Abdulrahman Sajid and Volunteering in Qatar

Wednesday 3 July, 2013
Reported by: Reuters, Doha

Charity organization The Youth Company (TYC) was set up in 2010 by 22-year-old Mohamed Farid with the hope of increasing social awareness among young people.

The group organized a volunteering event in May for more than 50 young boys and girls, who cleaned and collected rubbish from the city’s beaches. 


Youth leader at TYC, Abdulrahman Sajid, said that through volunteering, young people develop a sense of community and responsibility for the issues they face.



“Engaging a community that means you’re increasing, you’re basically making sure that people have a value for the community they live in. There are a lot of expatriates in Qatar. You can see like 60 - 70 percent of the population are based on expatriates, but also we know that a lot of these expatriates and all of the young people who are here are born in this country, and for them this country is more than, is more valuable to them than their own countries back home. So, through volunteering I definitely believe there are a lot of people who develop a sense of ownership, not really ownership, but personal connection with this country,” Sajid said.



Sajid said that being a part of a close community is rewarding for young people and, through volunteering and social enterprise, his charity hopes to create a positive impact on society.

Source: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/art-and-culture/2013/07/03/Charity-groups-say-volunteering-on-the-rise-in-Qatar.html

Abdulrahman Sajid & Active Citizen Summit 2012 for MENA

In October 2012, the American Council of Young Political Leaders organized a 10 days long conference that brought 50 youth leaders from 18 different countries across Middle East and North Africa.  An amazing experience it was that included first days of workshops on different key issues in different communities, then an internship opportunity in San Francisco, Utah and Raleigh NC.  In the end, the participants had to write an op-ed on the projects that they want to implement in order to bring a positive change back in their countries.

The workshops were based on several topics from Women Empowerment to Unemployment and youth Organization/Mobilization.  It brought 50 young, motivated leaders from all over the MENA region to not only showcase their abilities, but also to connect with each other's communities and help each other in a way or another.

The internships were based on political campaigning for presidential election campaigns.  The delegates were sent in groups to three different places which were San Francisco, Utah and Raleigh, North Carolina.  As an international intern at North Carolina Republican Party Campaign offices, it was amazing to meet young and old people and see them volunteering to get votes for the candidate they want to be elected.

The last but not the least, when it came to the end of the conference, all the delegates had to present their projects to be implemented in their home countries.  Projects from making car-pooling for women in Saudi Arabia, to helping children in Kenya to empower women in Libya and Morocco were presented.

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir2mET5lo24


This is what ACYPL said before the launch of the conference:

ACYPL is excited to announce that we have been selected by the US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to conduct an Active Citizen Summit for 54 participants from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as three Global Change Fellows. The participating fellows will gather first in San Francisco for the summit itself, which will cover expectations and outcomes for the program as well as coaching the fellows in leadership training sessions and encouraging discussion of shared challenges and goals for the program. Included in the summit will be several prominent speakers, including executive officials at the state level, media professionals, and representatives of prominent non-profits.

At the conclusion of the summit, participants will be split into three groups, each of which will take part in professional fellowships in San Francisco, Utah, or North Carolina. During their fellowships, each fellow will join an organization, government agency, or company in order to gain an understanding of the American political system and its many moving parts. They will shadow staff members, conduct essential tasks, and attend meetings to this end.

At the conclusion of their fellowships, each of the fellows will gather in Washington, DC to report their experience and share the lessons they have learned over the course of the program. They will have the opportunity to explore DC, attend briefings to provide context on the impact of their program, and deliver their own remarks discussing the effect they believe the program has had, as well as laying the groundwork for how they will plan to implement relevant changes in their home countries. The summit will conclude with an as-yet undetermined capstone speaker, who will discuss positive political change with the fellows as a final take-away message for the program.

While we’ve conducted programs similar to the Active Citizen Summit in the past, we’re excited to have the opportunity to organize this unique and special program. In a period of rapidly changing developments in the relationships between the United States and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, ACYPL is excited to play a part in helping to shape those relationships and emphasize the importance of mutual understanding and friendship. We firmly believe that citizen diplomacy is a key aspect of maintaining peace and security in the 21st century, and we look forward to receiving the fellows and beginning to forge those relationships this October.

Youth get Leadership Skills Sharpened

Youth present a business plan on the second day of the ‘Youth Change Everything’ conference.

DOHA: More than 100 high school and university students attended the two-day Youth Change Everything conference, which ended here yesterday. 

