#YouthForGood a noteworthy initiative

The UAE and benevolence are synonymous terms. When the social media helps strengthen the country’s humanitarian activities, it is all the more good.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s launching of a major philanthropic initiative, #YouthForGood, together with the UAE’s Youth Hub and Shamma Bint Suhail Faris Al Mazrui, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, is hugely creditable.

The project is noble especially because it involves youngsters and instills in them virtuous social responsibilities.

The competition calls on UAE-based youth to create a greater impact in local communities, whether through civic engagement, volunteering or charitable partnerships.

#YouthForGood will be open to participants of three to five people over the next three months. The initiative encourages the young people of the UAE to utilise the power of Twitter to launch a creative, engaging and active Twitter account that will fuel philanthropic efforts locally in their community.

There will be huge recognition for the winning team too as it will be awarded with the acclaimed Twitter MENA Award and a Twitter for Good Ads Grant.

Incidentally, the #YouthForGood initiative, the first of its kind in the world, aims to promote the use of Twitter to support humanitarian and social causes and sustain a culture of volunteering among youth in the region and the world.

It forms part of the broader global #TwitterForGood campaign, with the philanthropic mission to harness the positive power of Twitter to bring communities together.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai has been among the early adopters of social media in the region and completes a decade of his presence on Twitter this June.

Over the past decade, he has garnered 9.71 million followers on this Twitter account. The Dubai Ruler was on the 11th spot on the list of ‘The 50 most followed world leaders in 2018’. He had a following of 9 million Twitter users then.

As Sheikh Mohammed himself commented, “The UAE represents positive change and hope in our Arab region and we are keen to encourage our young people to harness the power of online platforms such as twitter to create a positive impact on their communities. #YouthForGood is a significant initiative in this direction.”

Social media has become a part of life. It brings with it huge advantages and has set off a knowledge explosion, knitting the entire world into a global village.

The UAE is among the few countries that have resolutely nurtured the huge positive potential of social media for the good of the society. The country has persistently kept pace with technology drawing praise from the international community.

In fact, the country is the second highest regional investor in Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the past 10 years, investing as much as  $2.15 billion in total, according to the AI Maturity Report in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) a study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Ernst & Young.

The bulk of this investment went towards social media and Internet of Things, transactions, followed by notable spending across eight technologies, including smart mobile and machine learning.

Shamma Al Mazrui well highlighted the scope of the youth initiative by stating, “The #YouthForGood reflects Twitter’s potential to impact communities by supporting real time communication across borders and barriers. This initiative gives our youth a chance to organise around a common purpose and unite to create a force for good using the power of Twitter.”