Global Platform in Jordan

This spring the Regional Office of MS ActionAid Denmark (MS) in Amman turns into a Global Platform for the MENA region. This expansion will lead to many new activities and opportunities for cultural exchange and training of young people from all over the world.

Nadia Masri-Pedersen, Trainer at Global Platform Jordan

The 15th of May Christian Lund Jensen and Nadia Masri-Pedersen arrived at the Regional Office of MS in Amman. They will lead and organize the activities of the new Global Platform, which include training for future volunteers, who travel to the Middle East as well as courses like leader training for youth from the region.

The four week volunteer training will give insight into and knowledge about the social and community problems of the region and include basic Arabic lessons. Volunteers will experience a combination of participatory training and practical activities like field trips to civil society organizations. The common theme for the training is voluntarism and social change. You can choose only to follow the four week training on the platform, or to combine the training with voluntary work with a local organisation. The first training of volunteers starts the 31^st of August.

However, Global Platform Jordan has already started training of local youth. The first task of Chistian and Nadia, with the help from four young Jordanians, was to organize a leadership training in Damascus, which took place the last week of May. The 24 Syrian participants in the course were voluntary leaders of the yearly summer camps of National Union of Syrian Students (NUSS). The objective of NUSS is to promote voluntary work among the youth in Syria.

“Formerly, it was compulsory for these young Syrians to participate in the summer camps, but now it is voluntary. By training the youth in participatory methods and give them a concrete space to plan their activities in, we can involve and motivate the voluntaries in a new way” Nadia explains.  

This leader training seminar is the first one organized by MS in Arabic. “Many young people in the Middle East, often upper middle-class or upper-class, have already received a lot of training from different organizations. By teaching in Arabic we reach a new target group of young people, who would not normally be reached. In this way we give a greater part of the youth an opportunity to become more engaged in the society they live in”, Christian says.

MS has already established four Global Platforms, who support and facilitate voluntary work. The Platform in El Salvador covers Latin America, the Platform in Nepal covers Asia, the Platform in Kenya covers Africa, and the Platform in Copenhagen offer international trainings and training for Danish youth. Centrally placed in the MENA region the new Platform in Amman will reach out to young people in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Morocco.

Read more about Global Platform Jordan.