Shabab Diaries: Blazing a Trail in Civic Participation
10 Dec 2007 in Civic Participation
Abdullah Al Thawr is the Youth Programs Officer for the Democracy School, San'na, Yemen and the MEYI Youth Ambassador.
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In the upcoming weeks, I will write about my personal journeys and thoughts. The idea is to introduce how I became involved in an NGO, youth work and volunteerism and how this work shapes my views about what is happening to youth and their communities in Yemen..
Volunteering and working in the field of community participation and human rights activism have opened my eyes to a world which not a lot of people get to experience; a world that is striving for the good life, a place where efforts can bring fruitful results.
What is this good life? It is the life where you can easily find happiness and that is through putting a smile on the face of a suffering kid, giving hope to a poor family, or helping a lot of youth realize their inner potentials, abilities and their importance in society.
All of us as human beings come to phases in our lives where money controls us, and physical materials obscure our wise judgments, however, allowing ourselves for a few hours of volunteerism to help others puts real value to our lives and acts as a mediator for us in seeking happiness and satisfaction.
Memory One: March, 2006: (Senior year, High school: Yemen Modern School)
A warm beautiful spring day, wish I had the time to enjoy it in a long comforting morning sleep, but yet I have to wake up at 6 am to catch my school bus. Yes, another day of mental torture, of spoon-feeding education, and of relentless concentration. Math, chemistry, physics, and other subjects, all of them pouring valuable information just for examinations that will last for two weeks, a day for each subject. These examinations are the ones that determine your fate and future; a successful business man, or a low-paid worker. But I can't ever get the point, what is the use of studying all of this, if after the exams I will have no use of it. Why is our education all about memorizing and not about thinking; like the education systems in developed countries? ANYWAYS, enough day-dreaming, the school bus is honking.
I heard that we are having in the coming weeks some elections for grades 8 and 9 to select a representative from our school for the new period of the Children Parliament. The Children Parliament from what I heard is a parliament for children to meet and discuss about stuff. I know my definition is not defining, but I don't know what the children parliament is, and anyways, who cares about what a bunch of children will do. If the governments can't do anything, then what are children capable of?
For the elections, the walls of the school started to be filled with flyers and posters of candidates who want to be elected for this parliament. Each candidate listing some points of their program and goals, such as achieving a better world for children, stopping violence against children, making education free and compulsory for all children etc… Kind of amazing the open-mindedness, imagination and creativity these children possess. The Election Day will go like a real election process at the same time for all schools participating across the country. There will be ink for fingers, ballots, monitors and everything. Results will be announced the same day.
I met with a representative of the organization called the Democracy School, and who is also a friend to my family, and after the hot debate that I started about that the Children's Parliament is not to be taken seriously, I got an invitation to attend one of days of their national meeting and see for myself then judge.
To be continued...
I raise two questions: What do you think volunteer work can change in our lives and in the lives of others? As a young, person do you find volunteering opportunities easily, and if there aren't volunteer opportunities, what do you do?
