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INSIDE AMCHAM
INJAZ Program
Good corporate citizenship has always been part of the AmCham corporate culture, and the Chamber prefers to lead by example. In 2006, it became one of a dozen companies in Egypt to participate in the INJAZ program, a community development initiative to teach Egyptian youth a variety of life and business skills to help empower them to succeed in the future.
AmCham’s management encourages staff to volunteer for the program as it recognizes the dual benefits of participation: not only does INJAZ allow the Chamber to contribute to the community’s development, it is an opportunity for AmCham staff to develop their own skills and self-confidence.
INJAZ is a non-profit organization that engages educators, business leaders and policymakers to help enhance the skills of youth and provide greater opportunities for them to succeed in the job market or as entrepreneurs. The program is designed to allow private sector employees to mentor students aged 12 to 21 by delivering tailored curricula that provide them with the qualities they need to succeed in today’s business community. The curricula are designed to give students the entrepreneurial qualities they will need in their future, such as communication, self-confidence, analytical thinking and leadership.
Each semester, six to 10 AmCham staff volunteer one hour a week to deliver the INJAZ program curricula at the Abdel Nasser Preparatory School in Mohandiseen. INJAZ provides the volunteers the curricula as well as workbooks the students use, while it is up to the volunteers to determine how they will deliver each week’s class. The volunteers are encouraged to communicate with the students and use interactive activities and team-building exercises to deliver the materials and encourage classroom participation.
While the curriculum itself is fairly simple to deliver, dealing with the students can be somewhat intimidating. Not only are the volunteers expected to complete the curricula, they are also required to find different ways to deal with their classes both as individuals and as a group. The program runs for six to eight weeks every semester.
The level to which students interact with the INJAZ instructor depends on the volunteer’s ability to create an environment where participation is welcome and where they feel comfortable enough to make suggestions and ask questions. As the weeks progress, a bond often develops between the students and the volunteer.
For the volunteers, INJAZ provides several opportunities to further develop their own skills. For one thing, they develop their creative thinking as they are required to come up with creative ways to interact with their class every week. Moreover, it develops their own leadership skills, as well as their ability to interact with teenagers. But most of all, it’s the ability to provide young Egyptians with a greater understanding of the workings of the world beyond the confines of their daily routine that is most rewarding.
This interaction often allows the volunteers to remember their own teen years and how their lives at the time seemed complicated. But with their knowledge of the complications that come with growing up and with facing the real world, they are often the best candidates to guide young Egyptians and to give them the tools they will need in the future to deal with their own challenges.
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