05 Dec 2013

الريادية جيدا جمال

 

                             Reyady Student Leadership Challenge

Hey there,

Let me first start by giving a brief introduction about who I am. I am Jaida Gamal, 21, a senior student at the American University in Cairo, AUC. I study business administration with concentration in Finance and a minor in Mathematics. During the three years I spent at AUC, I have joined several activities on and off campus. I will list them in an order that shows you the intellectual transformations I have been through.

During my first year at college, I had this urge to serve the community surrounding me, as I have always felt that I share part of the responsibility of the hard conditions they are living. Among many students, we believed that high quality education is key. We believed that providing education for the uneducated children will not only make it a bit easier for them to find a job, but it will also enhance their critical thinking skills which will safe them falling prey to many people including politicians. I went to Ein El Sera, on a weekly basis, to give Arabic lessons to the children aging from 8 to 14. I stayed for almost months and then I quit.

I just found out that I can’t just do the role of the government and watch the people in charge wasting the resources of the country for their pleasure. This is when I decided to go into politics.

In 2009, Dr Mohamed El Baradei has stated that he would like to come back to Egypt and take part in the political scene through establishing a campaign with a mission to amend the constitution through changing 7 specific articles. In the beginning we thought that it would be hard to attract volunteers to our campaign due to many reasons. Fear of getting into political activities, unawareness of their rights, and negativity were the main reasons behind the unwillingness of the young to join our campaign. However, after the “معا سنغير” campaign gained so much fame, the situation became as different as the number of applicants increased significantly.

However, another challenge faced us, which in my opinion was the hardest, when it came to organizing and managing hundreds of people all over Egypt, not only Cairo. This lack of communication not only made some volunteers de-motivated to work, but it also diluted the efforts of the other volunteers who were keen to work till the very last moment.

My big dream is to see Egypt a strong independent country and a place where justice and equality are everywhere. I still believe that change is possible if we just unite our efforts and let our goal be targeted towards the young educated people. I hope to someday start a club that would be able to help the youth to know more about their rights and help them become active in the political activities, regardless of our ideology.
Thank you,
Jaida Gamal