Video: Mercy Corps youth speak their minds

It was so exciting to see young Palestinians in the Mercy Corps family speak their hearts to CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour in “Generation Islam” – a two-hour documentary that aired last night. Zaid, a twenty-one year engineering student, pled with viewers to stop painting all Muslims with a broad brush. “I am not a terrorist,” he said. “I want to live my life like any other. I want to have the same opportunities.” And Reem, a composed young woman who is studying business administration, said she wanted to see a world without weapons.

Zaid and Reem are part of the Global Citizen Corps, an international youth network that inspires and equips young people to become leaders in their communities and to take actions toward a just, secure and productive future. I thought they did an amazing job articulating their reality and experiences.

In “Generation Islam,” Amanpour focuses on the fact that the youth population is soaring in the Middle East, and she highlights some of the incredible forces shaping their worldviews, including war, political conflict and the severe lack of educational opportunities. The documentary vividly shows the relics of bombed homes, and the fear and distrust in the eyes of kindergarten-age kids growing up in such traumatic circumstances. It introduces us to Afghan and Palestinian families who mourn the loss of their sons and daughters and other families who struggle to keep their children in school.

Mercy Corps has worked in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the 1980s, running short-term employment initiatives, educational programs for youth, business skills training, interfaith peace-building and the transformational Global Citizen Corps. We have also had a long-standing presence doing development work in Afghanistan. There are incredible challenges in these war-torn regions, but as Zaid, Reem and all the young people in Mercy Corps’ program demonstrate, there are also plenty of reasons for hope.