DON’T WAIT FOR A CHANGE BE THE CHANGE!
Moamen Hijazi, a 20 years old young man from Gaza, is very ambitious. He dreams of freedom and of self-realization, but as he looked around his town, he found no light. The political situation is very hard; the Israeli closure and siege of Gaza has darkened the present and the future, influencing all aspects of life. Youth unemployment in Gaza is enormous and most youth doesn’t have their own money, which was also the case with Hijazi.
He felt challenged by all these difficulties, but instead of curbing under or giving up, he insisted on facing the situation and pushed himself forward to do something new and creative in order to prove that he can create good things and evenmaybe bring more light to the life of the people in Gaza. Together with a group of friends, he decided to make a small lantern to light it in themonth of Ramadan.
Soon their ambition got bigger and the group was now planning on how to break a world record by creating the largest lantern in the world!
Hijazi designed a lantern with 5.5 meters in height and 2.5 meters in width, but faced a serious problem: the costs of the materials needed to build the lantern were too high! Luckily, Sharek heard of the group’s initiative and encouraged them to continue by funding the costs of building the lantern through the Be the Change project.
Hijazi and his friends went on to build the world’s largest lantern!
The lantern enlightened the dark nights of Gaza and proved to Hijazi and his friends that dreams are achievable, even themost ambitious of them.
This year, Be the Change is enabling 400 dreams to come true in Gaza!
Jaqueline, Be the Change project coordinator, Gaza: “The project opens the road for the youth to start new projects and to contribute to the society. It’s a great chance for young people to develop their own ideas from A to Z with their own power and opinion.”
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BE THE CHANGE As Sharek believes in action, BE THE CHANGE is a project in which the youth itself is challenged to actively exert a positive influence on their lives and their situation. The project targets Palestinian youth between the ages of 18 and 24, both male and female around the occupied Palestinian territory. The youth are called to suggest projects they invented and created by themselves, and these projects participate in a competition. The best projects are chosen and funded. Also, they are provided with technical training in order to generate ideas for income- generating activities and to develop business plans. They also receive training in leadership, self marketing and communication. Afterwards, the most successful ideas are linked to relevant private and public institutions, in order to contribute to a long term employment for youth. The project is funded by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and via UNFPA.
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