iEARN-USA works with various partners and programs to build a network of opportunities for young people to work together. One of those programs is the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program (YES). The YES program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, provides scholarships for secondary school students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend one academic year in the United States. Students live with host families, attend high schools, engage in activities to learn about American society and values, acquire leadership skills, and help educate Americans about their countries and cultures.

iEARN-USA recently partnered with AMIDEAST, another organization that recruits for the YES program, for a YES Gender Parity Specialists (YESGPS) Workshop in Beirut, Lebanon. For many people, gender inequality is such a large, daunting, and complex problem in our society, it can seem impossible to find an entry point to make a positive difference. But not for the sixteen YES alumni who recently attended the YESGPS Workshop in Beirut, Lebanon, including an iEARN YES alumna from Bangladesh, Tahseen Lubaba. Tahseen has worked with self-defense training and leadership building for female students. She has also worked with reproductive health awareness in slum dwelling women. Along with Tahseen, the other YES alumni who attended the workshop were all “specialists” in the sense that they have a proven track record and impressive background of working in the gender field as practitioners, educators, researchers, and/or advocates. Each YESGPS participant brought their own nuanced understanding and experiences of gender (in)equalities, and had three days to engage with other YES alumni doing similar work around the world.  

YESGPS participants left Beirut with a deeper understanding of gender parity, a new network of YES alumni and gender professionals, and more project management tools to implement their gender projects. Tahseen said that after YESGPS she hopes to further improve her work in leadership building by addressing the issues of confidence gap and body issues in the workshops. The YESGPS workshop was organized by AMIDEAST and iEARN-USA staff.

To read more about the YESGPS workshop, check out the full story on the YES program Website. To learn more about the YES program and how you can get involved by hosting a YES student, go to yesprograms.org/host.