The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has organized a workshop for a number of its teams who are involved in the project (Future Opportunities for Youth in Iraq), which was carried out in collaboration with the Danish Red Cross.

The workshop’s main objectives were to showcase the project’s lessons gained through its implementation in the governorates of Baghdad and Nineveh as well as to provide suggestions and recommendations to the supporting organization in order to reapply the project and distribute it to all governorates.

According to Dr. Mays Karim, a workshop participant, the project’s goal is to improve psychosocial support for young people, particularly the unemployed, school dropouts, and breadwinners for underprivileged and poorest families, to that end, special sessions on life skills were held.

“The total number of sessions that were presented to the beneficiaries was eight, and each session has a collection of axes that each connect to a certain aim, such communication with others, decision-making and conflict management, and how to attain goals and desires”, Dr.Mays has added.

“These sessions are part of the work of the psychological support team of IRCS, as it educates young people about the ability to deal with their reality, how to be active in their community, encourages them to volunteer youth initiatives, and creates the spirit of working as a team to achieve societal goals,” Dr. Mais continued.

Three areas are covered by the lessons gained from any project, the technical challenges pertaining to the project, project management in terms of task allocation, execution schedules, and team member communication, and the project’s outputs or outcomes attained.

“The project was implemented in the governorates of Baghdad and Nineveh, and five teams were formed, three of them in Baghdad, two teams on the Rusafa side, one team on the Karkh side, and in Nineveh two teams: the first in the right side of Mosul, and the second on the left side, with each of these teams including 15 beneficiaries,” said Imad Hadi (one of the project’s trainers and the workshop participants).

The repair of a sewing workshop in Sadr City was one of the community ideas offered by the young participants who were chosen for the project, he continued,a group of women who were taught in the sewing trade as beneficiaries of this project, and the results of their labor will be provided to the needy and the poor people, as well as the rehabilitation of school seats, also the youth took the initiative to renovate a martial arts training facility in a number of schools and in the city of Al-Shula on the Karkh side of Baghdad, regarding Nineveh, the youth involved in the project launched two initiatives: the first focused on the scourge of drugs and how to deal with it as a pervasive phenomenon in Iraqi community, and the second was to launch an awareness and education campaign in the city of Tal Afar about early marriage of minors, its repercussions, causes, and ways to reduce this phenomenon, the IRCS’s teams have introduced the phenomenon, how to handle it, and what factors contribute to and are affected by it.

It is noteworthy that the project (Future Opportunities for Youth) was implemented in a number of nations, and the Iraqi Red Crescent was inspired to implement it in the remaining governorates by the project’s successful implementation in the governorates of Baghdad and Nineveh in Iraq.