Organised by the Youth Company, a social enterprise for youth development, the conference aimed to develop leadership skills among youth through a series of interactive workshops, discussions, networking sessions and motivational talks.

Delegates were then separated in four workshops, where they had a chance to learn how to manage change in a changing environment, acquire skills of conflict management, emotional intelligence and get to know how to create intelligent organisations. 

The workshops were delivered by professional trainers including Erica C Chiusano, Cultural Attaché at the US Embassy in Doha, Munera Al Dosari, Founder and Marketing Director at G-LAB, Abraham Kamarck, Social Entrepreneur and Founder of www.Doha-Delivery.com, and Faissal Alhaithami, Social Media Specialist at Katara and Founder of Fansbridge.com. 

The first day finished with an Open Space, also known as ‘unconference’, where delegates raised questions related to sustainability.

“When we were developing the content for this conference, we tried to reflect on how the world has changed in the last years and which skills would be required from youth in the near future,” said Abdulrahman Sajid, Youth Leader at The Youth Company.

“It is a matter of fact that at the modern workplace you have to communicate with people from different countries and cultures, adapt to fast changing environment and pursue innovation. So we picked particular topics and formats for our workshops, discussions and exercises to prepare the youth not only to be effective managers, but first of all successful leaders and entrepreneurs,” Sajid said. 

The second day was occupied by a business challenge, where delegates were split into teams to design a product or project, which could solve sustainability issues. 

Guided by experienced mentors and young entrepreneurs, teams had a chance to go through all the steps of product development and writing of a business proposal, including the creation of mission and vision, market analysis, defining target audiences, potential investments in terms of finance and human resources. 

During the second day participants also learned the methodology of Business Model Canvas Generation, and applied it on their projects to understand potential customers, distribution channels, partners, revenue streams, costs, and core value proposition. In the end of the day all the teams presented their ideas, which will be published in The Youth Company online book and business newspapers in Qatar with to attract potential investors. 

“Youth Change Everything was delivered for the first time a year ago and attracted a lot of enthusiastic youth. The success of the second edition inspired us to make Youth Change Everything a bi-annual initiative,” said Aya Abu Issa, Acting Chief Executive Officer of The Youth Company.

Source: http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/234742-youth-get-leadership-skills-sharpened.html

My Qatar: Annual Youth Forum on Environment & Sustainability - Done!

In support of Qatar National Vision 2030, the General Secretariat for Development Planning and the Ministry of Environment, The Youth Company is launching its new annual initiative called My Qatar. My Qatar is the first youth conference on environment and sustainability in Doha, which is set to take place on the 4th and 5th of June 2013 at Hilton Doha. The forum will also celebrate the World Environment Day announced by the United Nations Environment Program on the 5th of June. For our environment, there is no plan “B”. Our youth; the future of tomorrow; make the difference. The “My Qatar” conference is an exceptional forum that attracts committed youth delegates who plan to make a difference in the environmental field. The goal is to gather youth & encoruage them to create a long-term, successful and collaborative projects using their ideas and perspectives. These projects will be implemented throughout a year with their guidance. Committee chairs will assist delegates in the creation of the projects and work closely to implement creative ideas to accomplish the goal of the conference. Following are the 4 committees that will be formed at the conference: - Energy and Environmental Resources Sustainability - Environmental Health Committee - Environmental Education Promotion Committee - Youth Engagement for Environmental Issues Committee About The Youth Company The Youth Company is a grass-rooted organization established in Qatar. We operate as a social enterprise, where we aim to create social value through empowering the youth in an efficient, effective and sustainable manner. We have created various educational, community engaging, volunteering, career-oriented, consulting and rewarding programs, which directly and indirectly facilitate the growth and development of youth in different aspects, and thus ensure a long-lasting social positive impact. Our programs and services target both youth and professional organizations within private, public and non-profit sectors, and are aligned with the Qatar National Vision 2030. While most of our programs are free for youth to participate in, we ensure our operational sustainability by providing youthful consultancy services to various organizations, and through establishing a network of partners and sponsors. The Youth Company started its operation in December 2010 and within only one year, it has managed to involve 20 000 students, deliver 23 projects, and cooperate with over 50 companies and organizations. The Youth Company is a member of United Nations Global Compact. - 

See more at: http://www.unep.org/wed/activities/#sthash.RMrJ8gW5.dpuf

Child Abuse and Music Therapy - "Chords 4 Change"

Studies show that 1 out of 5 children die every day because of the mental disorders rising from child abuse around the world. The question of how many children are abused and neglected each year in the Africa is seemingly simple, but it does not have an easy answer. Psychological and mental disorders are among the biggest effects on victims of child abuse. One thing that these statistics make clear is that we need creative solutions to the rising crisis.

