So, we’re all coming together in January 2007. There’s some new faces this time. Let’s introduce ourselves right now! Here’s a few ideas. Just drop in your responses by clicking on ‘Join the Debate’ below.
- Who you are? – where you’re from, the people, images from you daily life, your friends or family, etc.
- What have you been involved in? – What do you do? How are you supporting your community? Are you famous in your country? (Nabyl)
- Who are the big names in your country – celebrities, sports stars, musicians, popular culture – do you have ‘Big Brother’?
- What do you aspire to? Do you want travel the world? Change the way people see your country? Change the way people see you?
- What do you hope the reach out project will give you when you’re here in January 2007?
If you’ve got a blog or some relevant images, drop ‘em through to reachout@britishcouncil.org. We’ll post them up here!
Well, thought I might kick things off. I’m Pukul’s assistant. Grew up in a small town called Winchester, based in the South of England. For the past 10 years or so (on and off), i’ve lived in London. Right now, i’m acting as Pukul’s assistant on the Reachout project.
In terms of supporting the community, my role is two fold. Partly, it’s helping Pukul on general logistics, helping to make connections with the new stakeholders, but mainly, it’s on managing this blog, and suggesting new ideas to get the virtual community running.
Big names in the UK. Well, it’s still David and Victoria Beckham. I don’t pay a lot of attention to it most of the time. The big names for me are often not even well known. For the most part, big names are anyone who inspires.
My personal aspirations are quite inter-connected with professional right now. I’m happy so long as i’m involved in interesting work and people. Pretty well travelled, all over the world.
As far as Reachout is concerned, the best I expect is down to you guys making something of it. If you succeed, so do I! If the network can continue on in some way, all the better.
See you all there!
M
Hi Everyone,
Its Pukul here! Well, as Matt’s got the ball rollng I thought I’d better make an appearance. I’m orginally from Birmingham (UK) and of Indian descent. This is always a little bit of a tricky one for me, because on the one hand yes I’m Indian, and that’s pretty easy to see, but on the other I’m also very British - my sister sumed it up best, ‘we’re the lost generation’ caught between identities and cultures.
Anyway, having started the reach out project as a short-term initiative to ‘engage young people from North Africa, Middle East and UK in World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)’ for the British Council and FCO (phew), I’m just happy we’ve managed to turn this project into something real. My hope is that working together with you guys we start to really make a difference where it matters - on the ground.
How we do that, is very much up to you and the reach out project team will do everything we can to make it happen.
See you soon, Pukul
Hello everyone,
My name is Hana Agil, I’m a twenty year old student reading Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester. I was born in Gaza, Palestine and have lived there until the age of eight and have been living in England since.
…I’m pretty rubbish at giving a profile of myself to others, but i’m attemtping to do so anyway…I’m interested in middle eastern political social and cultural affairs, in interfaith dialogue and i’m intending to go into a career of something political and/or journalistic.
Hana
hi hana,
do you want to swap blog roll links? happy to put up your blog here.
matt
Hi Everyone,
My name is Jamil Hamzaoui, twenty and something, born to an Algerian father and a Tunisian mother in a superb neighborhood, near the new British council premises in tunis, called “Notre Dame”. But actually I live with the rest of the extended family
in El Medina, the old section of the city of tunis and a UNESCO world heritage site. Right now I’m informally studying cinema and I’m indulging myself with movies; maybe it’s irrelevant here to mention that the last British movie I saw is “My summer of love” which I liked a lot, but also I’m doing some minor jobs to support myself.
Though I’m quite informed about Beckham and Wayne Rooney through my brother who worships all the stars of Real Madrid and Manchester United football teams 
[maybe now he’s shifting his attention to Chelsea;)]
In truth I’m not interested in celebrities of my country, nor the flood of Lebanese singers, simply because I don’t watch TV- maybe because it’s always occupied by my little sister and their friends
I never traveled before and I’m looking forward to be in the UK in January for the next Reach out workshop, which I hope to be a success, achieve its goals and for the project in general to be able to sustain itself. Well, I’ve always been interested in social networking and I firmly believe that in order to any online community to succeed, members must routinely contribute and increase their participation in time.
jamil
Hi Every body
Mu name is Fatma Harbaoui, a tunisian acyually based in Tuniisa and working and studiny and the same time , here just a breif idea about me , I have a diploma in International trade from a Business High School in my home country Tunisia. I moved to Geneva for an internship at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). I worked with an international team with whom I share ideas and goals about many issues facing youth and ICTs worldwide.
I heard about the reach out project last year during the world summit of the information society .
Becoming a member Reach out projectof helped me achieving my goals with you, members this projet.
I appreciate meeting from different cultures and customs to share knowledge and opinions and to build a better world for all. I hope together we can make it happen through this workshop which will be held in London during the month of January 2007 and wt oil be an opportunity for Arabe and UK youth TO excahneg idea
.
Well, its really interesting I am getting more and moved by reachout cos my initial thoughts about reachout wasn’t very clrear but things are shaping up.
