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Messages of Hope from #TheNextGeneration

Rami Khouri emphasized that for change to take place, the voices of youth need to be heard, given that the grievances of youth very accurately reflect those of adults, and in essence, affect the lives of young children and adults alike; the main difference is that young people speak out more openly, so it is easy to hear what they say. In the reality of the past decade, Khouri noted that youth are creating their own parallel worlds online and in social and public spaces in their communities. He argued that by listening to young people, researchers and policy makers can better understand the drivers of discontent, the priorities among young people, and the factors that cause a young person to renounce citizenship and adopt other primary identities.

Khouri said it is not enough to create job training programs targeting certain populations or vocations. Political, economic, and social progress needs to be the foundation by which training programs are supported. The feelings of hope and improvement are largely missing from the region today, and the challenge is how to best understand these individual drivers in order to restore a sense of hope for the youth of the region.

Janna Patterson, Senior Program Officer at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, highlighted the workshop’s recurring stories and messages of hope. Despite current contexts of conflict and violence that fracture dreams, Patterson reflected that education for a child may be the only hope a parent can hold onto during such dire situations. Yet to move narratives of hope more central to actionable discourse, Patterson questioned how to set hope as an aspirational goal for programming and for

policy, and then how such goals can be measured. Stephen Lye, Executive Director of the Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development, posed the question: When the educational trajectory of a young person is fragmented during times of conflict, thus leaving that individual vulnerable, if these movements of violence are not going to be temporary, are we better off trying to integrate individuals into communities not as refugees but as productive members of society?

The workshop’s final session, titled “A Call to Action from Youth,” assembled the voices of young persons to articulate their unique perspective as part of the vulnerable population affected by conflict, but also part of the solution. Kimber Bogard, Director of the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally, framed the session by stating that youth in communities all over the world act as sensors who often detect what is occurring in a community before adults. Bogard stated that the panel of young persons was conceived as a way to provide a platform to highlight the work that a group of young persons from Jeel 962 is engaged in around issues that affect children and youth in a regional context. Kaveh Khoshnood, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Yale School of Public Health in the United States, facilitated a discussion among the members of Jeel 962 grounded in the elements of the Amman Youth Declaration on Youth, Peace, and Security (see Box 6-1).

The panelists’ experiences ranged from a university dropout to a Syrian refugee who had suffered abuse. Their display of passion and energy as participants throughout the workshop prompted Khoshnood to ask what motivated them to want to volunteer so much of their time. Jevara Shahin, a first-year university student and education advocate, answered by saying that she and her colleagues at Jeel 962 want to see the change and then to be the change that they are asking for. Rather than hear NGOs claim they work with youth, Shahin wants these organizations to work for them. “Why not?” Ghassan Al Helou, Media Officer for Jeel 962 in Jordan, responded rhetorically, stating that he and his colleagues at Jeel 962 are part of a generation in which it is no longer permissible to take without giving back. Al Helou went on to explain that as a young person, he carries the burden for his generation and for those whom follow, posing the question that if his generation does not have an influence on its own problems, then who else would?

Several of the young people participating on the panel had an overwhelming response when asked how they prioritize their problems, stating that education was the most important issue among them. By focusing on education in their volunteer work, Mohanad Tarawneh believed he and his fellow Jeel members are providing a better future for the next generation. Many of these panelists believed education should not be a dream but rather a right. Yet in many of the contexts in which children are living in the region, education is not possible. Tarawneh remarked that while the youth in Jordan are not concerned with meeting their basic needs, they do still have needs that encompass aspirations for learning in advanced fields and desires to travel and experience the world, all of which necessitates channeling their energy in productive ways. To do so, one of the panelists remarked that young people should be determining the topics they want to learn about, which includes innovation as a central element (see Box 6-2).

Salah prompted the youth participating to consider what their message would be to the Special Envoy to the Secretary-General (SESG) to deliver to the Humanitarian Summit. In addition to wanting to engage in dialogue with the SESG, Al Helou expressed a desire for the SESG to go to a place where he has to shake the dust off when he leaves to truly understand the barriers to education. Rebello Britto remarked that the people delivering this message fail to exude the eloquence and passion that the youth participating in the workshop have shown. She urged the youth to be champions of the youngest people in the world, which would in turn bring lasting change globally.

The final remarks of the panel of young people were about the pervasive challenges the region’s conflict poses. These challenges illuminate several recurring threads of the Forum on Investing in Young Children Globally. On parenting, Shahin emphasized the need to work through parents to affect change. She went on to state that parents play a vital role in that they need to be honest with their children and motivate them to seek their own answers rather than be influenced by others. On children with disabilities, one of the youth panelists expressed her desire to work alongside governments so there is better integration in the schools. On child protection, another youth panelist referenced long hours a mother or a father might work as a barrier to building relationships with a child. Children instead build relationships with the person who raises them, and that may not be the person who brought them into the world. On children’s assimilation into society, the youth panelist went on to remark that there is no safeguard for child dignity against being reprimanded in public spaces and in schools, nor any consideration given to the long-term effects of such negative language on a child’s sense of self. The final examples articulated by the individual youth panelists illuminated the necessity that basic needs of children, parents, and caregivers must be met; as one of the youth panelists affirmed, only then can individuals find time to raise awareness and spark change in the lives of others.