A few years ago, Jordan launched an initiative called BADIR to support budding young entrepreneurs, eager to contribute to positive change in their communities. Now Kuwait is following suit: the “n-mu” program endows participants with the skills and resources necessary to create real social change.

N-mu? That’s a funny name, you might be thinking. But it’s not a typo. It’s “أنمو” – the Arabic word for “I develop,” written in phonetic English. Through the program, participants will develop a solid grasp on what it means to be an active citizen, and they’ll also be encouraged to develop their own projects as social entrepreneurs.

This is one of several programs developed by a Kuwaiti organization called en.v, which advocates for the trifecta of education, environment and capacity-building. Created as a way to engage youth, n-mu promotes active citizenship through critical reflection, discussion, and action.

The third and final training session of the current n-mu program begins on January 31, and the commitment is meeting twice a week for four weeks. It’s time to apply, if you’re eligible! In order to participate, one must:

• Live in Kuwait
• Be under the age of 30
• Speak Arabic (as this session will be conducted in Arabic)
• Genuinely care about community issues and want to address them!

Even if you’re aware of the issues, addressing them is easier said than done. Luckily, the n-mu program doesn’t merely provide training; it also allocates funding! The grants will kickstart approved community projects proposed by ambitious and inspired participants.

The latest news on En.v’s twitter page is of GreenBagQ8, an “n-mu initiative” advocating for reusable shopping bags, which is slated to be featured in a documentary that will be broadcast by Kuwait’s Al-Arabi TV.

This kind of offer doesn’t surface every day…if you’re eligible, go for it! You can not only be the change you wish to see in the world, but also make it happen.

And if you’re not eligible, like me, you can just smile because you know that programs like this exist!

Photo of seminar from n-mu training session #1 from the En.v website.

The post Kuwaitis drive social change with new fund. N-mu? appeared first on Green Prophet.

“We believe in the power of youth to disrupt the global leadership status quo. We envision young people confidently stepping up to lead projects, campaigns, and collective actions,” says Martinez, “This intergenerational movement is not waiting for others to take action.” (Oh snap!, you Millennials.)

He and his 12-year-old brother, Itzcuauhtli, regularly team up to give school presentations to inspire other young people to take action on behalf of the planet. Their musical performances amplify that message, with eco-sensitive lyrics written by the younger Martinez that will get you dancing and inspire you to take action to create a better world.

The elder Martinez began his green activism when he was six years old. Now as Youth Director of the group Earth Guardians, he spearheads projects including a fracking ban in Colorado, elimination of neonicotinoid use in the city of Boulder, and the launch of RYSE – a youth empowerment campaign that will train more than 500 young “solutionaries” this year to become climate leaders in their own communities.

Last June, he delivered an impassioned climate change address to 200 delegates at the United Nations (UN) and he has a cameo in a short film being produced by Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. In December, he’ll be in Paris addressing the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, better known as COP21. This year’s summit, for the first time in over two decades of UN negotiations, aims to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the goal of capping global warming below 2°C.

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Their new album is Generation RYSE (an acronym standing for Rising Youth for a Sustainable Earth.) The website for their band Earth Guardians tells visitors:

We are a tribe of young activists, artists and musicians from
across the globe stepping up as leaders and co-creating the future
we know is possible. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

That site also offers a kid-friendly climate guide called 50 Simple Things (link here), updates on musical performances and rallies, and items you can buy to support their efforts (click on the Swag Tab).

“We don’t just get recognition because we’re young,” said Martinez, “We get recognition because we bring a unique conscious hip-hop to the stage that people aren’t seeing anywhere else.”

Images from Earth Guardians website

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