Entrants's Name: Esra'a Al Shafei

Country: Bahrain

Field: Citizen/Community Participation

Innovation - idea: We are a diverse group of young students, bloggers, and activists who strive for coexistence through democracy and democracy through coexistence. Arabs, Iranians, and Israelis post side-by-side to prove the fact that moderation, interfaith understanding, and sanity does exist in the region.

Innovation - why it is pioneering: We are working hard to build a group of people who can discuss the ticklish issues of religion and politics in a region of the world where these kinds of discussions can be severely limited by the lack of free speech and by pre- conceived notions of what is right and what is wrong. We are endeavoring to move beyond this to create a forum where we can confront each other in productive ways.

Strategy - how it achieves impact: The diverse Mideast Youth team launches campaigns for people within the region, especially youth activists, who do not have the resources or contacts required to initiate campaigns. Through such campaigns, we mainly promote freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and the free flow of information.

Our campaigns are completely independent - paid for, programmed, designed, written, and publicised by the Mideast Youth team. This is proof of the fact that average young people from the region can actually inspire and contribute to change. However due to the increasing number of campaigns and projects, funding is required to keep doing this for free in order to help other individuals to make their voices heard through our technical help and financial support. Many simply don't have the finances required to develop their ideas and projects, and we are striving to change that by giving them what they need in order to get involved and contribute to their co

Strategy - growth plans: Despite the fact that it has only been 6 months since our website was launched, we managed to gather its participants and organize protests and campaigns, many of which have been successful within a very short time span. The results so far have inspired us to keep working harder, although financial limits are beginning to stand in our way to succeed and grow the way we'd like to. In the future, our plans include having various offices in the Middle East representing us, even though many of us are still college students. The founder of Mideast Youth, also a student, is currently looking to rent a small office in Bahrain in order to provide a physical meeting place for youth activists and other Mideast Youth participants in the region. The goal is to allow activists with no internet access to be able to participate in our network in various different ways, including through our radio which we already began working on.

Impact to date: The founders and editors of Mideast Youth travel all over the Middle East and Europe attending conferences about free speech, leadership, and regional issues. Through such conferences, we managed to inspire and teach other young individuals how to successfully lead projects and campaigns. Most of our writers were people who did not realize the power of our network before being exposed to our strategies and campaign work, which gave them the faith and inspiration to join us in order to make a positive difference in the region.

Future impact: Through the force of our example, communication strategies in the Middle East would have changed. Youth empowerment will is key to our success, and thus we believe that the youth in the region will be politically and socially motivated to get involved in the rapid change of our countries. Mideast Youth will recognized as the voice that spoke for the millions in the region who were never given a voice before, including migrant workers, young prostitutes who were forced into their jobs, and Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Iran, all of which do not have official campaigns set up for them. However we already began working on setting up campaigns for them and have published podcasts discussing these serious matters. If we keep developing such campaigns for the next 10 years, we will be a powerful force for change within the region.

Sustainability - resource base: Thus far, our only source for income is the sales of the products we design on our website as well as donations from those who support our work.

Major challenge for the field: Major challenges include public recognition, being able to successfully reach out to our target audience, complying with the laws in our countries which limit our freedoms to discuss certain things in depth, and the financial limits keeping us from expanding our network and services.

Contact Information:

Name: Ms. Esra'a Al Shafei - Student
Country: Bahrain
Website: www.mideastyouth.com

Bio: I have been inspired by my personal experiences involving the lack of freedom of speech in my country. I find it very unhealthy how my society is being taught by political elites, media outlets, and educational institutions to be intolerant of not only other religions, but also other opinions expressed, political, social, and otherwise. I'm currently a student in college, and I take it as an opportunity to increase my understanding in the region especially in regards to politics, communication, and history. Encouraged by my Bosnian professor, I co-authored with her in an article which will be featured in the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures.

I dedicate most of my time and invest a lot of finances in the Mideast Youth project. Mideast Youth is an online magazine and a group blog where young people get to share their socio-political commentaries. We believe youth activism is key to a stable future. Other key projects include The Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network, where we also acknowledge and support religious minorities and their rights, especially Jewish Arabs and Baha'is in the region. We also provide free domain names, hosting, and web design to organizations that promote liberal ideas in an effort to support their cause and encourage them to work consistenly towards it the way we do. Needless to say, this takes up almost all of my time, especially since it includes traveling to relevant conferences in various parts of the world.

I am currently organizing a conference about Women, Freedom of Expression, and the Middle East which will take place in Switzerland (July) where other Mideast Youth participants might attend as well as various other well established human rights activits, writers, film makers, and professors.