Community Initiative Summit promotes power of volunteerism in society

AMMAN — Volunteerism, social responsibility and community service are highlighted by young Jordanians as the pillar of unity, kindness and togetherness in society, organisers of the Jordan Community Initiative Summit said on Tuesday.

Aimed at promoting volunteerism by creating a network between volunteers and initiative founders in Jordan, the event aimed at boosting collaboration between those groups and the Youth Exchange and Study (YES) programme alumni, and at creating a unified workforce of volunteers to change the perspective on volunteerism in society, said organiser Zain Shehadeh.

“This summit seeks to promote not only volunteerism but also the importance of initiatives that are genuinely creating a difference in the community… we try to spread the love of volunteerism everywhere we go, the love of kindness and togetherness,” Shehadeh stated.

Organiser Abdollah Rababah, 24, said: “We are looking forward to future events where all these initiatives will work together and collaborate, as we are watering the seed of social responsibility.”

After returning from their exchange programmes in the US, she said volunteers “kept the community service commitment with them”, and used the skills and experience learned to implement it through social work in Jordan.

“[The initiative founders] have been working in the same field but do not know each other, they have so much potential for [creating] something new, with all the good force the YES programme gives and what the alumni are doing to bridge the gaps in that arena,” Rababah, who went on an exchange programme to the US in 2009, told The Jordan Times.

For Shehadeh, who was a YES exchange student in 2013, “It is the simplest things that can inspire a person. When you ask a successful person what was that thing that clicked, it can be the simplest things in the simplest places.”

One of the initiatives that took part in the meeting was “Little Volunteer”, established when Zeina Asfour went on a quest to find voluntary work for children. 

“My daughters were three and one, and I wanted to get them involved in voluntary work; however, I figured out that there were not enough opportunities for this age group,” she recounted, stressing “I believe that not only can children make a change, they can lead the change.”

Asfour initiated her idea through Facebook, gathering over 1,000 followers in the first 24 hours. “This is much higher than what I had in mind,” she said, noting that she aims to raise children’s sense of responsibility towards the community.

Operating under the “I’m Responsible” and “Draw a Smile” umbrellas, the initiative gives children a chance to learn to act responsibly towards their country, community, nature and others, and to provide gifts to other children in need. 

Leen Asfour, a 6-year-old volunteer, said: “I planted three trees to help a girl undergo a surgery yesterday. I feel happy when I help other people and see them happy.”

For her part Hiba Hmeidan co-founded the “Khosal” initiative in April 2016 to provide human hair locks to cancer patients, due to the high rates of cancer in Jordan.

“We came up with the idea when a woman asked how to donate her hair to cancer patients,” Hmeidan recounted, stating “our message is ‘you are not alone, different, or any less of a human. You are going through a war and we will help you survive it’”. 

The initiative currently receives over 100 locks of hair per month from Jordan, Greece, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the US.

Khosal volunteer Shayma Abu Kishek said there is at least one volunteer at every public university across the Kingdom, who is in charge of collecting the donations for patients. 

Bahaa Saleh, president of YES, also known as the Kennedy-Lugar programme, said the project started operating in Jordan in 2003, with a group of 10th and 11th grade students. The programme is funded by the US Department of State, which offers scholarships to students from Muslim-majority countries for one academic year in the US.