Issue link: https://takingitglobal.uberflip.com/i/1057946
27 27 Youth for Change Youth for Change Statistics Mini-Grant Proposals Received 160 Total Winners Chosen 30 Total MENA Region Members 18,909 Participants of Live chat and proposal writing sessions 125 To encourage Arab youth to lead development projects, we partnered with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina to offer mini-grants to 26 participants as a launchpad for their projects, in addition to the 4 winners from phase I in 2008. These thirty participants will receive scholarships to attend the 5th Arab Youth Forum in 2010 and a selected number to attend the World Youth Congress in Turkey. The mini-grant winners will be connected to the tailored Sprout e-course in Arabic, and will be guided through the process of designing and implementing their own projects by e-mentors. The common thread of knowledge-sharing in phase II will ensure that youth participation involves a circular flow of information, with young people being mentors, leaders and participants in the program. YFC's online component is designed to be complementary to the offline one. The activities http://yfc.tigweb.org "The Youth for Change project is not successful only because it is an international project that makes change in people's thoughts, but also because it gives confidence and support to whomever wants to donate some of his/her time serving society. That makes me proud of being involved in it." –Ahmed Haroon, Egypt Conceived as a project in 2008, Youth for Change (YFC) launched its second phase in 2009, with the official online portal focusing on the program's previous components of global youth culture and participation. We also succeeded in expanding the project to 14 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. YFC works to encourage cross-cultural dialogue and youth-led projects across national boundaries. include a Panorama and Global Gallery contest on Global Youth Culture, live chats in English and Arabic, the setting up of blogs and discussion boards for members to interact and gain peer advice on their projects, and the promotion of online engagement through social collaboration. Two proposal writing sessions were also held for the participants to plan, draft and edit their ideas into grant proposals. The activities are centered around 9 key areas that are hubs of networking, learning and project-oriented growth in the MENA countries of the YFC project. Download the YFC Report and Guide to Action: http://yfc.tigweb.org/about/resources.html Youth for Change winners in Egypt