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Zahra leads a group of her peers twice a week in sessions that
include lessons in life skills and movement activities. All photos:
Corinna Robbins/Mercy Corps
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With bright eyes and a thousand-watt smile, Zahra, 18, looks around
the circle, calls out a command, and bends to touch her toes. The 25
teenage girls surrounding Zahra follow her lead, giggling quietly while
they stretch. Zahra leads the girls through the series of warm-ups. In
her poppy red hijab she looks positively in bloom.
In the Western imagination, Arab girls are sometimes seen as veiled
and cloistered, with little hope of self-determination. It’s true that
many girls are bound by conservative traditions and safety fears in
Zahra’s home — Baghdad, Iraq. But in these teenagers, who have lived
practically their whole lives in conflict, Mercy Corps sees the
possibility of change.
Empowering teens through movement
In order to encourage young Iraqis to get down to the serious
business of creating a better future, we adopted a novel approach: help
them play. The program at Zahra’s school pairs life skills with movement
and sport, and is now in 30 Baghdad schools, 15 for boys and 15 for
girls.
Mercy Corps trains young Iraqis to mentor groups of their peers. For
most of the girls in Zahra’s group, exercise has never been encouraged,
and she hopes the joy of play will reinforce the larger lessons she
shares with them.
Zahra’s teacher identified her as a potential youth leader and
invited her to join Mercy Corps’ training. “I’m so proud to be part of
the project,” Zahra says. “I’m trying to encourage [the girls] to do
better, to be better. When I encourage them, they really challenge
themselves, and they challenge me. I’m really proud of them.”
Twice a week, Zahra works with the girls on skills like
communication, leadership, teamwork, relationships, social
responsibility, goal setting and resilience. They spend half of each
session playing games and sports that help illustrate the skills Zahra
teaches.
Today’s lesson is on teamwork. Zahra leads the girls in a discussion
about the value of teamwork and they quickly move into a series of games
to reinforce the concept. She convinces the girls to break into groups
of four or five, sit on the floor back to back, and link arms.
Then, without breaking the chain of their arms, they must work
together to stand. The girls laugh at the awkward contortions required
as they push and pull, writhing, to come upright. But awkward as it
might be, together they rise. There would be no way to do this alone.
Inspiring new youth leaders
Fatima, 16, just stepped into her role as a youth leader two weeks
ago. She works with Zahra to lead the day’s activities — only her fourth
session so far. Though not quite as outspoken as Zahra, Fatima was
drawn to the opportunity to lead girls. “We are in a society that
sometimes prohibits or forbids even girls playing with each other, even
in school,” Fatima says.
As the girls warm up they start to seem less self-conscious. Fatima
herself seems most comfortable when she is in motion, and indeed, she
dreams of being a coach when she grows up. “All communities, all nations
— sport is so important,” she says. “It improves health. It energizes
our way of thinking.”
Baghdad is not an easy place to grow up. Zahra says fear is a common
feature of life for many of the girls in her group. “They feared their
fathers, their mothers, sisters, brothers. They can't do this, they
can't do that,” Zahra says. “I tell them, you’re a woman. You can do
what you want. Without you the society is nothing. You have to be
strong, you have to be fierce.”
In the center of the group, Zahra radiates enthusiasm for the girls
around her, as though she hopes her energy and passion will be
infectious.
Initially, the program met some resistance from the community and
many girls withdrew. Enough girls joined and once parents and community
members saw how the girls grew and learned, the resistance faded. Now,
interest is growing and it’s a race to keep up with demand.
Of all the life skills Zahra seeks to ingrain in her young mentees,
she says her favorite is goal setting. She wants the girls in her
community to know they have options in life and that they can succeed
with determination.
“We have a saying in Arab society, ‘Be the moon.’ You have to rise so
people can raise their head and look at you. They are forced to look at
you because you are so beautiful and so shining. I am telling them that
a person with no goal is not a person. You have to set that goal and
try to make it true.”
"I just want to help others"
Zahra switches easily between Arabic and fluent English. She says she
fell in love with English as a child, watching her favorite American
movie, Home Alone. Now that she has graduated from high school, she has
her own goals: she’ll soon start university where she’ll study to be an
English teacher. It appeals to this teenager who already sees herself as
a humanitarian.
“I just want to help others,” Zahra said. “I want to spread love and
peace everywhere I go. Because we're really tired of hate, really tired
of war. And anger. All that. I don't want to live in a society that I
can't look at my sister and tell her that I love her. I can't live in a
society like that.”
It’s understandable that even idealistic adolescents like Zahra could
be fatigued, having lived against the backdrop of Iraq’s economic and
political crisis and war for their whole lives.
Mercy Corps’ aims to connect these teens to a hopeful vision of the
future and the skills they need to make a positive impact in their
community. It’s clear that Zahra already has that vision, and leaders
like her are beginning to build lasting change, one step at a time.
PS
I found this post on http://www.mercycorps.org/articles/iraq/one-youth-leader-turns-play-progress and thought wise to share here. If Zahra at 18 could do this despite the situation in country , then you do not have an excuse not do right by your community.
An African proverb says if you think you are too small to make a difference, then you have not spent a night with a mosquito.
OjisiEmezie
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