue to inspire me.

I've been active for the past 13 years as a group facilitator for personal empowerment, social action groups and mediation. I facilitate multicultural get togethers, group bonding activities, and team building, I develop programs and curricula and give alternative guided tours.

I was a leader in organizations that work to build peace and understanding, facilitate and lead events between people from diverse cultures, backgrounds and religions in Israel and in the world, lecture on multimedia, pre-school teacher and radio show host.

In my work I integrate many areas that I learned and developed: Participation in life stories and music, guided visualization, challenging activities, participation in current science and history, movement and song, artistic creation, simulations and more...From these emerges a wide reaching experience where insights arise from collaborative experiences.

You are invited to read about the Tours and workshops that I offer to organized groups and to the public."