Youth’s voluntary participation in the society brings peace and stability to their communities

Minster of Youth and Sport, Mr. Hamood Aubad

Save the Children Organization, in cooperation with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), organized a ceremony to honor pioneers and several young volunteers for their influential participation in humanitarian issues throughout 2009. The event occurred during the international volunteers’ day at the Youth Palace Hall last week.
 
According to Save the Children’s office in Yemen, around 80 young volunteer individuals, 20 governmental and public pioneers, and 15 media representatives were honored for their active roles they played in shaping the current Yemeni voluntary initiatives across the country. The Minster of Youth and Sport, Mr. Hamood Aubad and the ministry’s deputies were honored with accolades for their support for the youth’s efforts and voluntary works. Several civil society institutions were honored as well. All of them were praised for their rigorous work in encouraging and supporting youth programs across the country.
 
The celebration ceremony is the third annual even designed to acknowledge pioneers and voluntary work monitored by the Save the Children organization. 
 
Mr. Aubad’s emphasized the importance of youth participation in assisting the country’s development. “The nation’s strength lies in young people’s ambitions and hopes for the betterment of society,” he stated.
 
“Youth are the nation’s beauty and our source of strength. Youth’s willpower is what provides the nation with power. We acknowledge youth’s honorable participation in bringing peace and stability to their communities and focusing on the country’s welfare,” he added.
 
The Country Director of Save the Children in Yemen, Andrew Moore, gave a speech at the beginning of the ceremony. He talked about the significant role young people play in social development. “Youth participation is very important in social volunteer work. There has to be a mechanism to enable youth to be part of the decision making process. That process starts from youth-led institutions and their self-established programs and ends in cooperation with the concerned governmental institutions.”
 

There has been a steep increase in the number of young volunteers participating in social development.

“Celebrating the international volunteers’ day brings an importance to this kind of work. As part of the organization’s job, we are today honoring 80 young people as a sign of encouragement and support to the rest of Yemeni youth. This event, consisting of a huge number of young volunteers, demonstrates our project’s success. I’d like to thank the committed volunteers and want to tell them that we are all proud of them. I’d like to thank the governmental and civil society institutions and the donors, for without their financial aid, nothing would have happened,” he added.
 
Ghadah al-Mutawakel, spokeswoman of the youth volunteers, expressed her gratitude towards all the NGOs and the civil society organizations’ support. “Without the support and the encouragement we got from the NGOs, civil society organizations and donors, we couldn’t have carried out so many projects raising awareness, nor could we have developed courses, tackling crucial issues. This day is the pinnacle of our constant work throughout the last year. Our accomplishments are based on the efforts and the sincere guidance of all the concerned NGOs. At the end, we hope to continue this road till the end,” said Ghadah.
 
The ceremony included the appearance of a short documentary and a play. The documentary was about the youth’s journey on the voluntary road as they carrying out several youth-led programs. It talked about the beginnings of the projects, workshops and their efforts to raise awareness through courses and other advocacy campaigns throughout the entire country.
 
In addition, the documentary exhibited youth volunteer work that reached almost every part of the country and that greatly helped in empowering the young volunteers’ peers who were not in the capital city.
 
The end of the film stated the two key benefits of youth initiative projects. The first emphasized the desire to assist the youth in the process of discovering their abilities and enhancing their self-confidence. Secondly, voluntary work contributes to the stabilization of societies as a whole, and increases youth preparation to take advantage of life skill programs.
 

The Artistic Athwaq band’s play; public must pay more attention on voluntary works’ value in increasing the country’s development and progress.

The ceremony also included a play performed by the Artistic Athwaq band; revolving around the theme of how necessary it is for the public to pay more attention to voluntary works’ value in increasing the country’s development and progress.
 
The ceremony aimed to enhance awareness about the power of volunteer work in assisting genuine development within society. The country’s development occurs by activating youths’ role in the voluntary work and exchanging youth experiences.
 
Many youth initiatives were honored for having an influential effect in the society. Most of the initiatives’ programs were funded by Siraj program in 2009 and by the Save the Children organization.

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