In Shaqlawa, over the period from 12 to 14 August 2026, the Public Aid Organization (PAO), through its Volunteering and Initiatives Office, concluded the activities of the 2026 Youth Volunteer Festival, held to coincide with International Youth Day, marked annually on 12 August, under the theme “Youth, Solidarity, and Shared Dreams.”
The festival brought together young volunteers from 15 Iraqi governorates, including the Kurdistan Region, within a program designed as a space for learning, self-expression, and networking, one that grew out of young people’s own interests and aspirations and resonated with the global context of International Youth Day. This geographic diversity was not incidental; it embodied young people’s right, across their varied geographic and cultural backgrounds, to a shared space that safeguards their voice and recognizes the diversity of their experiences.
Through non-formal education activities and interactive exercises, participants used drawing and visual expression as tools to identify the challenges they face, transforming them from ideas and concerns into concepts and solutions open for discussion and action. These tools were not merely educational methods; they were a genuine exercise of young people’s right to actively participate in shaping solutions related to their own reality and future, rather than remaining passive recipients.
The festival was not limited to its educational dimension. It also served as a space for building relationships and exploring nature and the surrounding towns and their assets, in an experience that combined learning, recreation, and collective work, strengthening participants’ sense of belonging and solidarity with one another.
The festival further provided an important opportunity for networking between young people and the partner networks and institutions supporting youth and development pathways, opening new avenues for cooperation and knowledge exchange to help sustain joint work after the festival’s conclusion.
From Shaqlawa, the Public Aid Organization reaffirmed that investing in youth is not a seasonal activity but an ongoing commitment to their right to learn, express themselves, and participate and that their shared dreams, given the right space, can become a genuine force for change.
