Yalla Lead: Topics Learned and Trainees’ Feedback

On October 20th, 2018, Social Developmental Forum launched a training program on active participation and advocacy within its project ” Promoting Youth Role as Change Leaders in Their Communities – Yalla Lead “, in partnership with the Norwegian People’s Aid, at Al-Mathaf Hotel in Gaza City.

In its initial phase, 30 young men and women received training in Yalla Lead on active civil participation and advocacy to build and develop their skills to plan advocacy campaigns, raise their general awareness of the human rights and how to include these concepts in media campaigns, as well as promoting their abilities of using the best tools and means of social communication and how to lead effective advocacy campaigns.

Stage of Training

Nareman Hwaihi, the project coordinator noted that the goal of the project is to graduate a youth led team capable of making positive impact on youth’s social issues, hoping to help them better express themselves to the world in the best means possible.

As for Yalla Lead’s stages, she added, “the training is a platform for building the capacities of young people for active civil participation through lobbying and advocacy campaigns.” She explained that the project came to identify priority issues for youth through the implementation of interactive workshops through social networking platforms as well as developing an appropriate strategy to address advocacy issues across social media.

Hwaihi mentioned that the  most important outcomes of the training will be launching advocacy campaigns through social media in the issues identified by the participants in the program, as well as focusing on their role in social, political and civic participation, pointing out that the project will end up with a coordinating committee for social networking activists.

Training

Over the course of two consecutive weeks, participants received intensive training with a group of experts and trainers in the fields of advocacy and social media. “This training focused on helping young people to enhance their self-awareness and understand their roles in the community, as well as enhancing their ability to claim their role and possess the right tools for change”, said Rawia Al Farra, life skills coach.

Al Farra noted that Yalla Lead is not just a training session but a journey of life skills, based on participation and exploration in order for young people to create an influential role in society as community leaders to bring about change that positively impact their society.

In his training, Saji Obaid, support and advocacy skills trainer, focused on the importance of positive change in society by focusing intensively on the practical concept of advocacy through well-thought-out advocacy campaigns based on accurate information.

“This is done by improving understanding of the sound management of advocacy campaigns through the rehabilitation of young people to be more effective in the community and able to positively bring about change, and to produce results of real scientific value.”, he commented on the importance of understanding the approach of youth advocacy issues.

Social media trainer, Ali Bakheet, focused creating digital content on advocacy issues of interest to youth, to acquaint participants with the most important political events in Palestine, and creating effective content and using the platform to communicate the message of youth to the world. He aimed to do so by shedding light on a group of influential personalities through social media. “The exercises gave participants enough information to launch social media lobbying and advocacy campaigns”, he said

For his part, the social media coach Mohammed Abu Kamil focused on creating a digital content by using the best tools available. He also provided the trainees with the ability to present their own issues through social media, making them a public opinion issue by focusing on the visual identity of lobbying campaigns by creating visual and content capable of directly delivering their message.

He pointed out that the training came to refine the participants’ abilities and to prove their presence on the social media platforms to express their issues, especially in light of youth’s reliance on the social media in their life. It was important to equip them with the right skills to do so.

Participants’ Feedback

Aya Abed, a participat in Yalla Lead said that her participation in the program has made a quantum leap in correcting some of the terms related to lobbying and advocacy campaigns, as well as raising awareness on leading effective campaigns in the community capable of change and influence.

She added that the training added to her knowledge and increased her experience. This will contribute to her employing the skills she has learning including content writing and designing visual content in management a complete advocacy campaign.

“The training contributed to building and refining my personality, gave me extensive information, and