Comprehensive mainstreaming of human rights awareness among both gender

During the year 2010, the YLDF provided young Yemeni leaders from all governorates, including the Socotra archipelago, with the information, skills and behaviors necessary to build their capacities to work as human rights activists and trainers, enable them to meet and network with others, and provide an opportunity for free and meaningful dialogue and the exchange of different ideas and knowledge with their counterparts from the rest of the governorates, and creating a common understanding of human rights values among the young men and women of the governorates of the Republic of Yemen, and urging them to adhere to them, develop them and use them to be supportive for them to advance, understand and respect the surrounding community, transfer their knowledge to others through individual advocacy activities, and strengthen them with the culture, identity, qualities and models of human rights, as well as with the mechanisms of the United Nations in our countries, the five treaties, the concept of gender and human rights-based citizenship, the CEDAW Convention, and the elements that affect human rights situations due to global changes, such as globalization and terrorism and their relationship to human rights education, their realization that development is through community participation based on human rights, and the need to put in place measures to improve the situation of women in all human rights and development fields.

The Youth Leadership Development Foundation has also promoted the involvement of youth in civil society, urged young people to participate in civil society through volunteer work, and strengthened the role of young women who still do not have the same opportunities to enter the labor market as young men; the Foundation’s graduates have proven in previous years that they can be a real asset to their families and communities when they receive adequate support to build their capacities. It worked to increase levels of communication and cooperation between youth, local authorities and community initiatives, to build links with their communities by addressing issues of common interest, and youth gained a stronger sense of purpose and opportunity through positive mentorship and role models.

Yemen has a very large young population, and nearly half of the Yemeni youth population is of females . Unfortunately, young men in general and young women in particular do not have a participation rate commensurate with the size of their presence in the market and business sector, but rather they lack the skills to get a job so that they can be decision makers, in addition to the legal shortcomings with regard to the participation of young women in the business market, due to cultural reasons, as well as the lack of female marketing skills such as management, accounting, marketing and leadership skills. Therefore, the YLDF has pushed since 2006 to empower young people economically and create opportunities to enter the labor market, and at the begging of  2010 by encouraging them to implement their own projects, providing them with the skills required for labor demands, building the capacities of young Yemeni women to enable them to compete with men, and expanding their opportunities to obtain business training and life skills training in addition establishing youth professional networks, in order to support, nurture and develop youth businesses.

The YLDF worked to give young people a moderate voice to speak and express gender and reproductive rights through the camera, which is one of the technological methods that began to be implemented in 2009, during which a number of issues that affect women were addressed, especially issues related to gender. Youth Leadership Development Foundation also addressed gender issues and the situation of Yemeni women in general, and their political participation in particular, to find out how they can be approached, and work to activate their role to bridge the gender gap in political participation.

The YLDF also discussed during the year 2010 the issue of school dropout, by conducting meetings with decision-makers on the importance of the role they play in the field of basic education, in addition to implementing advocacy campaigns in the field of education, with the aim of reducing students' dropout from schools in elementary education.

In the interest of the National Endowment for Democracy to pool efforts among Yemeni NGOs, the "Yemeni NGO Cooperation Initiative Conference" was held, in partnership with  Youth Leadership Development Foundation represented by (Girl's International Language Center) and ECOTAS, to enhance coordination and cooperation between Yemeni NGOs working in the field of human rights, freedom of opinion and expression - alternative media, youth development, women’s rights, political work, giving participants a deeper understanding of each other’s work and projects, exchanging experiences, successes and challenges, developing a common vision for the work of each sector, and identifying areas of strength to build on, pointing out the gaps that may prevent the realization of that vision, and developing a plan for coordination, networking and cooperation within each of the sectors in order to achieve the common vision, and increase the effectiveness of NGOs.

On March 30^th, 2010 in Sana'a,  Youth Leadership Development Foundation celebrated the graduation of the third batch  graduates of the training development program batch (The Unity Generation), and their number was 200 young men and women. The Foundation's General Director, Iqbal Al-Mutawakel, noted that the graduates participated in a number of training and educational programs, including the program for preparing young leaders from high school graduates in the aspects of English language, computer skills, and leadership skills. Al-Mutawakil explained that a number of graduates participated in the Youth Engagement Program in Civil Society, which is specialized in the fields of management, marketing, accounting and project preparation, in which a prize was awarded to finance three of these projects, in addition to the two-year diploma program and the Intilaq program.