Several Child Abuse Centers have been built all over Africa to rehabilitate the children from the post-abuse effects. One of the driving causes of abuse—and mental disorders for children—is neglect from parents. Research shows that these centers have specific treatments for child abuse victims. However, access to the best treatment is expensive, and few centers have the funds to pay for private psychologists.

One of the best—and most creative—treatments available today is music therapy. Unfortunately, in Africa, less than 10% of the psychotherapists use music therapy as a treatment to child abuse victimization. The reasons behind this are fairly straightforward: most therapists are not aware of the benefits of music therapy.

Depressed adolescents listening to music experienced a significant decrease in stress hormone (cortisol) levels, and most adolescents shifted towards left frontal EEG activation (associated with positive affect). This is because music controls the excessive production of stress hormones and calms the blood cells, helping the cells to expand, and allowing the nervous system to relax.

While effective, music therapy is also one of the most expensive forms of psychological treatment. The cost of music lessons and equipment alone prohibit most poor children from picking up an instrument.

Even as a hobby, music helps to relax and relieve stress. It is also seen as one of the major stress management tool. Studies even show that the musicians tend to have a greater ability to manage stress than others.

Rather than getting music therapists to treat these victimized children, we must take actions on a grass-root level and steps that are easily approachable. One of the major steps that should be taken is to encourage young, motivated and experienced musicians to help in rehabilitation for victims. Another step that we can take is to get the musicians teaching the children how to play music, so that the children can help themselves with music.

One popular idea is to create a portal to connect donors with musicians all over the Africa, encouraging them to gift the victims with the musical instruments and the language of music, helping them encouraging self-treatment for the post-abuse effects.

Through music therapy, we can solve the issue in the best effective, yet efficient way possible. The officials must take steps that can encourage, motivate, inspire and empower effected victims to learn self-treatment through music, at the same time, encourage musicians to teach these victims voluntarily. With this, comes the idea of launching a new youth initiative in Qatar called "Chords 4 Change".

Chords 4 Change, is preferably set to launch by the end of 2013 with success stories. It will therefore conduct it's first concert and performance from abused children during late 2013 or early 2014. I believe, together, with collaborative support of humanity and Chords 4 Change, we can altogether help these kids out.

Till then, if you think you believe in this idea, and support it, drop me down an email directly at abdulrehmansajid@gmail.com.

Smile! It will change their lives!

This post is based on completely true stories! Although I did not want to write a post on this, but since a recent incident took place, I honestly couldn't stop myself to write!

Everyone living in this country do face those people who work under the sun. Today, I just saw a person walking down the street near to my home (where you won't see ANYBODY walking, everyone is facilitated with a car even just to go for grocery). It was strange because the guy was completely dripped in sweat and was carrying around 15 kgs of a bag in one hand, and 5 kgs in the other. It was 1:45 pm, around 48 degrees and no one would actually be able to bear this heat. I stopped my car and asked the guy, where is he willing to go. Because if it was on the way back to my home, I could easily drop him. He said that he's going to Doha (which was about 30 - 40 kms away from that area) and he's going to the bus stand (which was approx. 3kms from that place) to take a bus towards Doha. I couldn't bear that heat myself and offered him a lift to the bus stand. It took me around 6 minutes to drop him to the bus stand. But what's so different about this story?

Well, when I dropped the guy, he told me to come out of the car. I was a bit nervous on what he wants. When I came out, he was having tears in his eyes, and he hugged me. I asked in Hindi, "What's wrong?". He said "I don't know if without you, I would ever be able to reach till this point. Thank you so much for your help. You really don't know how much you have helped me". What else I could say except a smile? Those tears completely showed me how much that guy was suffering and how much a simple smile and help comforted his life.

Usually, you can find such people at different spots. It is a trend in this country among youth now that "everybody is rich. Who cares?" Well actually, to let you know.. try talking to the people standing at the Petrol Stations some day... Or maybe with those who wash your cars at different malls. Trust me! A conversation of just 2 minutes will make them feel better. You never know how much hasanaats is it worth.

Bottom line: start with basics. Try giving a couple of water bottles. If you can speak hindi/urdu, it's a plus point. Talk to these people. Allah created everyone equal. Some are fortunate with money, others work hard every day under the sun.

