Ramallah – MIFTAH capped off the second and third parts of a six-day training workshop over the past two weeks. In all, 19 young political leaders from various Palestinian universities and colleges participated as part of MIFTAH’s Youth Empowerment Program in partnership with NDC [NGO Development Center].

According to MIFTAH CEO Dr. Lily Feidy,”the training focused on creating and building a safe participatory space among the participants and on finding solutions to the jarring contradictions between the members of the group though rethinking and drafting goals based on the needs of party, while taking into consideration the needs of the other.”

She also said the participants worked on creating a vision of the group which expressed their goals and strategic approaches. The discussions revolved around ways of reviving and improving youth participation in the decision-making system along with supporting marginalized sectors. The participatory space for all components of society was in order to achieve these goals.

Dr. Feidy continued, “In order to reach this vision and in an attempt to overcome all of the obstacles that will face this group on their path to these goals, we set a group of innovative activities to be carried out by members of the group over the course of the year. These activities mainly aim at overcoming the various social and hierarchical obstacles they will face and to raise their level of awareness of the environment around them so that they could best deal with changes in this regard. “

It should be mentioned that the participants belonged to the various Palestinian factions and are active in student councils in a number of Palestinian universities and colleges (Al Najah, Bethlehem, Al Ahliyeh, Hebron, the Arab-American, Al Quds and Al Quds Open university along with the Arroub Technical College.)