Interviews with Najah: Transcript (cont)

Samantha: That’s especially inspiring, because you also include the family, and the household and family play such a large role in an individual’s life. But to be able to emphasize the “me,” and still link it to the family – it’s a challenge, but there are a lot of opportunities in that, and if you’re able to do it, you can go a really long way with young people, and with communities.

Roa’a, if you can tell me about the modules, and also if you can give us a perspective in terms of the number of participants we are talking about, the number of youth, that would also be helpful.

Roa’a Khudairij, Trainer for the Najah Program, Central Region: Thank you so much. The training manual is divided into four phases. The first one is “Aktashif,” “I discover” in Arabic. The second one is “Astabat” I Try. The third one is “Antaliq” “I Act,” and the fourth one is “Nabni Masaarnaa”, which means “Building Our Future.” I’d like to add more about the learning by doing approach. We have a training activity that’s called “safe spaces,” in which youth could recognize the meaning of “safe space” – that includes material, economic, emotional freedom, and freedom of believing, decision-making, and thinking abilities, as well as knowing much more about roles and responsibilities to each other.

We also have community mapping, in which youth are divided into subgroups. They prepare questions and [inaudible] in order to gather information from the surrounding communities, to learn more about the SOS – services, support, and opportunities – that are available within their communities and societies, by which they use leadership skills, teamwork, documentation skills, report writing, problem-solving, and interview technique. (Listen) 

Amy: If I can just add: This community mapping activity is so amazing because what happens is that the young people go out there and they gather information, which is the knowledge piece. But in doing so they are putting all their skills into practice, like the skills that Roa’a talks about, so it’s the combined approach.

Samantha: So essentially, by mapping, by doing this themselves, they’re able to feel confident, and be able to be articulate their own questions and issues…it’s a readiness approach.

Amy: Exactly. Often it means talking to adults in positions of responsibility that they never dreamed they could go and speak to and ask questions of, and so, you know, it’s a two-way street. Adults also don’t see youth as a positive force in the community. And we’ve had situations where – I’ll give you an example: We’ve had…in one center, the adults who headed the center saw the youth in Najah (because as Mario said, they are usually the youth who are “least reached”), they saw them as really poor quality, if you will. And when we came to the community mapping and the youth went and asked them all these really intelligent questions that they had formulated, and asked it in a really presentable way and were able to listen and communicate, the adults came back and said, “Wait a minute, something’s going on with these young people, and something’s going on with this program. We want to learn more about it and we want to learn how we can integrate it and we want to learn how we can integrate it in what we’re doing in this center. So it’s a two-way approach, if you see what I mean.

Samantha: It’s incredible. So they’re all youth. Those who do the mapping are all young people under the age of 30?

Amy: 18-24. We only work with 18-24. And boys and girls, by the way, Samantha, which is – if you’re from this region, you know that that’s a challenge here, especially to go out and mix in public. Because they’re going out into the community to do this mapping.

Samantha: And have you noticed, over the period of years since the launching of Najah, a change in the amount of time it takes for young people to feel comfortable to carry out the mapping? Are they all ready when they begin the process, or is there a transitional phase? Have you noticed any kind of shift in their approach to it? For example, if their friends or colleagues have gone through this program, and they’ve seen their peers go through it, is their a difference in how they approach the program?

Amy: I’ll let Mario talk about the youth experiences, but I can also say that the learning works both ways, because we at Save the Children had to learn a lot in supporting youth to implement this. So, with each Najah group that has gone through, we’ve modified and changed that, and simplified, really. So learning is for everybody.

Mario: Yes, I’ll do the answer to this question by giving you numbers, actually, on the youth who have passed through the program up to now. If I may say that the total number introduced to the program is 458, divided among 230 females, 228 males. Those who have completed so far are 341: 171 females, 170 males. And ongoing is 117: females 59, males 58.

Amy: Wow, that’s gender balance.

Mario: Besides that, maybe I should take into consideration the number of phone calls we get into the Save the Children offices in Amman here, after each Success Story is published in the newspapers. We get people from all kinds of breeds, if you want, here in Jordan, inquiring and asking because the success story triggers emotions and needs that require answers and addressing. Now, the youth who are engaged in the program, they reflect the skills they gain in the training room into their direct or immediate families, and on to their peers, and subsequently to the community. So this experience is gaining a noticeable…[Amy: …ripple effect.]…exactly, in the community. I don’t know if I can elaborate on this by words, because, as an Arab from Jordan, the emotions are taking place here, when talking about this. So I refer the question back to Amy, maybe, she could have something…

Amy: …also as an Arab, by the way, but not from Jordan. Maybe one of the things to say…this ripple effect is rather big. Let me just give you one example. Roa’a can also talk about the community event. A couple of weeks ago I was down in the south region, and I participated, or went to meet the youth in what we call the Najah Journey in Quwairah, Now Quwairah is a desert community just off the highway on the way back from Rum, towards ‘Amman, primarily an area where most people have worked in the army. There’s a couple of factories in the area – there’s very few opportunities.

But people are motivated, amazingly motivated, and every community is very different, right, so we have to learn all over again in each community. And I noticed when I counted heads that the number of youth who were there were fewer than the number that the staff here had given me, and so I’m always out there sort of looking and seeing what’s going on.

And when I asked, there was a young woman – very articulate – who was there on behalf of her sister. She said, “I’m not actually a member of Najah, but I came to be, because my sister isn’t coming anymore, and I’m sort of taking her place.” And I said, “So, where’d your sister go?” She said, “Well, you know, my sister got a job as a teacher.” And she’d contemplated whether to take it or not, and then she decided that she’d been in Najah for 3 months already, and what she could do now is take all the skills that she learned in Najah, and apply them in the classroom with younger children so that they could have a more participatory, interactive, learning-by-doing approach rather than the traditional chalk-and-talk. It’s really amazing. (Listen)

Samantha: This is an example of a success, where the person has been able to take the skills gained in Najah and apply it. Is there any mechanism or any kind of follow-up that Najah does to see what happens to all these successes? Do you follow through? Is there anything in place right now, or is it informal, just by informal communications?

Mario: Yes. We do have a follow-up system here to keep track of the graduates from the Journeys, to check on them, especially those who get job opportunities. We keep on after them, if I may say so, for a period of six months at least, to make sure that they do not only get linked to a job, but to keep that job, and to apply all the skills they have learned toward the problems they might face or encounter at the beginning of taking the job. There is also the kind of continuous communication…they feel part of a bigger family. All the graduates and the staff, they feel part of a bigger family, so they keep in touch all the time. If we do not call them, they call us. (Listen)