Hope, youth and #MeWeSyria

By Mohsin Mohi Ud-Din

“Back in Syria, I did not know I was a changemaker. Now in Zaatari of all places, I feel I am a changemaker,” said a young Syrian who participated in Ashoka’s Youth Venture’s #MeWeSyria program. These are not mere words. These words are a measure of success that speaks to young refugees’ discovering their inner changemaker and finding a positive voice for expressing their ideas, practicing leadership and engaging in creative enterprise.

The crisis in Syria is now entering its fifth year, with more than 200,000 killed and millions displaced. As the world struggles to grapple with the largest refugee crisis since World War II, the narrative surrounding Syrian refugees is dominated by violence, failed politics and extremism. But this is not the whole story. Ashoka’s Youth Venture, in partnership with #MeWeSyria, is working to ensure Syria’s youth have opportunities to be a part of the solution and are valued as changemakers and carriers of innovation and hope.

In an ‘Everyone a Changemaker’ world, young people should have the opportunity to be the curators of their own narrative so that they can define their role in the world and communicate their changemaker journeys. Through the experiential process of storytelling and creative enterprise, the innovative storytelling program provides young people a space to test out ideas, build a team of teams among their peers and community, and disrupt the social challenges around them.

Ashoka’s Youth Venture — -powered by the #MeWeSyria initiative — is currently leading engagements with refugee youth networks in Turkey and Jordan thanks to support from Germany and partnerships with local refugee-led organizations suchQuestscope. The ‘storytelling for changemakers’ programmatic mission is to activate youth-led culture tipping that fosters spaces for empathy, team of team culture and community engagement using the power of storytelling and communication.

The Founder of #MeWeSyria and Director of Storytelling Innovation for Ashoka’s Youth Venture, Mohsin Mohi Ud Din, recently sat down with Al Jazeera America for a ‘First Person Report’ on how Syria’s youth and its refugee teachers and youth mentors are building youth-led spaces that promote peace, pluralism and changemaking through the storytelling for changemakers program.

This article first featured on Ashoka.org here.