A third season of CHANGE: Youth lead and take initiative
For the third season in a row, SDF continues to develop youth skills within Yalla Change- Promoting youth role as leaders of change in Gaza Communities. This season comes in partnership with Norwegian People’s Aid- NPA
65 young men and women students and graduates in all governorates of the Gaza Strip participated in an integrated training camp for a period of 10 days, which revolved around active participation of youth and investment of the social media platforms in pressure campaigns and digital advocacy.
The program initially focused on building the capabilities of youth, which included communication skills, effective communication, dialogue, creative and critical thinking skills in addition to the importance of working within a team.
It was also nice to have a number of Yalla Change 1 and 2 participants giving welcome and encouraging messages to the new participants. These messages came out of breaking the ice and increasing interaction and communication between the program participants.
The program also touched on communicating the participants to many concepts, including the concept of community and youth initiatives in addition to the concept of social leadership, as well as concepts related to human rights and gender equality and what are the forms of gender-based violence, in addition to what is active participation and the importance of the role of youth in community work.
As for the last three days of training, the trainers educated the youth on the concept of advocacy and social mobility, how to use social media platforms for digital pressure and advocacy campaigns, as well as how to use the LEBL model to plan an effective digital advocacy campaign.
On his participation in the training, Uday Salman says: “The training made me more accepting of others opinions and thinking positively, beginning with the different communication skills and social accountability of those responsible for the duties towards the citizen and what is advocacy and its objectives and how to use it through social media.”
“Yalla Change helped us to highlight our ideas and capabilities and strengthened many concepts and skills such as digital advocacy. I gained great team work skills. This has been a great opportunity to change especially in using social media in the right way. ”
It is worth noting that this training is the first step in the Yalla Change program, after which SDF will start preparing for the training camp- Initiatives Challenge for youth to come up with ideas of community initiatives and advocacy campaigns and implement them to enhance their role in their communities.