“The question is, not only what have I achieved, the question is what have I helped others to achieve? That is the notion of social conscience in Islam.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
Press Conference, Maputo, Mozambique, August 1998
What can we do for others? What are their needs? How can we, the youth, play a vital role in helping others? These were some of the questions that came to the forefront in the minds of our youth over the last year, in the communities of Al Ain and Abu Dhabi.
The noble spirit of rendering service is grounded in the ethics of Islam. All things in God’s creation have value, including human beings. We are reminded in the Quran that we are indeed the Khalifa, the vicegerents or trustees of God’s creation. Hence, we as human beings have a very special status, and with that we implicitly have the weighted responsibility to be the caretakers of all creation. We have mutual responsibilities towards one another, for we have a duty to leave this world a better place.
With that as the impetus, the youth of Al Ain and Abu Dhabi have been involved in various forms of service-learning within their communities over the past year. This programme was part of a weekly integrated series entitled “Serve to Learn.” Participants undertook a sequence of steps beginning with the identification of particular needs of the communities and related intended outcomes. Needs assessment was done through conversations between the youth and community members. From this exercise, it was concluded that the communities needed:
(a) to find ways to cope with stress with the goal of striving for a sense of happiness, including promoting health and well-being
(b) to increase opportunities for social engagement with the inclusion of physical movement for the body, and ways to inspire the ageing population in seeking general knowledge.
Participants commenced their projects with vision statements. One example was the following: “Through my project, I aim to create a unique bond between every member of the community, so that the differences between us will be taken as chances for positive development…”
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In the process of conducting their service-learning, inherently students became researchers and project managers taking the project to a deeper level by building out their project proposals. They began to self-reflect on how their understanding of service-learning changed before, during and after the implementation. These service-learning projects helped the youth strengthen their communal responsibility, enhance critical thinking, collaborative and research skills, and embark on a journey of inquiry to seek more ways in uplifting the quality of life of their respective community members. Participants highlighted the following reflections:
“Through the project, I realized that I am learning how to serve; I actually realized that I do not learn to serve only people, but also to help myself grow.”
“When we did our first activity with the community, we felt they were very excited, and everyone had a positive attitude and showed enthusiasm towards our project, this made me excited to do more activities.”
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“The process made me realize that what we do… is really preparing us to be global citizens… I am now not only serving my community through this project, but I am building my skills and knowledge to serve wherever I go.”
The “Serve to Learn” project generated a very positive response amongst community members and was greatly appreciated. One member said, “The initiative, through its creative ways, allows the community to develop a love for exploration and learning…” Some members of the community mentioned how heart-warming it was to observe the youth engage and take on the responsibility of keeping the community happy and positive, with the ability to address their needs through stress-relief activities. Senior members of the community and parents noted that through this programme, the youth have set an exemplary model for other young members of the community through the work they are doing with the hope that this will have a catalyst effect. One student commented: “It is a good way to understand the inner workings of our community, and the fundamentals of what makes a community.”
A student further remarked, “…I think that it is the responsibility of every single member to move the community forward.” In short, “Serve to Learn” has inspired the youth in Al Ain and Abu Dhabi to continue this journey of serving and learning through engagement via different activities and programmes. They are planning to embark on further activities and programmes in the near future, in an endeavour to live up to the responsibilities of our exalted status as vicegerents of God.
