Top left: Yasmin Khamis, top right: Amr Gamal Al-Alawi, bottom right: Anood Al-Wekhyan

When faced with challenges, YES alumni often join together to find a solution. On June 4, 2016, a unique collaboration between YES alumni leaders from Jordan, West Bank, and Yemen demonstrated that community spirit yet again.

Anood Al- Wekhyan, a member of the YES Alumni Steering Committee in Jordan, wasn’t able to attend the recent YES Alumni Association Leaders Training (AALT) in South Africa due to travel issues she encountered on her way. However, Anood still wanted to learn from the training, so Amr Al-Alawi, the alumni representative from Yemen, and Yasmin Khamis, the alumni representative for the West Bank volunteered to deliver the training to Anood. Both Amr and Yasmin attended the AALT and were eager to share what they learned.

Amr was in Jordan at the time and Yasmin was able to join via Skype for a video conference to deliver the training. The training took place at the conference room of AMIDEAST Amman, and lasted for five hours. Yasmin gave a basic introduction about alumni associations, then talked about several leadership and management topics including Budgeting, Mentoring, Teambuilding, Promoting and Advertising, and Volunteer Management. Amr focused on Fundraising, Building Partnerships, Project Bookends, and Evaluation.

Anood found, “It was really beneficial to get an idea of the AALT, each and every skill we discussed is highly needed for every alumni association leader to be able to identify challenges and work on getting things done appropriately. I am eager now to work with other alumni associations to activate our alumni association.”

At the end, the three alumni representatives discussed ways to expand cooperation among YES alumni associations and exchange experiences.

Yasmin explained, “As much as it saddens me that Anood wasn’t able to join us, I believe this was a great chance for us both to implement the skills we learnt in giving a training, and discover how much we learned.”

We look forward to hearing more about the impact these three YES alumni groups are making on their communities!

Anood (YES 2009-2010, Jordan, hosted by ISE in Coldwater, MI) is currently a fourth year Electrical Power Engineering student and actively involved in creating a new structure for the YES Alumni Association in Jordan. 

Amr (YES 2013-2014, Yemen, hosted by World Link in Iowa City, IA) will start college in August as part of the MEPI Tomorrow's Leaders scholarship program and is working on growing YES alumni opportunities in Yemen.

Yasmin (YES 2011-2012, West Bank, hosted by AFS in Marietta, OH) is in her senior year of studying law and serves as the YES Alumni Network Coordinator for the West Bank.