Competition calls on Arab youth to share positive images of change in community

AMMAN — The EU Southern Neighbourhood Project last week launched “Shoot and Share”, a youth photo competition aimed at shedding light on EU-supported development in the Arab world.

Organised within the EU4Youth social media campaign, the online competition seeks to highlight examples of positive change stemming from the programmes and projects carried out by the European Union in the MENA region. 

“Through our work, we noticed that youth are often unaware of the variety of programmes and opportunities available to them through the EU; they often believe that the European Union is restricted to a political institution detached from their daily lives,” an EU official told The Jordan Times, adding, “With this competition, we seek to get them involved in knowing these projects better so they can ultimately benefit from our action in their local community.”

Young people between the ages of 18 and 25 years are asked to post a photo depicting a concrete change witnessed in their life or that of their community, along with a short description — no more than 50 words — in English, French or Arabic using the hashtag #EU4Youth. 

“By opening the contest to any topic covered by the EU, ranging from democracy to education and civil society or economic empowerment, we encourage the participants to show the rest of their communities how wide the EU cooperation with their country is,” the official stated, noting that the contest is open to youth from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia.

“Through this contest, we want to engage Arab youth in shedding light on the positive impact EU projects have had on their personal life and their community,” the official continued, stressing the importance of involving direct beneficiaries of local programmes to better communicate about concrete development change.

Also, they highlighted, the localised communication campaign would help “democratise Arab youth’s access to both local and wider opportunities”, citing trainings, internships and cultural exchanges available for them both in their country and abroad.

Started on April 5, the call for submissions will be open until April 15, followed by a public vote by online users closing on April 23.

“Three winners will be selected for each participating country, based on the number of likes their submissions gathered on our social media. Winners will be awarded various prizes such as smartphones and tablets, which they will receive at their country’s EU delegation offices,” the official said, explaining that “the digital prizes are in line with our youth-targeted communication policy that is almost entirely done online these days”.

“Young people mostly communicate through digital platforms, so these prizes will help them stay connected to spread the message about those projects, and enhance their visibility to the rest of society,” the EU representative pointed out. 

Noting that the submissions coming from Northern African countries are significantly higher so far, the official encouraged people from Jordan, Palestine and Lebanon to take part in the contest. 

The competition is organised under the project "Open Neighbourhood: Networking for a Closer Partnership: Linking Citizens to the Neighbourhood" funded by the EU, an organisers' statement said.