| A woman who wants to change
By Maryam Raafat Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:43:53 PM
Unlike
many young people who spend most of their time sitting in front of a
computer screen browsing social network pages and chatting, 21-year-old
blogger Heba Sami has decided to play an active role in the process of
change.
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| Yes we can: Heba Samy sitting with a group of youth during one of her unique salons. | |
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Heba, a lecturer in self-development, is the founder of a social and cultural salon called Awez Atghyar (I Want to Change).
The whole idea started four years ago when Heba founded a Facebook group
called ‘I Want to Change’. She was then in her first year at college,
she was totally focused on her studies.
“I chose the name ‘I Want to Change’, because young people have an inner desire to change,” she explains.
During her first year at college, Heba dreamt of being a journalist and
this prompted her to do a lot of training courses, helping her to make
connections with people in different fields.
She then converted the Facebook group into a special blog, where she
posts her own writings and topics and also others’ writings.
Next, she added new service in her blog called ‘Market Yourself’, where
she asks people to post their curricula vitae, so that she can help them
find jobs.
“I
thought why not move the idea of change and development from the
virtual world to the real world, so, a year ago, I launched my salon, ‘I
Want to Change’,” Heba recalls.
She has succeeded in making the salon unique. It is like a big gathering
of all kinds of people from different backgrounds with different dreams
and opinions, allowing them to share their experiences and express
themselves freely.
“It is like a huge brainstorming of different ideas, offering young
people new chances,” explains Heba, who is always delighted to host
young people who can affect others’ lives positively.
At
the first salon, held in March 2012 in Al-Azhar Park, Heba hosted young
people working in self-development training and other fields, such as
electronic journalism.
The salon, that lasted a day, also hosted the Friends of Zewail City for Science and Technology.
“About 100 people turned up for the event and I started the day by
getting everyone to introduce themselves, in order to break the ice and
for people to get themselves noticed, so that they might find new
chances,” she says.
Heba believes that it is very easy for young people to talk about their
weak points, but more difficult for them to talk about their strong
ones.
For this reason, one of her salon’s most important aims is for people to
rediscover themselves, as well as becoming aware of their dreams and
how to achieve them.
“Exposing
youth to successful and positive people makes them feel that their
dream is not impossible – it just needs faith and hard work,” Heba
stresses.
Her ‘I Want to Change’ salon, also hosts artists such as poets and singers, who help enrich the positive atmosphere.
The second time that Heba held her salon was last July in the Saad
Zaghloul Museum, where, under the slogan ‘Start with Yourself’, she
hosted Hussein Wali, a motivational expert.
“Because of all the unrest in the country, it was very important to
stress the idea that change starts when people stop complaining and
decide to be part of the solution,” she comments.
At
the third salon, held last January under the slogan of ‘You and I are
Changing’, Heba hosted author Ihab Moawad who usually writes books about
the relationships between men and women.
Heba has held her salon four times over the past year, although she was
to hold 12 by this March. She had to cancel many of the events, because
of the violence in the streets. Her fourth salon was held last Thursday
in Nasr City, and it was about the women’s role in the Arab Spring.
Her salons have taught her many things about the young Egyptians.
“Most of them lack the full confidence and belief that they can achieve
their goals, although they have the potential, while others don’t know
what exactly they want,” she explains.
Heba’s
dream in the long run is to establish a huge charity foundation for all
people, without any discrimination on the grounds of religion, colour
or nationality.
To read it At gazzate Newspaper http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=28907&title=A | |
