Beyond Beirut

Yara tells you of her experience at the Advocacy and Awareness Workshop in Beirut!

 

Beyond Beirut

The last week of March saw over 100 young activists and Global Changemakers from over 10 countries from the MENA region to meet in Beirut, Lebanon, for the second Arab Youth Advocacy and Awareness Forum.

The Global Changemakers from each participating country have been working on separate campaigns that tackle issues that affect the youth in their country.  The Changemakers were interviewed on Zaven’s Sireh Infatahet on Future TV. The participants also received a talk from popular news presenter of Al-Arabiya, Rima Maktabi.

The forum was divided into two workshops. At the first workshop, the Changemakers were divided into three teams: visual, video, and social media. Each group worked and mixed with Changemakers from other countries and learned many skills and tools that can be used as a means of online advocacy, which can help them with their campaigns.

The visuals group worked with facilitators from Tactical Technology Collective who showcased and discussed past successful campaigns. They also looked at the various possible ways to reach your audience and what to consider when you want to visually communicate information for your campaign. The group was then further divided into their country groups and they designed a visual for their own respective campaigns, which they can use once they go home.

The video group looked at successful video campaigns and used flip cameras to create one long inspirational video that would encourage youth participation.

The social media group introduced the Changemakers to the world of online campaigning, and the media they could use to make sure that what the visual and video groups did, actually reaches the public.

The second part of the workshop was all about body, voice, and tone and was conducted by John Martin. Here, the Changemakers learnt skills they can carry throughout their lives.

Overall, the participants really enjoyed the forum. One definite highlight was the cultural night; each country was offered a table to showcase the best of their country’s food, photos, ornaments, and souvenirs. Let’s not forget it also gave a chance for all of us to dress up! wink

Yara

 

Palestine at cultural night

 

Rima Maktabi

 

The crowd at the TV studio

 

See what Yara learnt to do at the workshop!