IN ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY, A NEW START OF “DREAMERS OF TOMORROW” IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Cairo:

In the premises of “Dreamers of Tomorrow” (DoT) Association, Garden City (Downtown Cairo), a bilateral meeting was held between Dr. Hossam Badrawi, thinker and politician, and Mohamed Mostafa Aboshama, journalist. The meeting discussed the importance of activating the role of the long-established and deeply-rooted association in the civil activity field, in order to keep pace with the state’s aspirations and trends towards the youth file, in a way that complies with President Al Sisi’s initiatives and intellectual ideas that were evolved through youth conferences regularly held under the slogan of “Innovate, Advance.”

The meeting that coincides with the association preparation for 20^th anniversary commemoration of its establishment discussed the need to form an advisory board that promotes for the association ideas, projects and dreams over the upcoming stage, which should go along with the battle of destiny that Egypt’s army and people encounter to emerge from the circle of successive crises built up over the last years.

“No Egyptian lover of his country can stand idly by at this difficult stage. Each of us must serve the country as much as we can. This is our role .. this is our destiny. We always strive to support and deep-root the concepts of belonging, patriotism, moderation, freedom, citizenship and other values that were corrupted by the climate of extremism that surrounds us all over the world,” Badrawi pointed out.

The association launch comes out of the belief of its founders in the vital role that civil activity plays in completing the development process pursued by the state. This framework is one of the most principles of (DoT) and forms a fundamental pillar adopted by the association since it was founded by Dr. Badrawi 20 years ago, along with a distinctive group of youth leaders led by Mohamed Aboshama. The association was recognized in 1998, launched a conference in the first of September of the same year under the patronage of the (then) Prime Minister Dr. Kamal Ganzouri.

Aboshama smiles recalling the slogan of the first conference “Space for Enlightenment .. and Call to Change”, in which he was a member of its higher organizational committee. “We have waited for change for many years afterwards, till we were plunged into despair and lost our enlightenment project. My generation role to effectively contribute to building its future as it dreams about was lost. But the following generation survived the power of depression and triggered first and second revolutions, both of them inspired previous and upcoming generations much. Despite the negative effects of this mobility, along with the dreadful extremism frenzy hitting the world and other many factors that deprived all generations of the anticipated harvest, the momentum of experiments encumbered us all and inspired us with the need to participate. That is what we try to achieve through returning to (DoT),” Aboshama said.

The first (DoT) board meeting was chaired by Dr. Badrawi, while Mohamed Aboshama was the secretary general, before they gradually withdraw after a few years, leaving management to generations to come. They followed up the association activities as founding members, though Badrawi’s patronage continues. His contribution to public activity varied between political (parliamentary and party) and civil activity (through activities of civil societies in various fields including health, education and youth). On the other hand, Aboshama turned to journalism, literature and art.

Dr. Badrawi concluded, “I call on all optimists about the future to share with us the formulation of our dreams of tomorrow, to interact with an experiment in which generations are intertwined and disciplines and cultures are integrated, for which we selected slogan (“Dreamers of Tomorrow”, Tahya_Masr#). We pray it will produce intellectual outputs and youth experiments that will effectively contribute to the civil mobility that the state aspires to.”

“Dreamers of Tomorrow” is a civil association for youth development. In the document of their first conference in September 1998, its young members defined themselves as a liberal youth movement calling for supporting the state to build a better future with the hands of its youth through enhancing the civil (non-governmental) activity. The association main objectives include motivating and activating the public opinion regarding the youth issues and assuring the vitality of their role in decision making, leading the dialogue among the different youth trends to deepen the idea of democracy as a way of life and offering projects and initiatives to empower youth active participation and calling on local civil institutions to sponsor it.

First DoT conference developed a specific vision in 100 aspects that indicate the working mechanisms and moving to achieve the association objectives in youth development. Throughout its life term, almost 20 years, the association has been striving to achieve acceptable results in all aspects through its different activities and projects. The aspects were as follows:

1. Self-discovery and communication with the other who is different.
2. Influence of untraditional education upon youth development.
3. Planning youth working life between approach and method.
4. Marriage between the accumulation of the inherited and the problems of reality.
5. Democracy as a way of life, a renewed vision.
6. Challenges of teamwork within civil sector system.
7. Renewing the youth culture towards building creative and effective future elite.
8. Seeking a new vision to activate youth participation in political life.
9. Role of Muslim and Coptic youth in promoting for the national fabric.
10. The scientific community and the absence of the new century requirements.