CAIRO: Ninety schools students will become certified Agents of Change on July 7 by the Dance4Life organization. Taking place in the Civil Education Center, this is the first “Life Skills Training Camp organized in Egypt. The camp lasts five days during which students learn about combating HIV and AIDS, supporting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Students also participated in an open forum where various United Nations (UN) agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) presented their activities. Students got the chance to learn about the different programs involved in achieving similar goals to those of Dance4Life.
A key emphasis is on teaching students to take initiatives themselves. “Initiatives can start at a small level like restoring their school playgrounds, said Amira Ragab, Communications Officer Assistant, at Dance4Life Egypt. Students will also receive instruction on communications, marketing, dealing with sponsors and various creative project ideas.
At the closing ceremony of the event, Dance4Life ambassador actress Youssra, will hand out certificates to the new Agents of Change.
To oversee and teach seminars on HIV/AIDS, living a healthy lifestyle, culture management and the MDGs were Dr Wessam Elbeih, HIV/AIDS officer at the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (Unicef); Umberto Bernantes, Joint United Nationas Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) technical officer; Dr Ibrahim Elkerdany, World Health Organization communications officer; Hanaa Elsawy, Culture Wheel Academy director; and Hisham Mostafa, expert at the United Nations Development Program.
Dance4Life is an international project operating in 13 countries with local projects to fight HIV/AIDS and otherwise support the MDGs. Dance4Life anticipates involvement in 18 countries by 2008. It has gained much regard among the youth in part due to the movement’s fusion of an important message with fun entertainment and through some of its largely popular good will ambassadors such as Dj Tiesto and Paul Van Dyk.
Egypt joined the movement in 2006 and has 21 schools involved. In November of 2006 Dance4Life organized an event by the Pyramids attended by 6,000 youths.
Dance4Life organizes such events globally every two years where each event is linked via satellite and tens of thousands all partake in the Dance4Life dance. Dance4Life is aiming at having a total of one million people attending these events world-wide.
