Guest Blog Post: Ahmed Safaa
In this guest blog post, YTL fellow Ahmed Safaa writes about his experience getting involved in 22+You, a youth advocacy and social change campaign.
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In 2020, the world went into quarantine. Little did I know that this situation would be one of the reasons that I would get involved in a social change campaign for youth called 22+You.
I’m Ahmed, a 21-year-old UI/UX designer from Iraq. On one of the random days during quarantine, I was surfing Facebook, and a post that one of my friends shared caught my eyes. The first thing that I saw was a yellow circle with only three characters in it (“YTL”), which I later realized stands for Young Tech Leaders of the Middle East. I did not think twice and opened the website to read about this 3-week leadership program.
YTL is a program that aligns with my vision that while technology can fix a large number of our problems in the Middle East, it’s not enough by itself. Another thing that caught my eye were 3 characters: “HCD.” HCD stands for human-centered design, which is something I’m familiar with as a designer. It’s one of the most important approaches to design, if not the most important one. I applied for the program and was fortunately accepted.
Through YTL, I had the opportunity to work closely with like-minded people who at the same time come from different backgrounds and experiences. We worked together and generated ideas that I could not have thought of alone. YTL was also the spark for me to consider giving back to the community.
After YTL ended, I came across a social media campaign called 22+You under Networks of Change. I joined the campaign as a founding member and graphic designer because of my strong desire to help and care for others. Our mission is to make people think twice when it comes to their time and think about how they can invest their time in useful things.
We focus on 4 key youth issues that we've seen and that we’ve also faced ourselves as youth:
Our rights to peacefully raise awareness that public property is our property, and damaging it will only cost us.
Active participation of women in NGOs. We believe that NGOs are the bridge between the government and people, so having a gender balance is the gate to having greater diversity in the government in the future.
Don’t waste time watching toxic people spread negativity on the internet. We believe that youth watch those people because they don't have a better way to spend their time. We try to provide good alternatives by making access to courses, workshops, and seminars like YTL easier.
Stop hate speech (body shaming, insults, etc.) and replace harmful comments with feedback, constructive criticism, and positivity.
We try to enact change through social media challenges, informative videos, workshops with partners, and last but not least, promoting the hidden opportunities that are out there like business incubators and accelerators, which people may not be aware of.
Each year, Networks of Change chooses a campaign to fund among many others, which is a really competitive process. This year, we were accepted.
During my time as a campaigner, I have developed a strong sense of empathy. I have also learned that life is precious no matter your age or ability. All of this happened because I found the way to invest my time in the right way, and now it’s time to share this experience with and involve other youth.
Get involved now: https://www.instagram.com/networks_of_change/
