Sixth episode of “Youth Participate” Radio Program: Youth Participation in Neighborhoods Committees: Between Reality and Dream.
Funded by the Government of Canada and implemented by Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, “Youth Participate”, aired on Alwan radio station in Gaza, hosts Ms. Heba Al-Danaf, lawyer and mentor with the supervising team on research papers, and Ms. Sahar Lubbad who prepared her research titled “Youth Participation in Neighborhoods Committees: Between Reality and Dream”.
Ms. Heba discussed the phases of the project and the process of choosing the most reflective research papers that best represent the work of the participants. She commended the effort exerted by both Pal-Think for Strategic Studies and the participants of the project.
Ms. Heba referred to that the participation of youth in neighborhoods committees has never been discussed the way it is in the paper of Ms. Sahar, mentioning that it is time that Palestinian youths take place in the representation of their society and in making pivotal decisions.
Throughout the episode, testimonials were displayed on the participation of youth in serving their communities. Many agreed on that there is still a lack of this kind of participation in the Palestinian society, considering loss of hope and increase of unemployment as the reasons for this phenomena.
Ms. Lubbad said that participation of youth was fluctuating between municipalities. In addition, she discussed enhancing techniques for youths. They were holding special training courses about community service and how to manage a neighborhood.
Lubbad concluded the discussion stating a number of findings of her research paper; one of the most prominent ones was the shortage of civic society organizations seeking through their projects to execute transparent elections. Another was the low rate of representation of youth in neighborhoods committees.
