The training programme for young civic intellectuals concludes

Pal-Think for Strategic Studies concluded a training programme titled “Preparing a civic educator”, at 50 training hours over ten days from 25 October 2020 to 5 November 2020, within the project “Civic education”, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The project seeks to strengthen democratic values and the principles of human rights and good governance through the young leaderships in the Gaza Strip from among the university students, by training and qualifying them to convey their expertise to their peers in the various civil-society organisations.

This training comes within the continuing efforts “Pal-Think” expends for the sake of strengthening culture and civic participation among the category of Palestinian youth, and strengthening the culture of democracy and human rights among them, by raising their awareness and encouraging them to discuss this culture with their young peers.

The director of “Pal-Think”, Mr Omar Shaban, concluded the training programme thanking the trainers and the trainees, and affirmed that this training programme is considered part of the continuing efforts Pal-Think expends in order to invest in the capabilities and knowledge of the youth, they being the most able to bring about the real change in all fields. He said: “We at Pal-Think are proud of this programme, which was able in ten training days to bring about a noticeable difference in the knowledge and skills of the trainee students in the subjects of democracy, human rights, the principles of integrity, transparency, and political participation, and other related subjects.”

Shaban likewise affirmed that the training will be followed by several steps that will contribute fundamentally to enabling the trainees to convey the knowledge and skills they learned during the period of their receiving the training to their peers in the universities and to the members of society, through the initiatives the trainees will work on carrying out in the coming stage.

In their turn the trainees expressed the difference the training made at the level of their information and skills. The trainee Aya Ashour said: “The training's subjects were very important, from human rights to good governance and governance, which I had not heard of until this training — and more beautiful still were the trainers, who were most gifted in their field. Personally I was very happy and benefited much from this experience, which will continue to what comes after; there were many concepts we were unaware of, and we realise day after day that we must be more giving.”

The trainee Sami Shaqoura likewise said: “I thank Pal-Think for choosing me in the training of preparing a civic educator, through which I came to know a constellation of the most cultured and aware youth in the Gaza Strip. We were trained and prepared to be civic educators at the hands of elites of the trainers and researchers in the political field, advocacy, and gender — a thanks too lofty to be confined to any one of the aspects, whether (knowledge-building, correcting concepts, intellectual development, entrenching principles, etc.).”

During the ten training days the focus was on several subjects of direct relation to strengthening civic culture among the university students. On the first training day the talk was about presentation skills; on the second day the focus was on the principles of human rights; on the third and fourth days the concepts of democracy and the subjects related to it were taken up; on the fifth and sixth days the trainer focused on good governance and the mechanisms of strengthening it; the seventh day was dedicated to talk about the Palestinian legal system and its problematics; on the eighth day the skills of lobbying and advocacy in the subjects related to civic culture were reviewed; while on the ninth and tenth days the focus was on the concepts of gender justice and the issues of gender-based violence and the mechanisms of limiting it.

The first stage of the programme will be followed by many activities the youth will lead themselves to convey the acquired knowledge to diverse civil-society organisations, to guarantee the youth's reach to all the strata of society — with observance of the controls of safety and health, from physical distancing to the use of the methods of health protection from COVID-19. The project comes within a vision Pal-Think pursues of investing in youth energies and strengthening culture and civic participation in Palestine.