By Luqman Bakeer (YES 2019-2020, Libya, placed by PAX in Franklin, IN)

My name is Luqman Bakeer, and I’m a business school student and a scout leader. Throughout my exchange year as a YES student, I was exposed to a wide variety of cultures in the U.S. The fact that Americans are so aware of cultural diversity and embrace it was fascinating to me. My exchange year gave me the opportunity to grow as an individual, become more aware of diversity in my own country, and understand the importance of being inclusive of all cultures.

Libya is a diverse melting pot of cultures, including Arabs, Amazigh, Tabu, and Twariq. However, this diversity is only known and appreciated by older generations. As a YES alumnus, I feel something must be done to teach youth about Libya’s cultural heritage and its indigenous communities and their traditions, values, and history. 

My fellow alumni and I recently registered the Libyan YES Alumni Association as an NGO, and we thought, “why stop there!?” We applied for a YES Alumni Grant for funding to implement a project to highlight the diversity of Libyan cultural to an audience of youth. And that’s how Historic Libya came to life.

The project consisted of two components – a social media campaign and a cultural event. The social media campaign lasted for two months, during which time we created 15 posts and 30 stories about local cultural heritage, a unified Libyan identity, peacebuilding, and the inclusion of youth in aspects of our cultural heritage. Our posts saw more than 5,000 engagements from youth between the ages of 16 and 25 years old. 

The media campaign culminated with a cultural event at the Royal Palace of Tripoli, where participating youth were introduced to Libya's melting pot of cultures and ethnicities through this community-building event. A Libyan archaeologist led a session about the importance of local cultural heritage, organizations and entities working on preservation, and the role of youth in keeping local heritage alive. The event also included an exclusive “backstage” tour by staff of the Antiquities Department of the Royal Palace, followed by a discussion led by two activists who shared how they turned their passion for cultural heritage into a business. The event concluded with representatives from different Libyan cities sharing about their cities' traditions and cultural sites. 

Due to the unfortunate violent events that took place in Tripoli this summer, we had to limit the number of participants for the in-person event. But with the support of the YES program and the U.S. Embassy in Libya, we made excellent connections with people working in the field, who encouraged us to organize Historic Libya II in the coming months. We hope to hold an in-person event that will bring as many youths as possible.

On a personal level, I am very happy with the project regardless of the need to downsize from our original plan because seeing our group of YES alumni from many different cohorts all working on this project as a single unit was truly incredible. This is really the first large-scalre project that we have tackled together Libyan YES alumni.

I can’t thank the alumni team enough for their tremendous work, especially the alumni who took on leadership roles during the project – Anas Alhadi, Ainoor Gudgud, Fawz Elbeshti, Taha Frifer – but also each and every one of the 16 alumni that took part in this project. I am very grateful to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for funding and supporting a project that serves my country.

Anas Alhadi (YES 2016-2017, Libya, placed by AYA in Sierra Vista, AZ)

Ainoor Gudgud (YES 2019-2020, Libya, placed by AFS-USA in Urbandale, IA) 

Fawz Elbeshti (YES 2019-2020, Libya, placed by AFS-USA in Wheeler County, GA)

Taha Frefir (YES 2018-2019, Libya, placed by Ayusa in San Antonia, TX)