A new Youth Led Initiative Fund to support volunteering and youth engagement in Jordan was launched Sunday on International Volunteer Day by Nahno, Jordan’s National Platform for Volunteering and Engagement — a programme by Naua, a Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) Initiative supported by UNICEF in partnership with the CPF and in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth.

Since its inception, Nahno has engaged 48,000 young volunteers in over 1.2 million hours of volunteering work through 120,000 opportunities that have benefitted local communities, government, civil society and the private sector across Jordan, according to a joint statement.

Nahno aims to instill "a proud tradition” of volunteering and contributing to society in young people, while also offering them valuable opportunities to build their skills and work experience — and other incentives, including mentorship, technical training, discounts, work references and phone credit. 

The Nahno Youth Led Initiative Fund will enable youth to lead their own volunteering projects by receiving the necessary technical support, mentoring, coaching and seed funding to design, plan and implement new opportunities and activities according to a set criterion. 

"Engagement through volunteering allows individuals to grow through different experiences and gain skills that may help them in their future endeavours. Through helping their community, young people can gain confidence in their leadership skills and become motivated to succeed,” said CPF CEO Tamam Mango.

"This fund will be critical to empowering youth to lead their own volunteering initiatives by providing the necessary support and, at a national level, systematically recording their efforts to effectively measure their great impact on society,” said Naua CEO Ahmad Al Zu’bi

"This has been an exceptionally difficult year, especially for young people whose entire lives, from study to work to socialising, have been upended. I am inspired by the resilience and the leadership shown by the youth volunteers who refused to let this pandemic break their spirit, instead they volunteered online to share lifesaving information, packed food parcels and took care of the most vulnerable in their community,” said UNICEF Jordan Representative Tanya Chapuisat.

The theme of International Volunteer Day 2020 is "Together we can through volunteering”. 

The Crown Prince Foundation and Naua will continue to work closely with UNICEF, the Ministry of Youth and the public and private sectors to provide youth in Jordan with the tools and opportunities they need to become active citizens and to contribute to positive change in their communities, the statement said

Nahno, the National Platform for Volunteering and Engagement, is supported by the Prospects partnership from the Government of the Netherlands, according to the statement.