In the middle of the desert 60 km south of Homs, more than 80 young males and females gathered, transforming the dull and void town of Sadad into an oasis full of youthful ambitious spirits. 

Despite what Sadad and its habitants have been through during the Syrian war, and the attacks it was subjected to, but the nearly 3000 Christian residents did not abandon their beloved town.

War wasn’t Sadad’s only struggle, today more than ever, the city is facing a strong threat that may have a devastating impact on the ancient Aramaic town, which is the danger of desertification… 

These extremely challenging circumstances did not inhibit the will of the youth to gather on the 17th of July and celebrate the world’s Skills day. Inspired by the original global themes, the team of Study zone Sadad organized the event to introduce the youth to the concept, discover their skills and motivate them to cultivate those skills no matter what type they are.

The day started with some ice breaking activities followed by an inspiring lecture presented by Archbishop Mar Antimos Jack Jacob, Patriarchal Vicar for Youth affairs and Christian formation of Syriac Orthodox. Who covered the subject from a more spiritual perspective; how the faith in God who created us and gave us our talents, and the faith in ourselves both emanates from the same source, and any real change has to spout from deep within, so in order to change others, we need to change ourselves first.

After this influential speech, the young attendants got the chance to participate in a seminar discussing the types of skills and how to strategically utilize them to achieve one’s vision of the future.

However, the most important part of the event was the workshop segment. In this workshop youngsters were divided into groups and were asked to speak about a project of their choice that presents a common vision of theirs, not only that but also to incorporate their skills in suggesting the proper implementation methods.

Ultimately, it was striking how much talented youth was gathered in such a small town, who were innately following their dreams and already working hard on making their visions come true. They were extremely excited and appreciative of this event for charging them with loads of motivation and enthusiasm to carry on steadily on their paths of change. The 23 years old, Sally Kharma, for instance, told us how much eye-opening the day was for her personally: “I’m a part of Sadad’s Youth community, today was very inspirational for me to continue working for our town, and the best thing was the mixture between the spiritual and the applicable aspects, that made us re-focus on our vision to make our town a better place for all”. On a personal level sally also stated that this event reminded her of her personal goals too, which included raising awareness against bullying and she promised us that she will be taking serious steps towards that particular goal.

Meanwhile, Simon Latifah, 31 years old, talked about a more serious problem in Sadad, the water crisis saying: “ Among the problems of Sadad, the lack of water is what worries me the most, in the past period the struggle to secure  clean drinking water became straining, today we realized that in order to change our reality as youth we need to take action”. Simon also has lots of plans for the future as the young man recently became a licensed mental math trainer with a greater purpose on his mind, helping young kids in developing their skills.

Last but not least, at the end of this amazing experience, Simon, Sally and their friends accepted the time capsule challenge as the study zone team documented their dreams and visions with the end of the day, on the hope of meeting again next year and catching up with everyone and celebrate their amazing skills and accomplishments.