Amira El-Naqeeb finds out how young people's skills are refined Camps, seminars and workshops for the young are a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity. That the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA, aimed at 14- to 30-year-olds) have attracted secondary and university students as well as young professionals with leadership potential bears testimony to the fact. Comprising three- to 10-day events at the local and district levels, the awards aim to boost leadership skills -- according to Ahmed El-Maghrabi, member of the Pharaohs Club and former Alexandria Committee head: "I think RYLA was created because Rotarians believe in investing in youth, how the young contribute to the flourishing of any society, and how much it helps them do that to develop their self-confidence and leadership skill." Last September in Sharm El-Sheikh -- organised by Club Rotary Alexandria Metropolitan -- RYLA had 31 participants from Egypt. Organisers sought to make the programme as versatile as possible, with sessions dealing with arts and crafts, acting, styling, art direction, thinking, and jewellery-making. Expenses are covered in part by participants, the rest by Rotary. Hania Badreddin, head of the Service Projects Committee in Rotary Alexandria Metropolitan and one of the event organisers, says topics are chosen through a vote by participating "rotaractors". "It's very important that head and participants should be in the same age bracket," she says, "and they usually possess a sense of awareness of the society they live in and are eager to take responsibility towards its development -- so they join in the Rotaract..." And creative potential really was unleashed -- as evident from Annie Toutoujian's experience of giving a decoupage and stenciling workshop: "at the beginning, thinking it was something more for children, I was reluctant. But I was proven wrong." Besides the work, it was an opportunity for participants to mingle and socialise. To deal with the perennial problem of time management and scheduling, Omneya Yassa, former president of Rotaract Heliopolis and Contracting and Project Management Officer at AB Associates gave a special session on emotional intelligence and teamwork, tackling such topics as temperance and anger management. Yassa creatively captured the attention of the participants by fabricating a row with Badreddin: "I wanted to kill two birds with one stone, to give a practical example of what the theme of my session is all about and how to manage your emotions and at the same time to have the participants' full attention." In her view, a "firm and flexible" approach on the part of the organisers would have made the event even more successful. Unlike Toutoujian, Yassa had been enthusiastic about participating: "I attended RYLA Cyprus, and it was about leadership. I learned a lot from these activities, and I was glad to pass the knowledge onto other young people." She feels the events are a great opportunity to build communication skills and broaden perspectives through meeting people from all walks of life -- something Dina Barsoum, a 20-year old French-language commerce student who participated, confirms. The session was not about creativity per se, she says, but it did benefit her a great deal. For his part Walid Ghoneim a PhD holder in electrical engineering, gave a lecture on creativity a la Leonardo Da Vinci -- universally recognised the number-one genius throughout modern history. Ghoneim dealt with Da Vinci's various contributions and discoveries in a range of fields from engineering to botany, warfare, astronomy and aviation. He also talked about Da Vinci's seven thinking methods to achieve: "Curiosity, demonstration, sensation, fuzziness, the integration between art and science, body awareness and connection. The aim is that each and every human being should make an effort to adopt these thinking strategies till they have become an inseparable habit. Because they are the ultimate keys to mastering any field." Nor was the social side of the event ignored: activities geared especially towards interaction encouraged participants to socialise. There was an optional safari trip as well as a yacht day trip, and for Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, a 27-year-old psychiatrist and president of Rotaract Metropolitan, these activities did help "but unfortunately they came rather late in the day". There should have been more workshops and games to encourage interaction, he said. Yet judging by the way in which participants stood around talking to each other on the last day of the seminar, participants did get to know each other during the event. Expectations varied but everyone came out with an experience. Karim Khattab, a 21-year-old mechanical engineer and active rotaractor who was attending RYLA for the first time, thought it was a great idea. But he didn't not find the creativity theme as helpful as he would have liked it to be: "sessions were good, but they did not really give you the keys to being creative in these fields." Abdel-Aziz agreed with Khattab that the sessions dealt with the theme theoretically rather than practically. Yet Sherif Gamal, a banker who was motivated to join the Rotaract after attending two RYLA programmes, "gained valuable knowledge in communication and organisation skills. I think the Rotaract demonstrates respect and concern for the young, something which you cannot easily find in other organisations." Badreddin related to Gamal's point of view, which reflects her own experience in the first RYLA to take place in Egypt, in Sharm El-Sheikh eight years ago. These activities helped her develop self- confidence; she also gained marketing and presentation skills which would prove invaluable to her private business: "to be influenced and to influence in turn -- that's what our communities need." If you need to learn more about the RYLA programme, you can contact your local Rotary club, or rotary international for details. You can also visit www.rotary.orgwww.rotary.orgi or e-mail: [email protected]
