The Abraham Path Initiative

“Storytelling changes perceptions and trail building changes lives.” - API Senior Fellow Leon McCarron

Our mission is to grow and foster trails along the Abraham Path, empower local communities economically and socially, and create a place to remember our common ancestry, connect the human family, and build a bridge to the future.

Over the last eighteen years, the Abraham Path Initiative has developed over 2,000 km of trails, welcomed over 80,000 walkers, and completed hundreds of storytelling and education projects.

The benefits that have flowed to communities on the Path include economic development, women's empowerment, environmental conservation, and their stories being heard by a global audience.

The Abraham Path initiative is a U.S. based non-profit and an inclusive, secular, apolitical organization.

Walking Together in Times of Crisis: Support the Zagros Mountain Trail

The guides, hosts, and trail operators of the ZMT in Iraqi Kurdistan are facing a season without visitors and without income. We're raising $75,000 to stand with them through this crisis and keep the trail alive for when the world is ready to walk again.

Give Here!

Our Work:
$262,923 investment as the primary sponsor of the Zagros Mountain Trail in Iraqi Kurdistan

$250,000 trail building investment in Turkey and $21,000 in Earthquake Recovery Funding in Turkey in 2023

$3.3M investment in Palestine in partnership with the World Bank

$260,000 feasibility study in Saudi Arabia

"Every step along the Abraham Path connects us as human beings across culture, language, religion, and nationality. Every hospitable welcome, every shared meal and story, every smile connects. Step by step, we build a better future.”

William Ury, Founder and Chair Emeritus

The Abraham Path is a cultural route celebrating a journey made 4,000 years ago by Abraham and his family. The path retraces the cultural memory of that journey based on the power of Story, Walking and Hospitality. The path is a great work in progress, literally growing step by step in various regions throughout the Middle East.

The purpose of the Abraham Path is to inspire hope for humanity.

Our mission is to grow and foster trails along the Abraham Path, empower local communities economically and socially, and create a place to remember our common ancestry, connect the human family, and build a bridge to the future.

"Every step along the Abraham Path connects us as human beings across culture, language, religion, and nationality. Every hospitable welcome, every shared meal and story, every smile connects. Step by step, we build a better future.” William Ury, Founder and Chair Emeritus

"Every step along the Abraham Path connects us as human beings across culture, language, religion, and nationality. Every hospitable welcome, every shared meal and story, every smile connects. Step by step, we build a better future.”

William Ury, Founder and Chair Emeritus