Taking on Additional Activities
Maysara Al Arabeed, 25, lives in Gaza city with his eight family members, and studied mathematics at Al Aqsa University in Gaza. Being articulate remarkable personable, Maysara found work as a public relations officer at Al Aqsa University after he graduated in 2011. This was a change in career direction for Maysara, and in his words, “I am a strong advocate for Palestine and media is our window to the world.”
With an outstanding social media record and clear career plans, Maysara has been awarded the Al Fakhoora International Masters Scholarship and he left Gaza in 2013 to begin his studies in social media at Birmingham University.
“Social Media is a very important tool, it reaches a lot of different age groups everywhere around the world. It’s a very interesting media tool; particularly in support of the Palestinian question where specialized people don’t know how to use social media to address different issues, for example those related to the siege on Gaza. The siege that isolates Gaza from the rest of the world. Social media, if used correctly and with the right approach, can help bring the Palestine issue more effectively into the global arena” Maysara stated.
During the summer of 2012 Maysara was chosen to represent Palestine at the International Youth Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Held in early, October 2012, Maysara was named Palestine Youth Ambassador for the year 2013.
Maysara has been helping to bring academics and activities from the UK to Palestine “This initiative is meant to enable westerners understand the situation of the Gaza Strip on the ground and eliminate serotypes. Besides giving Palestinian Youth the chance to speak and spread their messages.” Maysara stated.
In October 2013, Maysara won first place in the Global Inspirational Voices Initiative led by the World Network of Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs for his Inspirational video talking about children who have been traumatized because of the ongoing conflict in the Gaza strip. Maysara’s clip was a part of 39 films from 25 countries. Maysara has had over 13,000 views on YouTube, the highest among all the other candidates.
During the last months, Maysara has show outstanding activism in the UK, acting as a speaker at many events, such as at the BBC Academy where he spoke about the impact of social media, he’s also spoken on behalf of the Palestinian Right to Education Campaign at Birmingham University and other universities, presenting the challenges of Education in the Gaza Strip.
Most recently, Maysara was chosen as Media College student representative to the Student Council where his role is to advocate for undergraduate and graduate issues within the university.
View Maysara’s award winning video clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqeZ9ttZyGY
