Youth For Environmental Sustinability and Better Understanding

Bibliotheca Alexandrina believes that youth should think of ways and actions needed to secure their future on the planet because they are the ones who will suffer most if they are not included in discussion and actions regarding the major environmental issues. The library presents an incubation of talented students among Egyptian schools and universities aiming to increase the participation of the undergraduates in environment, science, art, culture and peace through the corresponding centers .The advisors for special projects of the BA organizes two special programs directed to youth. The first known as Youth for Environmental Sustainability and Better Understanding (YESBU)(13-17 years old)since 2002, starting with 55participants and we have reached now 3000 during the last five years .The second is League for Young Masters (LYM) (18-25years old) since 2006 starting by 140 participants and we have reached now 700. all this Offers Present to Youth By Youth with Fully Fund of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.These activities are organized by Youth and directed to youth, funded by Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Activities of YESBU and LYM

Field trips

Field trips to sanitary dumps , Veolia company, water desalination stations, sanitation station.

Two Distant learning programs (Arabic and English)

The English course is in cooperation with Lund university , Sweden.The Arabic course “Preventive Environmental Management “is launched by Bibliotheca Alexandrina. It is a special website about the Program of "Preventative Environmental Management" (PEM) which discuss different Environmental issues is launched in February 2007. Students form group of 3-6 students to be able to participate in the program. Every week there is uploading of a special lecture with a weekly chatting time to discuss different points of the lectures. Also an environmental learning activity proceeded each lecture to ensure assimilation of the lecture. This program aims to motivate students to choose certain environmental problem affecting their lives, local or global study it in a scientific method, starting with the definition of the problem and measuring its impact then identifying its sources and finally describe how to overcome this problem through a team work.

Environmental Awareness Program

Bibliotheca Alexandrina in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Education organized a special program “Environmental Awareness Program For School Students” since January 2006. This program target school students (12-16 years old). This program discussed Environment issues and concentrate on promotion of concepts for Preventative Environmental Management (PEM) within a series of meetings, debates, and field visits aiming to develop youth skills and promoting their creativity and scientific thinking. These lectures deal with global environmental issues and seek to highlight the importance of maintaining the very limited natural resources based on a scientific approach in order to achieve prosperity for coming generations. This program has been organized for 7 different series of students, each one consists of 7-8 three hours session and attended by 100-200 students in each cycle. At the end of each series, students present their idea to solve environmental problems in the form of small projects they prepared. . Instructors in these sessions are the youth participating in the YESBU and LYM programs and they have already received this course before .

Conferences

* Global Environmental Youth Convention,2004, Bibliotheca Alexandrina. In 2003-2004, 400 students of YESBU followed a distant learning environmental course in cooperation with Lund University, Sweden. Their environmental projects were discussed in the Global environmental Youth Convention held in the period of 11-16 September 2004 at Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Youth around the world representing 22 countries attend this conference and presented their environmental projects. This conference provided youth the opportunity to share their ideas and develop a global perspective on life on our planet.

* Environment and Peace for a Better Life Conference,2006 .The Environment and Peace for a Better Life Conference has been held in Dubai during the period of 9-13 December 2006 and gather youth from 34 different countries A group of 17 YESBU members have participated in this conference to present their environmental projects discussing different topics such as: Energy, Food & Agriculture, Mobility, Poverty, Production & consumption, Waste and Water. The project on Fair Paper (Recycling) presented by one of our group had won the first place.

* Arab Environmental Youth Convention,2007 After following the distant learning course Program of Preventative Environmental Management via Internet and identifying and studying environmental problems, youth and their teachers from different Arab countries were invited to participate in the Arab Environmental Youth Convention that was held at Bibliotheca Alexandrina during the period of 27-31 August 2007. During the conference, youth discussed their projects and their views to solve environmental issues. This conference included exhibiting knowledge coffee project workshops, learning and interactive meetings for students and teachers, study visits, field works and special cultural events.

Workshops for capacity building

*14 Internet and power point workshops that teaching the students how to use the internet and the power point in searching for a specific theme and how to prepare a good presentation for Microsoft office.
* 2D graphics workshops were organized to university students in order to teach them how to use the flash and the Photoshop program.
* 12 workshops about Presentation skills. These series of workshops try to teach school and university students how to deliver a message to the audience.