PROMOTINGYOUTH-DRIVEN CHANGE

The challenges were especially acute in Jordan’s disenfranchised communities and refugee settlements, such as those in East Amman, which suffered from very high rates of poverty and unemployment. Ghandour understood that government, by itself, could not lift these communities over the myriad obstacles they faced. There was a real need for a more focused, collaborative approach that could enable youth and communities to actively partake in their own progress.

Ghandour thought the private sector could do more in this vein. In his view, most companies equated philanthropy with charity and stuck to the status quo, whether donating food at Ramadan or writing checks to NGOs.

But Ghandour saw that companies like Aramex had the capital — as well as the networks, influence, and expertise in matching skill sets to market demand for labor — to help address one of the root causes of poverty and high unemployment in marginalized communities. Even more importantly, he believed they had a responsibility to do so.

Ghandour concluded that the absence of potent, private-sector philanthropy in Jordan’s disenfranchised communities presented a wide-open opportunity: to match the private sector’s potential with a model for impact that centered on enlisting young people as catalysts of social and economic change.

From the outset, Ruwwad broke from status quo approaches in three fundamental ways. First, it took bold steps to focus on and invest in young people, as Ghandour believed they had the energy and capacity to drive change in their communities. Ruwwad would provide scholarships and programs to help youth acquire the knowledge, skills, and networks “to actively pursue their dreams for a better future”.

It would also enlist youth in community service work to help them “understand how they can mobilize their assets and resources to create the change that they want to see in the world,” says Samar Dudin, Ruwwad’s regional director and head of programs.

Further, Ruwwad would create a “safe space” for youth — a forum in the community for them to ask questions, think critically, and develop self-awareness, as they look to their futures.

Above all, Ghandour wanted to show the youth in these communities an alternative path and to deliver a positive message: “You are valued.”

Second, Ruwwad focused on a citizen-led approach to community development. It chose to work deeply in a small number of disenfranchised communities, rather than more lightly across many, and refused to view residents as passive beneficiaries.

Instead of implementing a traditional top-down approach, which can create a cycle of dependency, Ruwwad would listen actively to discern the community’s needs and help residents feel empowered to jointly design and implement solutions.

“The model is a sincere commitment to listening and being present and co-authoring,” says Dudin, who volunteered at Ruwwad for five years before assuming her management role.

Finally, Ruwwad created a channel for private sector companies and individuals to engage in social development, allowing them to invest not only capital, but also time and know-how. It demonstrated this opportunity through Ghandour’s example, both individually and as CEO of Aramex.

“We believed that a company has a role in the society, and the job for business is not only business,” says Ghandour. “We wanted to influence and participate in the development process in the communities that we chose.”

In 2005, while Ghandour was formulating this concept for Ruwwad, he began looking for a place to put his vision into practice. That year, as a board member of the Jordan River Foundation (JRF), he visited the Jabal Al Natheef community in East Amman. Home to over 50,000 people, including an informal refugee settlement, Jabal Al Natheef struggled with poverty and woeful housing conditions, as well as crime, substance abuse, and youth unemployment 50 percent higher than the national average.

The stark contrast between Jabal Al Natheef’s entrenched poverty and the more affluent communities in West Amman left its residents feeling even more isolated and less valued. Having gained a ground-level view, Ghandour concluded that this was an ideal place to test Ruwwad’s model.

The first step was to invest in building enough trust to develop a healthy partnership. Many of the community leaders were wary of outsiders, having rarely interacted with the private sector. Some feared Ruwwad might have a hidden agenda.

“For them, it was inconceivable that any institution from the private sector wanted to do more than simple charity,” recalls Ghandour.

To help turn the community’s concerns into confidence, Ghandour organized an initial meeting with community members and asked about Jabal Al Natheef’s most critical needs. Under Ghandour’s leadership, Ruwwad then followed through on several core issues they had raised. It lobbied for government support to build a police station, a long unmet need. It also rented a space for a health clinic, helped establish a post office, restored a dilapidated school, and established a children’s library.

“These were basic needs that we could fill,” says Ghandour. “It is how we built trust because I showed that we wanted to work with them.”

With these fundamentals in place, Jabal Al Natheef’s citizens could focus on tackling the community’s deeper issues.

Fast forward more than a decade and Ruwwad has inspired and equipped East Amman residents in Jabal Al Natheef and neighboring areas to seize opportunities to come together, work through challenges in their community, identify solutions, and ultimately advance their neighborhoods’ wellbeing.

Ghandour, Aramex and other funders — most notably Khaled Al Masri and Raghida Ghandour Rahim — helped fuel these efforts through their contributions to the “mother model” in East Amman and to expansions to other marginalized communities in Jordan (Tafilah and Beidha).

Elsewhere, Aramex continues to be the regional supporter of Ruwwad in Egypt (Cairo) and Palestine (Ni’lin, Budrus, and Qibya). Entrepreneur Hala Fadel led the establishment of Ruwwad Lebanon in Tripoli in partnership with Fadi Ghandour and continues to contribute, along with business people Sami Khouri, Noura Al Jundi, and Michel Helou, as well as Asma Zein, a leader of the professional women’s movement, and Amal Ghandour, Ruwwad’s regional advisor for communications and strategy.

Believing that “access to a good education is vital for achieving...a dignified life,” Ghandour established the Mousab Khurma Youth Education and Empowerment Scholarship Fund (MKYEF), which he named for a close friend lost in a 2005 terror attack.