My name is Ugochukwu Nwosu, I just finished my final exams as agraduating student of Physics/electronics and currently help out as a member of the management team of my family business (a cleaning company). I originally come from the southeastern part of Nigeria,West Africa. My country is definitely an interesting one with cybercrime, youth unrest and a few other vices happening in a few places(what U are used to hearing). But i must say there are a lot more positive people than you can imagine.I heard about reachout enroute The World Summit on the Information Society, Tunisa’05, and when I got to Tunis on the bill of Ford Foundation as a consultant, I had a chance to meet more people adding to the ones i already worked with as one of the five youth facilitators for the World Telecoms Developement Conference Africa Regional preparatory meeting in Abuja and also the WSIS ARPM in Accra.I have dedicated most of my University days building an outreach for rural young people in the southeast of nigeria and currently a member of the coordinating of the Nigeria youth ICT4D Network, a network of youth led ICT initiatives.
I hope that our meeting in January will offer me an opportunity to find better ways of doing what i am doing and also be able to share my experience with others who wish to work with rural people. I could explain a little more on request.
Hello everybody,
nice to see my fellow Tunisians are doing so well!
I am sabrine, a Tunisian barrister-trainee, postgraduate in law from Faculte des sciences juridiques of Tunis, a Chevening scholar for the academic year 2006/2007, enrolled in the Master of International and Commercial Business Law, University of East Anglia, U.K.
My new life in U.K. is coloured with British and international flavours, since the friends I am meeting come from the five continents, so diversity…, there you go!
Involved in the Reachout project since WSIS, I am keen on dialogue and cultural exchanges and if this can serve a good cause, I would be more than glad!
The next workshop is, then, the best opportunity to start thinking about the future of Reachout, how to involve more and more people and how to make our voices heard.
sealed with peace
Sabrine
So here I am for the interview. Where is everyone??
hi nader,
it’s actually a telephone interview.
can you supply your landline and mobile phone numbers?
we are doing two interviews. one at 1500 gmt, the other at 1600 gmt.
just drop them through to my email at matt.REMOVETHISoneill@imarco.com
thanks,
matt
HI Everybody,
I’m really glad to read about all of you.
Here’s a brief introduction about myself.I’m Khaoula, a 29 years old Tunisian young woman, working as a jurist in a bank in Tunis.As I’m involved in the scout movement as a chief for guides and with the Junior Chamber International as a member, I’ve learned to help the others, to work in groups and how to build new ideas and projects.Joining the reach out community is another opportunity for me to do that but on an international level this time.I have been in Germany, Taïwan and Hong Kong when attending scout activities and I liked the contact with other cultures. That was an opportunity for me to know better about the others from no arabic countries and it was an opportunity to give them a good idea of the arabic and muslims.
Reach out will be an opprtunity for arabic youth to give a good idea from their cultures and helping their fellows to better their abilities and their life in general.
My expectations about the reach out workshop of january? Giving a good training program that can help us to reach the goals we defined,finding ways to achieve the projects and having a very good time with all of you.
See you in Manchester
Khaoula
What do you hope the reach out project will give you when you’re here in January 2007?
hi khaoula,
we hope to see you in the web chat on monday.
all best,
matt
Hi guys,
I thought I’d add an introduction here, as well as the BC forum, so that people are up to date…my name is Sara, I’m 28, and an itinerant poetry librarian / digital archiver & researcher / broadcaster / many more things. Since May 2006 I’ve been touring a poetry library around Europe, installing it in different cities, and recording poetry in different languages and interviewing poets from different countries on their thoughts about poetry (and thus, possibly everything else, since poetry is ultimately bound up with ‘truth’). I’m interested in how digital technology aids / defies / defeats / controls / enables / engages communication . . . and I hope the Reachout project will provide us with some answers, and some individual routes, we can go off and explore. Very much looking forward to Jan 2007 and meeting you all.
Best wishes,
Sara
aka The Itinerant Poetry Librarian
Hi everyone,
here goes:
I’m claudia matta, lebanese and proud to be one even though i live in a country which has seen a lot of hardships in the past years… I’m 19 years old, 20 in a few months and will be stepping into what everyone calles adulthood
Anyways, i am in my second year majoring in Nutrition and Dietetics and am hopefully aiming to work as a community nutritionist so reach out is a really important aspect of my life and a first step to wht i would like my life to revolve around
I really hope to meet you all guys in person, and am ready to contribute as much as possible to this project which is very very promising.
please, let me know how i can help
cheers from lebanon!
Claudia
Its really Interesting to find many more young people wishing to be part of this rather educating and constructive Idea. I do really appologise for not making it to the online chat was as a result of me being in one of the rural villages in Niger delta on a training exercise for militant youths and thus there was no access over there close to the creeks.
All thesame ite good we are all warming up for janueary.
Hello everybody,
My name is Malika, and I am a tunisian law student living in Tunisia. I am a bit disconnected these times as I was preparing my exams, I still haven’t finished but I am having a little rest to send a little message
I like latino and jazz music, indian food (there is no indian restaurant in Tunisia so I try to eat indian food when I am abroad:-)and old movies.
I’ve joined the Reach out project since november 2005 during the WSIS and I hope this time we will finish with a concrete and totally accomplished project ready to implement.
The famous tunisian names.. Ibn khaldun, anouar brahem (the musician), .. i don’t know who you may know
Like everybody I would travel all around the world and always discover new places and cultures, I would like to promote the tunisian culture which I find really nice (food, clothes, literature, music, etc.)
I hope that the reach out will allow us, me and my colleagues to express our differences and to make the others discover them.
The reach out should be a solution to the generalized misunderstanding between the people and launch a movement of openmindedness and cultural abundance