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The program, which will last 16 months, is part of a multi-country grant that Citi Foundation has awarded Amideast through its global Pathways to Progress initiative, which prepares youth with career readiness tools and opportunities to thrive in today's economy. In addition to the Assiut-based program in Egypt, the grant will also fund training for 54 underserved youth in Saudi Arabia in employability skills crucial for their success in the rapidly changing Saudi economy.

The Youth Innovation Program will support 100 youth from Irbid, Theban, and Kerak to encourage and promote innovation and product development of market-ready and commercially viable product prototypes through its Arabic-language nine-step ideation, creation, and product-design process. The Ministry, InventionLand, and Amideast will select the top inventions from the program to be evaluated by InventionLand’s team of innovation engineers to mass produce their innovations and earn income for Jordanian youth inventors through established partnerships with major U.S. retailers.

Ambassador Edward M. Gabriel, a member of Amideast’s board of directors, published the following op-ed today in The Hill, calling on the United States to take a leading role in the humanitarian relief effort for Lebanon in the wake of last month’s massive explosion in Beirut.

Congratulations to Amideast alumna Nataly Naser Al Deen, who was selected as one of Forbes Middle East’s 30 Under 30! The Lebanese researcher, scholar, and social entrepreneur is an alumna of multiple U.S. Department of State programs administered by Amideast, including the Fulbright, the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study, and the Tomorrow’s Leaders programs.

Recognizing the unlikelihood of onsite education abroad programs in the fall, Amideast moved to develop its new Virtual Learning and Cultural Exchange program, which unites faculty, staff, guest speakers, artists, and host communities from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Jordan. Faculty and staff have spent the summer engaged in a collaborative workshop to apply best practices in adapting their courses to a hybrid model that can be delivered entirely online in fall 2020, thereafter accommodating students enrolled in both the onsite and virtual environments.

In addition, Amideast and AAF will develop a framework for a network of partners and supporting entities from civil society and the public and private sectors, with the aim of identifying and implementing the best programs that serve Jordanian youth.

Under the agreement, Amideast will also give priority to AAF youth seeking to join Amideast programs and courses that develop the career readiness and capacity of youth, thereby expanding their opportunity in life by helping them to become self-reliant and to have the skills necessary to enter the labor market.

WASHINGTON, DC, AUGUST 4, 2020 — The explosion in the Port of Beirut this evening caused extensive damage to the Amideast/Beirut office, located in the nearby city center, but thankfully our staff avoided major injuries. We extend our thoughts and prayers to the people of Lebanon, especially the victims of this tragic event and the Amideast staff, advisory board members, students, and their families. May Lebanon and its people overcome this tragic event as they have so many others with their trademark resolve and optimism.

I have worked in international exchange for my whole career. I have seen up close how the exchange of ordinary people — students, teachers, scholars, and professionals — has changed lives, impacted institutions, affected policy, and drawn our world closer together despite language, cultural, and political divides.

Amideast’s Alexandria office worked with underserved, unemployed, and underemployed university graduates from the Damanhour area to expand the program’s impact beyond Egypt’s major cities. The 2020 Skills for Success participants completed 280 hours of personal development and professional skills training, complemented with practical internships and mentoring. They proved to themselves, their families, and their communities that opportunities exist even in the most difficult circumstances.

Colleagues,

I know most of you are deeply troubled, as am I, by the recent murders of several of our fellow African-American citizens at the hands of the police or vigilantes. If there is any advantage to being older, it is the ability to place recent events in the context of what you have witnessed over the course of your life.