Baghdad, Iraq — February 18, 2010 — One of the most effective ways to improve day-to-day life in Iraq is to empower communities to make their own decisions and shape their own future. And since roughly 20 percent of Iraqis are between the ages of 15 and 25, one of the most effective ways to empower communities is to empower their youth.

With that in mind, International Relief & Development’s Community Action Program III (CAP III) has begun helping small groups of college students improve their leadership skills. Forty students from different universities across Baghdad and Baquba were nominated by their local Community Action Groups (CAGs) to take part in a Student Leadership Program on Advocacy and Public Participation. Run in conjunction with The American University of Iraq-Sulaimani, the first of five planned trainings was held in late January and early February.

Each five-day training is designed to help students become more aware of the value of public involvement while simultaneously developing leadership and communication skills, such as critical thinking and public speaking, that can be transferred to the various situations in which they will find themselves as active members of their communities.

“It has been more successful than we imagined,” said training instructor Ellen Welty. “We actually had to cut things short because they wanted to continue talking and come together to create solutions.”

The training used methods that most of Iraqi students were not used to in a classroom, such as working groups and role play. “The training was very enthusiastic and encouraging,” said 21-year-old Bassam Jerry Dawood from Al-Ma’amoon University. “We could freely express our ideas and opinions.”

Many of the students have said they are excited to use the skills they have learned. “I have learned that each single member of the community can be an active person and can make changes and achieve something useful for others” said 21-year-old Farah Ayad, a medical student at Al-Mustanseriya University. “I also think that I became more confident of my ability to speak in public.”

“When I return to Baghdad I am going to contact my colleagues and friends to plan for certain projects using topics I have learned in the training,” said 20-year-old Ibrahim Mohammed Idris from Nahrin University. “We will try to do some volunteer work in our neighborhood like a cleaning campaign.”

CAP III is a two-year, $56.1 million project in Baghdad and Baquba fostering democratic principles at the grassroots level. IRD brings together Iraqi citizens into CAGs and then gives them the opportunity to work together with local governments to prioritize and communicate community needs such as repairing health clinics and schools or distributing wheelchairs to the disabled.