Activism Knows No Age

Activism knows no age…

This was my message to the world during my participation on behalf of “Together We Build It” Organization in “Cities Defending Human rights” project in October 2017 in Barcelona, Spain.

I started my activism since I was 15 years old right after the Libyan revolution in 2011. I was really young when everything happened. I was just in 9th grade and had no previous background about civil society and politics in general.

I was trying to keep up with everything going on in my country, especially with the violence that took over my once peaceful society. Although, I was young and inexperienced, I was still active among my peers as I have always tried to open discussions and encourage them to speak and to have a say in what’s going on.

I pushed my activism further and joined the “Together We Build It” organization. I’m glad that I had the chance to be part of an organization that believes in investing in youth and women and gives them the platform to build their capacities just like it was the case with me.

The leadership of the “Together We Build It” organization has always believed in me, and encouraged me to learn more about peace, human rights and activism. Of course, personally I was always committed to grabbing any opportunity that comes my way that would help me enhance my skills and “Together We Build It” Organization was always keen to support and provide me with the needed opportunities.

My recent representation of “Together We Build It” organization is an example of that as I never been before in advocacy missions nor spoke in front of a large number of people before. However, because I was interested in doing so and I wanted to gain experience out of it they nominated me to represent them. I have been working with them for 5 years and took part of most of the projects we did within the organization and because I know what we do in the organization and I believe in our cause, they supported me all the way towards a successful participation.

It is very crucial that we give youth and young women the needed platform to work on themselves and build their capacities rather than thinking of their age as a negative thing. During my time in Barcelona I had the opportunity to meet with many young people who want to be engaged and included to work towards a peaceful world. This has opened my eyes to the fact that young people wants to be active and will do amazing work if they only have the support they need and believe in their potential.  We shouldn’t focus only on the relationship between youth and women but it’s worth to mention the importance of women from all ages senior and young women coming together to work. In “Together We Build It” we have an inspiring team of women from different ages where our voices are counted the same and given equal opportunities regardless of age.