Arab Adolescents Forum Welcomes Youth to Tunisia

The 2023 Arab Adolescent Forum is taking place in Tunisia this week, from the 3rd to the 4th of October. The Forum is set to build a regional movement as a “Call to Action” for Adolescents to mobilise political and financial commitment for better policies, programmes, and financing to address young people's and adolescents' different needs.

The Forum is a hybrid event allowing young people to join the event on-site and participate in some sessions virtually.  The Youth Coalition has three youth leaders attending the Forum on-site. Our delegates include Noor, Zahran, Sana’a Khasawneh, and Youstina Ebeid.

MEET OUR DELEGATES:

NOOR ZAHRAN

Noor is an architect with a passion for Metaverse, 3D modelling and road safety advocacy, She holds a degree in architecture and a keen interest in the impact of spatial planning on human experience and behaviour. She seeks simple yet creative designs, and I believe that technology and design should work hand in hand to create beautiful and functional virtual reality spaces.

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Youstina Ebeid

Youstina Ebeid is a Junior Project Manager at the Nada Foundation for Safer Egyptian Roads where they serve road safety, safe and active mobility causes. The organization’s goals intersect with various agendas such as climate change, public health, gender, and more. She tends to employ all the theoretical and practical knowledge she’s gained to promote social inclusion and manifest a society where all youth are heard, entitled, and empowered.

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Sana’a Khasawneh

Sana'a Khasawneh is the Advocacy and Campaigns Manager at YOURS. She is an architect with a master's degree in road safety management. Sana'a has a contagious enthusiasm for walkable cities and youth-driven development. She is driven by her passion to make a good impact in the world. She also serves as the Ambassador for the European Year for Youth.

Apart from attending the Forum, our delegates are leading an online session titled “Safer Roads, Brighter You: Elevating Well-Being Through Road Safety.” The session aims to spotlight the gravity of road safety as a public health issue with a particular focus on youth from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. 

The session will explore contributing factors that result in road crashes and analyse the challenges specific to the MENA region. It will also allow participants to explore innovative strategies that will address road traffic crashes and lessen the toll it has on the lives and well-being of youth and other vulnerable road users.

Through the session, our delegates will help provide a platform to raise awareness, exchange best practices, and ignite collective action to foster safer roads in the MENA Region and beyond.

The goal of the session is to emphasize the linkages between road safety and sustainability as targets under SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being. It will encourage youth to start discussions on how individuals and communities can improve road safety so it can enhance public health and improve the state of the environment. 

It will also help mobilise Arab adolescents to advocate for safer roads, build their capacity to understand road safety and its connection with the SDGs, raise awareness on the reality of road traffic crashes in the MENA Region and the role of youth in addressing it, and showcase case studies of road safety projects in the region.