Children and youth represent the future everywhere in this world –a truth more relevant now than ever, as half of the world’s population is under 25. Jordan is no exception in this respect. The Kingdom is a very young society, and the challenges that especially young Jordanians face in terms of unemployment and civic participation are steep. However, also in Jordan young people realize they can bring positive change to their communities and to their country. A handful of these motivated Jordanians created an initiative that aims to provide high school students the chance to make a more sustainable and informed decision regarding their studies. “We were not happy and had to chance something. So we had the idea of “Eye on the Future” ”, explains Malek Abu Ghanemeh, one of the initiators. “Eye on Future” was established three years ago as an annual event and an open air carnival of experience exchange. The active exchange and the provision of information will eventually decrease the level of frustration amongst students as well as their families and lead to an overall positive effect on the community as well. Since the whole fair focused on the future of youth, it also gathered different organizations and initiatives and programs, such as “Talal Abu Ghazaleh Knowledge Society” or “Bee Academy”, all aiming to inform students for example about effective learning programs.
The UN post-2015 team and UNV in Jordan saw this year event as an excellent opportunity to raise awareness about the My World Survey and to explain students the importance of the campaign for their own future and the future of their country. Together with the Post-2015 team, UNV set up an information booth to reach out to the visitors of this year “Eye on the Future”, held on July 7-9 . Eight motivated volunteers helped collecting votes during the three days of the event. More than 3.000 people visited the fair and eventually more than 800 votes were collected. “The importance of the campaign for the Kingdom of Jordan and for the global agenda was highlighted and it was of great satisfaction to see so many young curious Jordanians visiting the fair. It is even more satisfying that they left with a better idea about their future.” said Tarek Muendelein, international UN Volunteer dedicated to the post-2015 process, after the closing of the event.