An idea, a team and 17,000 young people: Nashwa Abdel-Tawab unveils a project of magnitude Starting a charity human development programme aimed at 200 people, two organisers and six volunteers grew to 80, changing the lives of no less than 17,000 young people in a single year. They did so without advertising, acquiring the status of icons in no time; and their success is such that today their principal challenge is to meet ever increasing demand. Known as the Zedny team and ranging in age from 24 to 35, the people in question are helping the young to realise their dreams under the slogan of "Can we? Sure we can!" It is a veritable phenomenon, considering the reactions of the target group: 11-year- old Yehia El-Esawi, for one, didn't want to miss a second of the Zedny Child Programme at Al-Azhar Park. Not only is it fun, but it improves social skills and develops confidence. "Zedny lectures," says Eman Hassan, a 29-year-old German teacher, "have improved both my personal and my professional life. The mind- mapping lecture was relevant to my job, and I've been able to employ concepts to which it introduced me in the classroom with great success: charts, drawings and colour." Hassan also works in an NGO, and she says presentation and communication skills lectures were particularly useful in improving her ability to make contact with people -- to give and to receive, as it were. Ghada Abdel-Kader, a young journalist, reports a similar impact: "One of the weak points the lectures really helped me with is shyness. I can also manage a story better thanks to mind-mapping skills." Both Hassan and Abdel-Kader came to see the lectures as the threshold of a new realm -- "a key to the big world of the humanities", as the Zedny team describe it. The programmes are life- changing, many believe, by virtue of adapting Western ideas to local traditions and the Muslim faith. Reading, for example, is not as established a habit in Egyptian society as it might be; and the Zedny lectures fill numerous gaps in which such a failure results. The programmes provide subscribers with the work of great thinkers in nutshells, bridging cultural gaps; "Zedny", as a result, has become a catch word, spreading all across the neighbourhoods of Cairo. For, being neither a school nor a university -- nor even a company -- the community has no geographic base as such. Yet in the space of a single year it has acquired a central place in the lives of young people otherwise given over to laziness and all manner of irresponsible tendencies. The first human development project of its kind, it tackles its subjects head on, significantly benefiting people as young as four and as old as 35. The core group of eight express their theory clearly. "We all have different job opportunities in multi- national companies or as university professors," according to pediatrician Mohamed Omar, the Zedny team chairman. "Luckily in the course of our work we attended a range of courses that greatly enhanced our lives. One day I was with a friend and I wondered whether, if I'd had the opportunity to take these courses at earlier age, they would have affected my way of work. Unexpectedly the conversation got him interested; it turned out that he too had had the same thoughts. That's how the six of us eventually got together." Inspired by a verse of the Qur'an that includes the word zedny (meaning "increase for me") -- "O God, help me increase my knowledge" (20:114) -- the community was established in July 2004. And no agency would host the activities until the Rab'a Mosque in Nasr City agreed to do so for a small profit margin. All the lecturers are volunteers, as vice chairman Basem Abdel-Ghani explains, and the courses are open to all young people regardless of creed. One particularly popular course is the mind-mapping lecture, in which the workings of the brain are delineated so as to improve thinking skills -- storing, remembering and retrieving information. Starting with eight lectures for the minimal fee of LE35, many such concepts have informed the work of the community. According to Zedny technical manager, Walid Galal, programmes are upgraded twice a year: "There is no trial and error in what we do; we've studied the market and, in the 19-30 age bracket, we know we are filling the gap between universities and companies." Lectures such as those collectively labelled "Think Differently" and "Job Hunting" are bundled, he goes on, to deliver the best results. "It's an opportunity for all the youth to know how to get a job with their qualifications," said Ahmed Rashad, Job Hunting manager. There is even a marriage preparation programme -- based on the wildly popular book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus -- and a particular bundle geared towards thanawiya amma candidates. Business and Finance make for a very significant programme as well. Attendees learn market and sales skills, practise feasibility studies, stock market speculation and other relevant activities. "We expose the young to all kinds of finance and economics topics," Omar El-Sheneiti, Zedny's business unit manager, explains. "We teach them comparative economics: capitalism, communism and Islamic." El-Sheneiti, who works as a business and finance analyst and consultant in a multi-national company, says the teachers are certified professionals nonetheless infused with the amateur spirit and a sense of commitment and mission towards the country. "Some of us train government employees with professional companies -- to develop managerial skills, guranteeing competence and quality. So I think we're in a position to transfer this knowledge to wide base of young people who want to improve their skills for the benefit of their personal as well as professional life." But perhaps the most significant step was venturing into the field of children. According to engineer Mohamed El-Dali, the Zedny for kids manager, a major breakthrough occurred when mind-mapping was adapted to the purposes of children. The first field test took place in schools last summer. Four hours daily, three times a week, children aged nine to 12 attended a workshop based on a book by the educationalist Nagla Salah, I'm An Inventor, which was supplemented by various activities. Afterwards, Al-Azhar Park began to play host to 120 children led by 32 instructors for a month of fun-filled character development. All manner of concepts were introduced -- presentation skills, creative thinking, team work and planning, not to mention mind-mapping -- leading up to a party and an exhibit. Agreeing with the goals of Mohamed El-Esawi, the Agha Khan Foundation manager of Al-Azhar Park, El-Dali's work found ready resonance. "We were already interested in children from the age of three to 15," El-Esawi explained, "and we would organise parties and workshops for them at the park. But the Zedny ideas were creative and powerful -- they provided just the programme we were looking for, creating a chance for mutual benefit. The success of the course was demonstrated to me personally when I saw its effect on my own kids, Yehia, 11, and Youssef, seven, who were both very keen on attending. And I noticed a significant difference in their attitudes; they became more sociable and team oriented." Be that as it may, Zedny has definitely made a difference, proving that where there is a will, there is a way to effect change. But only those who have the will can make a difference. Contacts: [email protected]; [email protected]
