OUR STORIES

Here you’ll find stories from across the Taqaddam community, as well as programme news

Putting Life Skills into Action

Taqaddam was such a good experience to go through it. I will be very honest and spontaneous writing this paragraph, without being formal or without overreacting! I can see how I am different now. I feel more confident and I can share my ideas easily. Let me share a short story with you, in my [...]

Overcoming Fears

“Being a part of the Taqaddam community has helped shape my character in more ways than I predicted. I would describe myself as introverted, yet I was able to comfortably socialize with people and engage in conversations with them due to the skills I developed. For two years, I had an irrational fear of public [...]

Girls Speak Out

Three is the Magic Number

Three is the Magic Number Three is the magic number. Yes, it is, it’s the magic number. Or at least that is what it feels like in the world of Taqaddam, as we stretch into this year’s training and workshop events. Magic is in the air as the Taqaddam teams – the British Council, HSBC [...]

Lucky To Be Young

Lucky To Be Young Mohammed Sweid, a high school student from the south of Lebanon reckons he is lucky to be young because it gives him a chance to learn on programmes like Taqqadam. Nadine Saassouh, a teacher who attended the teacher training course this year, agrees. They reflect on their learning experience on Taqqadam [...]

Change Starts With Us All

Change starts with us all While Taqaddam helps develop real skills to help young people navigate their way in the world, one of its most important lessons is that we all have potential to make change happen – if we are equipped with the right skills. Sameh, an HSBC volunteer on the recent Taqaddam programme [...]

Month of May Celebrations

Month of May Celebrations May has been a wonderful month for Taqaddam! We’ve worked with 2,000 students across MENA regions. 29,700 ONLINE MISSIONS COMPLETED BY STUDENTS Taqaddam became winners of the Ta’atheer Best CSR Impact Award for 2017 (If you can’t see what is below hit the refresh button) [View the story “Celebrations all round!” […]

Taqaddam comes to Oman

Taqaddam comes to Oman The thing about Oman is ... it is a little bit different. Lewis and Anna from the Taqaddam project team tell us why. What is different about the Taqaddam programme in Oman? Oman was unique for a number of reasons, the main reason being that all the students taking part in [...]

Taqaddam in April

April Taqaddam Storify Want to know what has been happening with Taqaddam throughout the month of March 2017? You have come to the right place! We have been in Egypt, Bahrain and Kuwait running workshop two and MAKE IT HAPPEN SHOWCASES. Lots of great things and positivity but don’t just take our word for it, […]

On the ground in Lebanon

On the ground in Lebanon During the second year of the Taqaddam programme, workshops are taking place in seven countries to over 2,000 people. Lebanon is the only country to have a local facilitator who co-delivers the workshops alongside a Spark+Mettle facilitator from the UK. We asked Eva-Maria Ghanem, a member of the British Council [...]

March in MENA with Taqaddam

Find out about some of the things that we have been up to in the Month of March with Taqaddam. Highlights included: Launching Taqaddam in two countries, Lebanon and Oman. Working with just under 1000 young people Taqaddam workshop 2 planning day.  (If you can’t see anything below you may need to refresh the page) […]

A facilitator’s Taqaddam journey

A facilitator’s Taqaddam journey Seyi Akiwowo, shares her experiences of facilitating Taqaddam workshops in UAE and Bahrain. As I write this post it has been 264 hours (11 days) since I delivered six Taqaddam workshops to a total of 600 students in UAE and Bahrain – and I’m still buzzing from the fantastic experience! From strength [...]

Teacher training in year two of Taqaddam

Teacher training in year two of Taqaddam We learned so much from the first year of Taqaddam giving us a real opportunity to develop and improve the experience for students and teachers alike. Anna Rowlands, Project Manager for Taqaddam, tells us how teacher training can support teachers delivering the programme in the classroom. Most of [...]

Taqaddam In February

A Snapshot of Taqaddam in February Taqaddam has been busy this February a brief snapshot in numbers: 4 Countries 13 Student Workshops 5 Teacher Workshops 1200 Students Reached

Moving forward: Taqaddam returns to Egypt

Moving forward: Taqaddam returns to Egypt Taqaddam 2017 has officially kicked off with our facilitators Lewis and Caroline flying out to Egypt. Three student workshops were delivered and this year teachers took part in a workshop of their very own. 12 teachers took part in teacher training. 340 students joined Workshop 1. Seven student ambassadors [...]

Taqaddam Future Ideas Spotlight – Qatar Winners!

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 […]

Taqaddam Future Innovation Ideas – Qatar

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 […]

Journey of a Taqaddam facilitator

What’s it like to actually go on these trips?  it’s an amazing opportunity to step into a new culture,  it can be exciting, joyful, occasionally stressful but always full of (good) challenges to overcome. We’re lucky to work with amazingly experienced facilitators and great local support staff at the British Council and HSBC, but the […]

Taqaddam: Delivering in Dubai and Beirut

I’m proud to say I had a wonderful time helping to deliver the first Taqaddam workshop in the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, an experience which was of course immensely terrifying and enormously exciting all at the same time! The Taqaddam workshops are being delivered across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where […]

Taqaddam Kicks Off in Qatar

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? […]

Taqaddam launches in Egypt

Taqaddam launches in Egypt Having witnessed the Taqaddam programme evolve from scratch over the past six months, it was a truly incredible experience to see the delivery of Taqaddam, in the project lead’s country—Egypt. Together with two of our talented facilitators, Naomi and Ped, I travelled from the UK to Cairo, excited to see what […]