Changemakers
Meet Nour Elhouda Mahmoudi, an Algerian Scout and champion of youth engagement who is creating opportunities to empower Algerian youth as changemakers in society, through Scouting.
“Scouting really helped to shape the person I am today.”
A Scout since the age of eight, Nour (26) is passionate about giving back to Scouting and giving young people a voice. She is a member of her National Board, a global Youth Representative for World Scouting and was named a Messenger of Peace Hero in 2021 for her remarkable leadership and impact on youth empowerment in Algeria.
Not afraid of a challenge, Nour successfully coordinated the nationwide Youth Challenge in 2021, bringing together young innovators and visionaries from different backgrounds and ethnicities in Algeria to learn about entrepreneurship, project management, and civic engagement. She saw an opportunity to build on this experience and “Changemakers” was born, to skill up and encourage more young leaders — Scouts and others — to become more engaged in civil society as agents of change.
Nour assembled a Changemakers project team —all young women and men under 30 — and they got to work. Together, they have reached 200 young leaders to date, equipping them with key skills via regional training workshops on leadership, dialogue for peace, entrepreneurship, project management and resource mobilisation, while empowering them to develop and design advocacy and community initiatives in response to issues that matter to them most.
Young people were able to participate from in and around Algiers, as well as from the Provinces of Ouargla, Jijel and additional provinces in the east, thanks to generous support from the Alwaleed Philanthropies Fund for Scouts for SDGs, via the World Scout Foundation.
“I like seeing and proving that young people can create and lead big solutions to issues of importance in their society. They have the power and only need encouragement and the right opportunities.”
The Changemakers team gave participants this opportunity, providing follow-up training later in 2022 on administrative and financial project management for participants with promising ideas who had already started work on their community initiatives. Examples of the projects now underway are the construction of a Quranic school, the establishment of a language school and the launch of a project to design and sell traditional Algerian clothes, among others. The long-term aim is to support the changemakers to further adapt and scale up their initiatives, inspiring even more young people to action.
Together, the Changemakers team has successfully:
- Created a safe dialogue space for Algerian Scouts and other young people to present, discuss and develop their ideas, advocate for their rights and make their voices heard.
- Promoted a culture of community participation and active citizenship, enabling the young people involved to develop and implement initiatives on issues they deem are important.
- Strengthened youth empowerment in Algerian Scouting so that more young people can support the national leadership and become engaged in the decision-making processes.
Nour credits Scouting with helping her to find her voice, which she now uses to advocate for young people’s rights. Her advice to others:
“Identify the problem. Try to accept and respect the different challenges of your community. Ask for support from an amazing team — you have a great network if you are a Scout! Just find the right people and don’t be afraid. Just dare! Don’t miss the opportunity to create an impact in your community.”
“Don’t be afraid. Just dare! Don’t miss the opportunity to create an impact in your community.”
Scouts for SDGs is the world’s largest coordinated youth contribution to the SDGs, through which Scouts take action to accelerate sustainable development and positively transform their local communities.
