“Through this experience I enlarged my network and met new people with whom I can collaborate in the future and I learned how to manage time and money as they were the most challenging things. I am grateful to AIC staffers because of their support, patience, and encouragement”
Marwen Bejaoui, a 25 year old interior designer and member of the “Citizenship Festival” initiative formed a network of volunteers led by 6 literary people, Tunisian and French teachers to help 18 young pupils develop writing skills for citizenship. As Tunisian society is just emerging from decades of dictatorship, the next generation has not been prepared to absorb the major changes needed for a civic culture. Bridging the gap means teaching people at a young age how to become engaged citizens. This program was designed to train children from age 10-15 (a critical age around adolescence) in citizenship via writing workshops. Pupils created poems, short stories, and brief news articles; it was an occasion for them to learn how to express themselves in an open society. This was a test run to develop a curriculum and a concept that can be brought to communities across the country as 13 short stories have chosen as the best writings.
