Zinab is a 29 year-old young women from Egypt. She is a Master's student in English Language and Literature at Cairo University, she is also a post-graduate in Media and Literary Translation from the American University in Cairo.
Zinab has been working for a number of high-level institutions as well as organisations. She worked as a teaching assistant at Culture and Science High Institute of Languages (October 6 University), also as an interpreter at UNHCR and as a gender advocator at UN Women Egypt. Zinab is a very active alumni of the EU-funded programme Young Mediterranean Voices and Erasmus+ Virtual Echange. She joined the first Euro-Med Onlive Debate Competition as a Team Leader and she recently took part in the second Online Competition as a Trainer and Adjudicator.
As part of Zinab tasks as an Ambassador she took part in the #EU4YOUth Campus Tour in Egypt in February 2020 and she participated in the International Women's day at the Spanish Embassy in Egypt, introducing the Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange project to the Spanish Ambassador.
“I introduced Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange as an alternative space for women to express themselves and voice their opinions. More specifically, I highlighted the Debate Exchange Activity as an empowering tool for integrating young women in decision making processes and an opportunity for them to communicate cross-culturally across the globe” Zinab stated.
For Zinab, the best part of her experience was when she introduced the project to university students, especially at her own Unniversity.
“The energy and enthusiasm students showed was highly overwhelming and unexpected. I realised that English Language students need such projects to enhance their language skills and media competences”, she highlighted. “The Debate Exchange Activity offers an integrated space to exchange ideas with peers from across the globe to learn how to co-create a narrative of peace and co-existence, challenge hate speech and extremism and provide innovative solutions for the pressing challenges in the region” Zinab continues.
“My role as a project Ambassador in Egypt was a step forward in the field of social development and civic education in collaboration with different European projects. I have learned how to provide mediation and conflict resolutions through online intercultural debates and dialogues. I am also proud that I helped in providing online channels for youth from hard-to-reach communities to speak up and connect with their peers from all around the globe virtually!”
Last but not least, Zinab ensures:“Being and ambassador has equipped me with the capacity needed to advocate for youth engagement and enhance our role in implementing the UN's Youth, Peace and Security Agenda on national and multinational level, through my personal initiative in peace-building. For these reasons, I would highly recommend the Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange Ambassador's track for everyone who's willing to take real action. It helped me to acquire new tools to contribute in shaping policy perspectives and drive real change by strengthening citizen-to-citizen relationships, and by not only mobilising existing communities but also by building new ones”, she concludes