Ruwwad awards scholarships to young people aged 18 and older, to support them in completing degrees at quality universities and colleges. In exchange for the scholarship, youth spend a minimum of four hours per week throughout their scholarship term volunteering in other Ruwwad community programs.

Ruwwad later connects youth scholars to internship and employment opportunities, provides them with career counseling in their chosen fields, and helps them expand their professional networks; supports that are not often available to students from disenfranchised communities.

The organization also helps youth build self-esteem and real-world skills, such as thinking creatively and navigating social situations, so they can become active agents for change in their communities. Group discussions among the youth scholars and facilitators, called “Dardashat,” promote free thought and encourage a diverse range of views.

“The questions at Dardashat start with ‘who are we’ and ‘what sparks the way we see the world around us,’ before moving to 'how do we navigate tensions to transform them into opportunities for problem solving and collective action,’” Dudin explains.

• “6 Minutes Joy of Reading,” which encouraged families to commit to reading for six minutes each day to their children to put them on an early path to literacy
• “Safe Homes,” which brought families together to share stories of domestic violence, evaluated domestic violence cases, and provided training on how to eliminate violence from the home
• “For Your Sake,” which brought parents together to share stories of — and thereby encourage each other to speak out against — the physical abuse of children in schools and homes
• “Al Jana”, which grew out of the previous campaigns, reaching out to more than 500 individuals through 20 educators to focus on better parenting, accountability, legal awareness, and intervention, for the sake of child protection.

A common denominator across all Ruwwad’s programs is Ghandour’s dedication and involvement. He interacts weekly with the regional director and head of programs, frequently engages and brainstorms with staff, and attends important events, such as career mentorship sessions. He also checks in regularly with youth scholars and other community members.

Then came requests to expand more broadly. The Ruwwad team only considered locations deemed to be forgotten communities — places where others did not want to invest — and where entrepreneurial leaders agreed to adhere to the model’s core elements: support for citizen-led change; an emphasis on youth empowerment; and the scholarship program and youth volunteerism as primary components.

“When others are interested in replicating Ruwwad’s model in other communities, we tell them, ‘this is how we do things...if you are able to commit, then we can do it,’” says Ghandour. “We have to be true to our core beliefs.”

In 2012, Hala Fadel, a Lebanese entrepreneur and friend of Ghandour’s, visited Ruwwad’s community center in Jabal Al Natheef, and immediately knew she wanted to replicate the model in Lebanon’s Tripoli. Fadel mobilized the foundational grant to establish a Ruwwad community center in Jabal Muhsen and Bab El-Tebbaneh, areas in the north of Tripoli.

The center is at the heart of the sectarian divide of the city. It hosts an income-generating kitchen that employs women from both sides of the community who have lost their sons or husbands. The kitchen not only generates profits which flow to the scholarship program, but also allows the women to heal and engage in dialogue with each other.

That same year, Ruwwad expanded its model to two additional countries. In Egypt, it set up a community center in collaboration with the youth of Ezbet Khairallah, the second largest slum area in Cairo, and it remains focused on youth-led initiatives.

In Palestine, Ruwwad set up in four neighboring villages of Budrus, in partnership with the local municipal councils. Ruwwad Palestine has become a leader in engaging youth across all villages in community service and volunteerism.

Ruwwad’s child development and community-support efforts are also making a difference. Its programs now engage thousands of women and children from disenfranchised communities every year to help them build better lives, and provide them the space and support to stand up for change. Consider the “For Your Sake” campaign in Jabal Al Natheef, which brought together 54 mothers, whose 165 children had endured violence in schools. By acting collectively, they were able to report the abuse and, in partnership with Justice Center for Legal Aid, ensure that the schools took corrective action.

“Today, as part of the community, and as part of Ruwwad, I and the people here are thinking of solving our problems,” says Tariq, a resident of Jabal Al Natheef in East Amman, who was a recipient of the scholarship fund and is currently Ruwwad’s community center manager for community affairs.

As Ruwwad expanded to more communities, the team recognized the need to customize programming to fit local contexts. In Egypt, for example, Ruwwad learned it was more appropriate to award youth participants with two-year scholarships for vocational education in areas such as IT — rather than four-year, university scholarships — given the country’s available employment opportunities.

The Ruwwad team also recognizes the need to deepen its investment in impact measurement, to provide a clearer line of sight into what works and what doesn’t. While its measures to date have focused largely on reach, they are working to increasingly capture Ruwwad’s intangible results, such as the extent to which the psychosocial supports enable young people to develop the patience, persistence, and other qualities that will help them succeed.

“You have to...keep asking questions, learning from success and failure, and reflecting,” says Dudin.

Ghandour also believes Ruwwad’s model, with its focus on private sector engagement, citizen-led change, and youth empowerment, can lead to sustainable development in many more countries. To encourage leaders to replicate the approach, the team shares much of its information and experiences, even as it remains focused on the Arab region.

“We are passionate about our immediate geography, and this is where we feel we can have the most impact,” adds Ghandour.

Fadi Ghandour is the founder and executive chairman of Wamda Group, a platform that invests in, nurtures, and builds entrepreneurship ecosystems across the Middle East and North Africa. Ghandour is also the co-founder of Aramex, one of the leading global logistics companies, where he served as CEO from 1983 to 2012, and then as a board member until 2020.

During his 30 years with Aramex, Ghandour built the company, employing more than 15,000 people in over 250 offices in 90 countries. He took the company public twice, initially on Nasdaq — a first for an Arab world company — and then on Dubai Financial Market.

Ghandour is a serial entrepreneur. In his career, he has been involved with founding, investing in, and launching tens of companies and nonprofits.