Youth Engagement and Palestine: A Trainer's Diary

"At 21, Samah is an Instagram sensation. She is passionate, motivated and wants to be an "influencer". She speaks her voice on the radio eloquently, always on the lookout for opportunities of personal growth and skill development. She is a star already"

Here I am, finally. After all the crazy travel and interrogation, I am finally standing on the land a number of poets and writers have marked and questioned as "homeland". Standing at Arafat's grave, I look back at how the past few days have been. Working with the youth from colleges and universities in Palestine's West Bank area has been immensely motivating and exciting. A beautiful land, stuck with conflict and chaos, my trip to Palestine was one with many hiccups and barriers. From the visa application to the entry inside, a number of "argh" moments made me realize again, realities of the times we live in today.

As a Trainer at the US Department of State's TechCamp titled "Business Success through Academic Excellence" organized in Ramallah, this trip is one that will always remain very close to my heart. I was keen on engaging with the student community for effective ways of communicating their tech-enabled business concepts. Having loved the interactive format of the initiative, I was sure that as always, I will go back with more than what I will be giving to the students.

Few things just stood out for me. As a Tech event, held in Palestine, these were extremely encouraging for me.

• All my co-trainers from Palestine were WOMEN. Tech Women in coding and marketing. #WomenWhoCode
• A huge percentage of the participants were girls/women; curious, excited and ready to take any challenge from colleges and universities in the area
• The organizing committee had more women than men. And what amazing team it was! #PartnersInSustainableDevelopment

Starting from the speed-geeking session to the interactive one-on-one sessions, I was constantly immersing myself in the vibrant energy that each student carried along. My opening question to them "why they were a part of the event", was responded in the best of light: To win, To Network, To Experience, To Learn, For Adventure and To Create our Own Jobs. Just like every youth in the present times, the energy was infectious, the motivation to make a mark was worth watching for.

During my sessions on "Strategic Communications for Better Engagements", every participatory tool pushed them towards the process of stepping back before starting to sell an idea. The sessions led to extensive brainstorming on some wonderful business ideas around critical problems they faced in daily battles.

From generating the Arabic language based mobile application for disease information, to systematic technology-enabled solutions for better process management in factories, the concepts were smartly interlinked with the best of technology. The session motivated them to think along the lines of a systematic background research, problem statement and customer-designed solution, 4C's (Customer, Cost, Channel, and Communication) perspective. My key goal was to bring the answers out in a way that not only are the competitions kept in mind, the challenges are addressed and the marketing is done accordingly. Afterall, through a strategic plan, the idea can move beyond the idea and actually be "utilized".

One key moment for me was when I witnessed that despite the political and movement challenges, the environment around, the students were working around to develop solutions through technology. At the end, when they presented their prototypes, during the "Pitch" session, the power of communication from the heart, was really felt around by everyone. One of the teams even presented their idea on Skype as they were not allowed to travel to Ramallah.

Young boys and girls, who are proactive social media enthusiasts, developing prototypes via best of tech-tools, even when the environment around is challenging every moment of their lives, was an inspiration. Over the past years, I have traveled and met youth from a number of countries and regions. The youth from Palestine, and their enthusiasm, their zeal to overcome the challenges they live with, work on technology despite a complete absence of 3G mobile data systems, will always be the most enthusiastic, keen to learn and make CHANGE happen YOUTH, I have ever met. They will always be extremely close to my heart and my work.

The trip was much more than just a visit to the beautiful, controversial and sorry land of the world. The stories are still with me. The photographs might fade away, but my memories and the memoirs will never be erased. Thank you, Palestine. Praying for strength to the amazing courage your youth caries. They are the ones that will pave the way towards change.

Some thoughts for me to munch on, once again: Why does conflict arise? Why and How do people start taking conflict as a 'normal'? How do we move from conflict and yet work on the daily lives and solve the daily problem? How do we psychologically stay sane and smile?

War is never only external, everyone living in conflict is fighting a war every day.

Phil, Sam, PSD Team, US Embassy in Jerusalem, co-trainers/hummingbirds (Ashish, Linsay, Sean, Razan, Leen, Ruba and Riham) and the amazingly vibrant youth from the universities, Thank you! I am waiting to see some amazing tech solutions to the everyday problems of the region, in the coming future.

Click here for a short video on the event by USCJ. Click here for a short video of the event by partners PSD. Click here for more photographs from the event.