Developing a leading and empowered youth generation that has the ability to excel and be creative in fields of social, economic, culture and personal life to represent Qatar’s national vision. These are the most important goals and visions that Doha Youth Centers seek to achieve including Doha Girls Center that develops girls’ personality and capabilities, enhances sense of self-confidence in addition to the role of the center in organizing investment of the free time within programs that exploit their energies.

 

As about the center’s most important activities, objectives, prospects and future vision, Al Arabs met Ms. Mazyouna Mohammad Al-Nauimi, the executive director of Doha Girls Center who initially mentioned the keenness and interest of the wise leadership of the State to support youth in all fields. From this point, the role of youth centers and civil society organizations concerned with youth appears within applying a pioneer model in empowering youth and providing them with various skills to enhance their role in the sustainable development process to achieve Qatar National Vision2030 within the pillar of human development.

 

Mazyouna introduced Doha Girls Center and said that it is one of the female youth centers from the age group 15-39 years which covers and serves all areas of Doha. Its vision focuses on improving the quality of education and training, interacting with them through listening to their opinions and innovative ideas and employing them as youth initiatives that we reap their fruits and effects on community by female youth who have unlimited potential and skills. Also, she said that the center was established as a separate and independent center in 2012.

 

Regarding goals of the center, Mazyouna Al-Nuaimi stated that the goals that the center seeks to achieve are for example and not limited to the following:

  • Saving incubating environment to listen to ideas of girls and young women and translating them into operational plans to be used in the society in good manner.
  • Developing initiatives and projects related to interests of young women.
  • Instilling values that suit culture and needs of Qatari society.
  • Organizing investing of free time in programs that build personality of girls and exploit their energies and help them have good upbringing.

 

Director of Doha Girls center revealed a set of programs that the center’s management has adapted to the current situation and quarantine conditions as many of them were presented through online chat programs and she mentioned various models of programs offered at the center and divided them into three main categories as follows:

 

Academic programs that aim at acquisition of skills and experience with the help of female trainers specialized in certain field such as language courses, writing press articles and other specialized programs as well as our support bodies such as Community College and Qatar University. In addition, educational and awareness programs that are offered to address the needs of the society and achieve principle of cooperation and solidarity inside the society such as donation campaigns for orphans and sick people that are held in cooperation with the competent authorities in this field.

 

She added that the last classification (category) was youth initiatives as they are an initiative offered by young women that aims at developing society, increasing young women’s self-confidence and raising their self-esteem because they provide services to their community through which they feel achievement, worthiness, position and self-realization. The center has adopted (5) youth initiatives including “Qimam”, “Your Giving is the Secret of Your Happiness”, “My Arabic Language is My Identity”, “Volunteer Ambassadors”, and “Women Seminars” initiative. They can refer to social media and find out details about the initiatives presented by the center.

 

Registration Mechanism

Regarding the registration mechanism in the program, Mazyouna Al-Nuaimi said that registration is conducted according to “Al- Adaam Youth Program” which is a national platform for youth in addition to publishing in all social media (Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube channel) and programs are available to girls and young women for free.

 

 

She said that the center is currently adopting several initiatives including educational initiative concerned with sports, cultural and family aspects and is carried out using dramatic (theatrical) scenes, camps and workshops to provide the young woman with the leadership qualities to manager her life in all aspects of life.

She mentioned that the center launched “Qimam” initiative as part of its social responsibility program that aims at supporting emerging companies and Qatari entrepreneurs and contributing to achieving the economic development goals of Qatar National Vision 2030. She said that many Qatari entrepreneurs participate in the initiative within visual media materials published on the center’s platform within which they present their entrepreneurship experience, the secret of success of their projects, difficulties they faced in their projects and how they overcame them in addition to other details of interest to the fresh entrepreneurs.

 

“My Language is My Identity” Initiative

Mazyouna Al-Nuaimi said that the center launched also “My Arabic Language is My Identity” initiative that aims at identifying the beauty of Classical Arabic Language within mastering it either speaking or writing in order to raise and adhere to the Arabic Language and enhance its value for girls. This initiative is carried out throughout the year.

