Ghadir Sa’adat, 25, is a Young Leader Program’s alumnus from Bamyan province. After his graduation from the program, he recently founded a cultural association called Shogofayi Taghir—literally meaning Blossoming Change—in Bamyan. Through his association, he facilitates socio-cultural dialogues aiming to promote empathy and mutual understanding in his community. He talks about his experiences and motivation behind establishing such initiative.
Ghadir first joined the Bamyan container to attend socio-cultural dialogues in mid-2018. “Before joining the Bamyan container, I used to be inactive and lack confidence. I was indifferent to what was happening around me, I had never experienced what it would be like to be engaged in the community and interact with other young people,” Ghadir explained. “Then I came to participate in socio-cultural dialogues. I developed self-confidence as well as build trust in others by interacting with them.”
Ghadir turned out to be one of the most active participants of the first round of the Young Leaders Program (YLP). “I believe every young leader should start from him/herself. How could a young leader change society if he/she has not changed yet? “
He founded the Shogofayi Taghir association in late 2019. “I did not want YLP to be the end of my work and I did not want to stop there”.Through his association, he primarily focuses on promoting socio-cultural dialogues, mostly among young people.
“I realized that dialogue is a very good way to identify our community problems and is an excellent starting point to find solutions collectively. In our dialogues, we mostly focus on topics such as empathy and mutual understanding because I believe most of the conflicts at family and community level are escalating because people do not understand one another and do not have the chance to sit together and talk. Conventionally, people resort to violence to deal with the conflicts rather than using peaceful means and I am determined to promote dialogue as the best alternate option to violence.”
Ghadir is pleased about the number of people who have welcomed his dialogues so far. “At first not more than ten people would participate in these sessions, but each week the number has been increasing and now more than fifty people participate in separate sessions each month,” he said
“I have learned that it is not necessarily money that is needed to start doing valuable work in your community, but rather motivation, a strong determination and the formation of a committed team. He said.
Ghadir and his team aim to expand the reach of their activities across Bamyan in the future. “In the near future, I would like to launch such dialogues for school students because I believe they need to become familiar with the culture of dialogues at these early ages.”