On Saturday, September 21st, the ICCI Youth Club organised one full day program with discussions and workshops for youth leaders and muslim teens on the topic “Generation - DRILL?” with brother Tafazal and brother Raheem from iLead UK.
To begin the day introductions were given to the everyone and an introductory video was played showing the problems of knife violence in the UK - this was an eye opener to the youth as to how things could escalate here in Ireland, if tougher laws are not put in place. It was also a very somber piece to watch because it brought back memories of our Br Azzam (may Allah have mercy on him) who died during Ramadan after being stabbed. After this session the two youth groups came together in the youth club room with Br Raheem to discuss issues that affect them as youth. While this was taking place the youth leaders were upstairs with Br Tafazul discussing their views on what problems are affecting the youth and also their analysis of the video and brainstorming as to why youth get involved in such crimes.
After a lunch of Shawarma and Duhr prayer the youth and youth leaders merged, getting into discussion groups where the youth were asked to discuss what they had shared in the morning session amongst each other. Youth leaders were given strict instructions just to listen. This was an eye opening experience for the youth leaders and parent representatives in the group. The overall feeling from the youth was that they were un heard and misunderstood.
The evening session after Asr saw the youth leaders heading home and the teens then splitting up again into their own groups after a story from Br Raheem.
Pizza was served before hometime and certificates of attendance were given out.
All in all it was a interesting session and brough up many issues that affect our youth. We hope to do a feedback session for parents in the near future, based on the outcome of the discussions had at this workshop. So watch this space as it will be an important meeting/parent workshop to attend.
Our youth are our future, and it is important that they are heard and supported.
