The Run the World festival concluded with a three-day extravaganza of activities at the Katara beach this weekend. PICTURE: TK Nasar
By Nidhi Chandran
The Youth Company (TYC), a youth-led social enterprise working towards the growth and development of youth in Qatar, in partnership with Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum and Qatar Museums Authority organised the second edition of the Run the World Festival (RTW) from December 12 to 22. At the culmination of the event, TYC hosted a three-day outdoor festival with many fun-filled activities, extreme sports demonstrations, tournaments, cultural performances, talent shows and competitions set up at the Katara beach from December 19-22.
The 10-day festival kick-started on December 12 to engage and encourage youth to lead an active and healthy life through different sports activities. The event had featured a fashion show, RTW talk, RTW medical camp, RTW comedy show, RTW photography competition, TYC gala dinner and a ‘Youth Got Talent’ contest at various venues in Qatar. This also included a Heart Qatar event, where children with special needs played sports with famous athletes and Young Corporate Cup, a corporate indoor football tournament between teams representing various organisations in the country.
Thousands of people from different nationalities, including youngsters, families and students thronged Katara beach area in celebration of the event rendering a true carnival atmosphere. A cultural bazaar was set up with stalls selling traditional food and jewellery. Showcasing the culture and heritage of Qatar, a team of young men in traditional costumes put up a fantastic horse riding show on the beach.
Both children and elders irrespective of their age were seen enjoying an array of sports activities such as tug-o-war, football, beach soccer, volleyball, basketball, handball, long jump, sumo, zumba dances, sunset yoga, water fight, rocket bungee and skateboarding. A team of professionals from Bahrain and Kuwait enthralled onlookers with some parkour demonstrations.
Kids enjoyed face painting and henna. They also got a chance to ride horses at a tent set up by Al Shaqab Academy exclusively for tiny tots. Other interesting cultural activities were graffiti painting, DJ and musical performances, break dance and dance numbers from Spanish and Dabka dancers.
The ‘Youth Got Talent’ contest was one of the main attractions at the festival where youngsters staged various dance and song performances. About 40 contestants who were selected after a tough audition performed at the three-day event and the finale was held on Saturday. Visitors were also seen getting information on health and fitness at some of the booths. Qatar Red Crescent held a blood donation camp for people during the event.
While talking about the company, Chief Communication Officer Evgenia Berestneva said, “TYC is a social enterprise run by some youth for the youth in Qatar aiming at their development and empowerment. We provide different volunteer and training programmes and an internship portal for young people where they can go and search for internship available in any Qatar companies. We also have a YOU-start programme where young entrepreneurs can submit bright ideas to us and depending on their project we try to provide them with office space, promotion, funding and contacts etc.”
“We believe that youth is the future of the country. They do not have enough resources apart from universities and schools to realise their goals and what they like to do in future, which kind of job to take up or how to set up a business. The Youth Company is a space where they can come and discover their potential and understand what they want for their future. We try to provide them with tools to help them achieve this,” she added.
TYC started operations in December 2010 and since then has been undertaking various educational, community-engaging, volunteering, career-oriented, consulting and rewarding programmes most of which are free for the youth. It was able to involve more than 15,000 youth so far in around 20 projects and has worked with 50 different organisations and companies in Qatar. The company also provides consultancy services and project management for different companies that support projects for youth development.
TYC’s main programmes include YOU-Training, YOU-Intern, YOU-Start and YOU-in-Action. The training programme covers both soft and hard skills for personal growth of youngsters through development of management, leadership and communication skills; YOU-Intern has an online portal (internship.qa) that helps them to find out internship opportunities available in various sectors in Qatar; YOU-Start supports and funds youth initiatives, projects and business ideas that aim to bring positive change in society and YOU-in-Action provides them with volunteering opportunities through various awareness campaigns and events on social issues like health, environment and economic issues. The members can also avail a discount and benefit card called YOU-Card to use in different shops, museums, restaurants, sports centres and other places.
“It’s great fun. We get to experience new things, meet people and make new friends. We like Youth Got Talent most because we get to see dance and music from so many talented people living here. Such events are really inspiring and exciting for us,” said two school students working as volunteers for TYC.
When asked where we can see TYC in next five years’ time Berestneva said, “In another five years from now, I believe we will be able to expand in another five countries in the region. We hope to represent each country in the Gulf region and hope to do more activities in future.”
“From June-November 2012, about 200 people attended our training programme. Delegates from Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia attended one of our conferences held recently. They were eager to know more about our work and showed interest to expand the company in their countries,” she said.
Almost 600 volunteers were involved in the event with 11 full-time staffers from TYC along with 50 part-timers, mainly students. TYC hopes to continue its efforts in the coming years involving more youth and engaging them in more creative and development-oriented activities for the betterment of the society.
