Ahmed Mohyi is a structural designer at an Egyptian multi-national company based in Cairo. He loves to travel and to be involved in volunteering work. In June 2019 he took part in a Virtual Exchange project on the topic of Cyberbullying.
“I was annoyingly rejected from an actual Erasmus+ mobility programme activity last year,'' explains Ahmed. “But I didn’t want to give up and ended up contacting the Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange team. I explained what had happened and that I wanted to do something related to the project in my country – maybe set up a branch of Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange for a future collaboration. I told them how few opportunities exist in Egypt for youth programmes. After some weeks the team contacted me again to tell me I could participate in the Cyberbullying Virtual Exchange training”.
“Some in my group had already been involved in an Erasmus+ programme activity in another country,” he continues, “and I was the only Egyptian in the group. I met people from Turkey, Romania and the UK too.”
“It was a beautiful experience, to discover myself and talk to people from so many different countries. I learned that the problem of Cyberbullying is an issue everywhere. We are all human after all, and even if we are from different countries, we share the same problems.
“I learned about myself on this Virtual Exchange. I learned that I am a social person, that I am curious and like to find out about other nationalities. I love talking to new people and I think most importantly, that I am actually quite self-confident.”
“We all shared out opinions about the different types of Cyberbullying that exist and talked about how to deal with it. My focus was especially on how it affects children. It was really eye-opening. The atmosphere was fantastic in our virtual space and I felt like an ambassador for my country.
“I would definitely recommend to my friends to do something like this although they might have different interests. They might prefer climate change topics, media or something like that.
“My perspective has changed since I did this training. I have started to look around me and I try to stop Cyberbullying by using my opinions and what I have learned. I am taking it out into the community to try and make a difference”.
