Over a seven week period over a thousand students across 6 countries in the Middle East and North Africa worked with their teachers and with the Taqaddam online platform to develop their character strengths and soft skills. Alongside this students worked as teams to develop an innovative idea that would help solve a problem that they had identified regarding the environment, health or their community. Now, Spark+Mettle are showcasing some of the fantastic ideas that arose from each country.

Country: Qatar
School name: Al Wakra Independent School
Idea: “Solar Powered Air Conditioning in Public Transport ”

It was agreed unanimously that the boys from Al Wakra Independent School were the winners at our Qatar Competition day. It was a hard decision for the judges as the efforts of all teams were visible; everyone presented bravely, with confidence and all teams had brilliantly unique ideas.

Al Wakra started by showing the video you can see above. They then explained how their idea would work. This team focused on workers in their country, mainly non-Qatari nationals, that are at the centre of all construction work in Qatar. With preparations for the World Cup in 2020 there is a massive amount of development being done. While Qatar has a car ownership rate of 2.5 cars per person, most of these workers rely on public transport to commute. The high congestion problems means that their buses are often late and, combined with the extreme heat of the region, many of these workers can be waiting in absolutely exhausting temperatures for an hour before even starting their working day.

The team’s solution was to use solar power (an energy source that is abundant in Qatar!) to power large fans in bus shelters and also on the buses. The team had built a model to show how this could work in theory, using a solar reactive diode and a PC fan.

The judges felt they deserved to be winners for a combination of reasons. Not only did their idea use an innovative way of applying existing technology to a problematic situation but it also solved a problem that is commonly ignored. The team themselves also embodied the character strengths perfectly. Most visibly were positive emotions, purpose and mettle – they had a number of technical difficulties during the presentation but they stayed calm and persevered. At the end of the presentation the team revealed that their original video had been wiped by accident so they had re-shot and re-edited a new one on the way to the competition!

Taqaddam Qatar – Al Wakra Independent School from Lewis Greener on Vimeo.

Over 7 weeks 1200 students across 6 countries worked with their teachers and with the Taqaddam online platform to develop their character strengths and skills. Alongside this they worked in teams to develop a Future Innovation idea that would help solve a problem that they had identified regarding the environment, health or their community. Here we showcase some of the ideas from each of the participating countries.

Country: Qatar
School name: Amna Bent Wahab Secondary School
Idea: “Inhale positivity, exhale anxiety”

This team showed a real understanding of the Taqaddam character strengths. What was really special was the way they applied the strengths to their own lives and the experiences of young people in Qatar. They showed how it can be hard to understand your strengths without support and they covered the consequences of not having the opportunity to explore these ideas and feelings. They discussed how social anxiety is a big problem for young people today.

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To try and solve these issues they designed a social centre for young people that would blend physical and social activities with support from mentors and junior health workers. Their informal but consistent support programme provides for young people on their path to becoming young adults, discovering how to navigate the world around them.

What was really special for me was that they brought the idea to life with a number of visual tools – through their presentation and 3D image of the centre.

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You can check out the design for their centre here: https://home.by.me/en/project/nashwa_15/nashwa-cafe-146455

And their full presentation here: https://prezi.com/gxvvise4ebro/copy-of-social-anxiety/

Travelling to Qatar to deliver the first Taqaddam workshops, I was both excited and nervous. Qatar was a long way from home and I had no idea what to expect. My head was full of questions about what holding this first Taqaddam workshop would be like: would the students be enthusiastic? Would the workshop be a success? Only time would tell.

My co-facilitator Dan and I spent two days in Qatar working with groups of 15-16 year olds from various local schools. The schools are segregated so we delivered to a group of young men on one day, followed by a group of young women on the second day. The workshop helped the young people to identify and articulate their character strengths. I focused on creativity, what it means and how we can incorporate it successfully into a satisfying and inspiring future.

Interestingly, there were some apparent differences between the boys and girls’ approach to the workshop. Broadly speaking, the boys responded more competitively and the girls more cooperatively. The boys even asked me if they had done better than the girls in their workshop! Of course I told them the truththat both groups were great, in different ways.

I was truly touched by the girls’ sense of community and their desire to share resources with one another. One young woman revealed that she wanted to be a human rights lawyer, specialising particularly in women’s rights. Another expressed her dream to solve the issue of sustainable energy for the planet.

There was a strong sense of energy and vitality coming from the boys’ group. They were very humorous but remained polite and conscientious throughout. While the discussion began quite lightly and they expressed how proud of their schools they are, the reflections they eventually shared about their thoughts on creativity were genuinely humble.

There was a real sense in the workshops that, in today’s society, we may be lacking the ability to truly listen, trust and learn from one another. A feeling of connection is essential for creativity to flourish in the wider community.

One thing that particularly stood out was how creativity means finding the characteristic about yourself that makes you special and stand out, and how we should not be afraid of being judged. One participant said he realised that, while he hadn’t thought of himself as creative prior to the workshop, he now knew he was creative because he was a problem-solver.

Of course, creativity is essential for cooperative problem-solving, and both groups quickly caught on to the idea that creativity is not exclusive, nor does it require a rare originality unavailable to most people. Creativity is taking something very simple that already exists, and making it your own, making it extraordinary.

I felt uplifted and inspired after the workshopspurred on by the hope, intelligence and confidence exhibited by the young people taking part, and the sense of connection that we built together. It was an honour to see them paving the way for a creative, bright future.

 

Reflections by Priya Ghai