Good luck! If you like the post, share it. It can bring a change in someone's behavior towards less fortunate. Also, comment and share your experience 

Some people that have direct influence on me.

Finally, I'm back after a couple of days. This post is going to be a long one! At first, I thought there are only a couple of people who I have personally met and they influence me by their actions, but now, I have listed down all of them! I love to be with each one of the listed personalities. You all have taught me something in life:

1. Felice D' Antonio (Ex-President AIESEC Qatar, CEO of Lovin'Com, Qatar)

So, I know this guy from like a year now. Though met him for the first time at TYC's YOU-Training, giving out a session on Leadership. You would never judge how much of an influence his actions can have on you for the first time you meet. Italian, he is, comes from a background with loads of international experiences. In his leadership, I believe, AIESEC Qatar took a step-forward and became popular in this country.

You can find Felice in any networking event, or maybe, a stand-up comedy show. I believe in his actions and his plans. The best part about him is that you would not find a bossy attitude in him. Always friendly, he is. You meet him once, and wherever he sees you again, will surely come and say hi. This is what influenced me about him. I learnt from him that no matter whatever I become, I must always remember, meet and greet with people who were there when I was nothing, but just an ordinary teenager.

I believe Felice is going to be great for his new organisation called "Lovin'Com". You can find Felice's Twitter here (@Felice_dantonio). Follow him. A true leader, he is.

2. Marsya Karmila (Creativity from head to toe)

It took me 1 hour to find your picture Marsya! Not good! -_-

Okay I know she is an amazing friend of mine, but apart from being a good friend, she is an inspiration to me, a true artist, with creativity at its best. When she brainstorms (probably rolls over her bed, lol) she touches the height of best results. She has always been a great help.

She was adorably kind when we met at the first workshops offered by Bedaya Center and The Youth Company. I remember when she said "I don't mind being personal assistant", lol.

Marsya comes from a Malaysian background. If people ask me that I motivate others so much, and make their problems as easy as I can, who does the same to me? I would say Marsya. She has solutions that you could never think of. She has designs in her mind of her own way. Whenever I see Youth Arabia's social media having her creations, I know which ones are from Marsya.

For her future career, I don't know what she is willing to do, but whatever it is my dear friend, I wish you all the very best. And yes! I already like "Palette" and love it. Keep it up!!

3. Elaine Gold (The lady of grace and power)

Yup! That's true! Probably not a direct, but an indirect influence does Elaine has on me. I really don't know how much this lady has experience on entrepreneurship and business consultancy, but I always see her taking a big part in community's development.

For the first time, I met her in Bedaya Center. It was my first day of work in Bedaya, I remember, when I went in and started calling her "Ms. Elaine", or perhaps sometimes, "Mrs. Gold". How she influences me is through her actions. I never knew she is amazing in Personal Branding until I searched her over Google and got to know about her website. Her mind is without a doubt, a HUGE library of business. Whenever I meet her, she always remembers me. I would like to thank her for every single impact she had on my life in letting me know what am I truly capable of doing. Who ever works under her leadership, I can assure him/her that (s)he will find a constant development in him/herself as a person. She will motivate you, reward you, help you, guide you and will appreciate your hardwork whenever needed.

Find Elaine's blog here or follow Elaine Gold on Twitter (@ElaineGold)





4. Mohamed Farid (Chairman, The Youth Company)

Now I know all of you were waiting for me to write something about him. Well, to be honest, my motivation towards Blogging, being socially active, volunteering or even starting up stuff by my own has been brought by this guy.

Where I met him first? Emmm, will if I haven't forgot, it was the promotional day for Queen Medical Center at Vilaggio where I was volunteering. My first impression was "Vin Diesel", lol. But yup, by time, I never knew we will get too close and work together. His leadership is less democratic and more of a dictatorship, but I believe in his action and whatever steps he take, influence me as I see an ideal in him.

All the major steps in my life, when I take since after RTW, I speak and discuss with him (though these days he has got in too much stuff that we barely sit together), yet, I believe whenever we talk, we discuss all our pending gossips. I still don't forget when people started resembling me with Moe Farid too much during and after Run The World. Sometimes, he is the one who keeps me motivated to fight with problems in life. Indeed, I learnt from him how to make one's life easier by looking at problems in an easy way. Not a pessimist, neither an optimist, but a realistic personality he is. A complex of friend, brother, leader, boss and a peer, he is to me.

Follow him on twitter (@MoeFarid) or check out his blog (www.moefarid.com)

Part 2 of this post coming soon. Stay tuned to know who