The Ministry of Social Development and Family, represented by the Family Development Department, organized a workshop entitled: "Youth and the Challenges of the Age" on Tuesday, August 15, at the Ministry's Social Development Center in The Pearl.

This workshop comes on the occasion of the International Youth Day, which falls on the twelfth of August of each year, seeking the participation of Qatari youth in building society by empowering and preparing them to make an effective and integrated contribution in order to achieve sustainable human development. This year’s slogan was titled: “Green Skills for Youth”. It was chosen with the aim of achieving a successful transition towards a more environmentally friendly world with the ability to develop citizens’ skills to be in line with the green economy.

The Speakers were: Ms. Aisha Al-Maadeed, owner of the Green Future Project, and Ms. Wafaa Al-Saffar, Director of the Sustainability Department at Baladna and founder of the initiative. It aims to introduce the youth to the differences that exist between them based on the countries and continents in which they live, clarify the needs of young people between the past and the present, shed light on the impact of global changes such as epidemics, the economy and natural disasters on young people, discuss the educational, professional, economic, moral and social challenges facing young people and the keys to overcoming them.

Mrs. Aisha Al-Maadeed, the owner of the Green Future Project, addressed many topics, including brief introduction about the Green Future Project and how it began, how the project originated, grew and developed, clarified the importance of preserving the environment, explained how to carry out the recycling process, and presented artwork to the participants in the workshop by opening the door for youth to learn, experiment and create.

Mrs. Al-Maadeed explained that the project is concerned with educating the community about environmental problems, and how to treat them, or limit their spread and aggravation. This project was launched in 2018 through my participation in the leadership program organized by the Education Above All Foundation. The program stipulated that we work in groups to design social initiatives, so the group members agreed to design an environmental initiative.

There were conditions for designing initiatives. First, it is not possible to shed light on a large group of environmental problems, but rather focus on one environmental problem only, and the group chose the problem of plastic pollution, as this type of pollution was widely spread in the city of Doha. In recent years, it has witnessed an increase in the number of coffee shops, and thus an increase in the use of plastic cups.

Regarding what distinguishes the Green Future Project from other projects or initiatives that aim to preserve the environment, Mrs. Aisha Al-Maadeed said: “What distinguishes the Green Future Project is that we talk to society in a simple and easy language. We do not address them in scientific language that may be difficult for them to understand, and we do not burden them with accurate statistics, what we are trying to do is address them in simple language that is easy to provide simplified application models.”

Mrs. Wafaa Al-Saffar stated that the aim of the “Recycling Initiative” is to help individuals convert food scraps into organic fertilizer and seek to reduce the amount of waste that is sent to landfills. Where organic waste represents 44% of the percentage of waste in Qatar, the initiative aims to develop solutions that make people part of this change.

Regarding the launch of the initiative, Ms. Wafaa Al-Saffar expressed that the initiative started with the "Sama Nama" program of the Social Development Center - Nama - which is a youth program for social entrepreneurship. The initiative team studied the most important environmental challenges that they faces. They also conducted many interviews with the concerned authorities in the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, restaurants, hotels, waste transport companies, and homeowners. The research concluded that the State of Qatar produces approximately 4,000 tons of organic waste per day, and it will increase by 21% by 2030.

In this regard, Mrs. Al-Saffar said: “We aspire to reach a conscious society that realizes its important role in making change. Our role as youth lies in supporting our beloved land that looks at Qatar Vision 2030 as a roadmap, by striving to be a part that contributes to it. She added: young people nowadays have all the empowerment they need, but the biggest challenge in this volunteer work is the need for cooperation and concerted efforts of all parties, in addition to reconciling work and volunteer life.

The Ministry of Social Development and Family, through the Family Development Department, seeks to develop the family, women and children, and to educate the community about the rights of this group, and the challenges raised on the global, regional and local arena, through the preparation and implementation of national strategies, plans and policies related to the family and its members, and the organization of conferences, seminars and workshops to discuss family issues.