 

She added that another initiative is the “Volunteer Ambassadors” initiative which consists of direct youth dialogue meetings with inspiring personalities which are organized periodically through social networking sites of the center. Within these sessions, best practices are presented and the most important topics related to young women, their aspirations and challenges they face are discussed in order to reach practical solutions, innovative ideas and effective policies.

She pointed out that the center offers “Women Seminars” developed to serve as a dialogue platform that aims at saving young women the opportunity to express their opinions and impressions about their aspirations and challenges and collective participation in positive effect.

 

 

 

 

Refining and filtration of training career (profession)

Mazyouna Al-Nuaimi said that Doha Girls Center implemented an ambitious plan to refine training career (profession) at the center by attracting young competencies from students of scientific excellence at the secondary stage and recent graduates from Qatar University in various disciplines to implement life skills programs at the center. They are a set of human skills acquired through learning and used to deal with problems and questions that face daily human life such as management skills, cognitive skills, social skills, teamwork skills that are planning and leadership and teamwork management etc.

In this context, Mazyouna Al-Nuaimi said, “The center seeks to continue refining the training career in light of the great success that has been achieved and intensive attendance and interaction from the public with outcomes of the scientific materials presented through the center’s electronic platforms. It turned out to us that there is a great convergence in harmony of female trainees with the Qatari female trainers as they are close to the environment and talk with them in comfortable way that facilitates understanding and communication. These trainers are able to communicate information and we discovered this fact after assessing the training impact as assessments rates of the programs conducted are high.

 

Al-Nuaimi confirmed that the center welcomes young talents as media content makers, event organizers, volunteers and trainees noting that the age groups adopted by the center range from 15 to 39 years old for women.

 

Doha Girls Center participates annually in the global celebrations of the United Nations as the last celebration was celebration of World Environment Day on June 5. Also, the center plans to participate in the International Youth Day on August 12, as part of its agenda.

 

Distance working

Mazyouna Al-Nuaimi said that the experience of distance working by holding virtual seminars, workshops and cultural competitions through internet affected positively the high level of participation in the center from inside and outside Qatar. This experience shared in highlighting contributions of the State of Qatar through its organizations to support youth through their youth initiatives and active participation within the activities of the center.

She added that as part of the center’s effort to contribute to the national and governmental efforts and efforts of the concerned authorities to confront possibilities of the spread of new Corona virus (Covid-19) and based on its societal responsibilities, the center launched a media campaign carried out by Al Maha Youssef Al-Horr, one of members of the center, in several languages on its social networking sites to educate residents about the dangers of corona virus and methods of prevention.

The educational campaign aims at contributing in limiting the spread of Corona virus by producing videos in different languages and publishing them on the most popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube of the center in support of the center’s goals to target the largest possible number of concerned groups.

 

Videos focus on basic information such as the need to maintain personal hygiene such as cleaning homes, the difference between isolation and quarantine, suggesting ideas to implement them while staying at home including exercises, making sure that the food is clean to protect themselves and their families. These videos received high rate of interaction.

 

We are working at the center to provide the appropriate environment to launch pioneer initiatives and programs that aim at developing and enhancing capabilities of girls and to allow them acquire more specialized skills in all fields such as Qimam initiative whose activities will be implemented on the 25th of next July and it is considered a unique experience that combines knowledge and practical experience to prepare future young leaders.

 

Challenges to cope with changes

The executive director of Doha Girls Center said, “The world around us is changing rapidly and this presents a challenge to the center to cope with this change by developing programs that suit the local conditions the country faces. Examples of these program include entrepreneurship project program in cooperation with Injaz Qatar Foundation to introduce the importance of entrepreneurship, its effect on youth, how to establish private business in addition to Freedom Program (Al Horeya) for girls which targets the age group from 15 to 39 years old as this program explains the value controls of religion and society and their importance for the Muslim woman.