A New Milestone: First Young Leadership Certificates Awarded

On April 17th, 2008, the Youth Club (the Nadi) formally presented certificates of completion to graduates of the Young Leadership Course for students in 9th, 10th and 11th grades – participants in the first-ever such training course given at the Nadi, which was founded in 2004.

The course took place during 2007 and had three phases. Initially, there were two half-day basic leadership training sessions during May and June 2007 in the Village. This was followed by an intensive one-week seminar at the beginning of July, held at Karei Deshe at the Sea of Galilee. Then, in mid-December 2007, there was a full-day workshop dealing with the Arab-Jewish conflict. All the young women and men who completed the course were also required to do a leadership practicum, and most did so during last summer’s Peace Summer Camp for elementary school children organized by the Open House (Ramle) at WAS-NS in July 2007.

Organizing the April 2008 certificate award ceremony was a project taken on - while the course was still in session last summer - by one of the groups of young trainees, on behalf of the community. At the event, we watched a 20-minute film produced by two participants, Nadeen Nashef and Layalee Karaman - Abbas, documenting narratives portions of the course.

The entire training program ran for 112 hours, including the practicum. Most of the Young Leadership Course graduates are continuing to contribute enthusiastically and with great success as leaders of younger groups at the Nadi, serving grades 1-3 and grades 4-6 respectively.

Staff, aid, and assistance. Elad Vazana was the chief trainer-adviser for YL course, and Muna Shaheen was co-adviser. Oren Rechman and Samah Hamad-Matam from the Jerusalem YMCA gave training in organizing community initiatives. Lubna Kiel and Samer Sliman of the YMCA taught the segment on "Play for Peace."

Ariela Bairey Ben Ishay and Maisoun Karaman gave training in the segment on the Arab-Jewish conflict. Maisoun Karaman was the course coordinator, with additional professional consultation by Ariela Bairey Ben Ishay and Maisoun Karaman. The director of the Nadi at the time was Dyana Shaloufe Rizek.

Special thanks:

The Pluralistic Spiritual Centre for hosting the graduation ceremony; the village hotel, for providing refreshments; Smadar Kremer, who designed the new Nadi logo and the certificates themselves; the Communications and Development Office staff for faithfully documenting the event; and to to Canadian journalist Ron Carrol for capturing the certificate award ceremony on film.

See photo album here