Toastmasters’ Youth Leaders

The Youth Leadership Program, Gavel, and Toastmasters clubs are all public speaking clubs that cater to a wide variety of people, with each club type being suitable for a different age demographic. YLP is for beginners between 12 and 17 years old to learn the basics; Gavel clubs include the same age range but have much more to look forward to and continue to exist for as long as enough members attend and participate. Toastmasters clubs are an even more sophisticated form for adults to join. Toastmasters International (TMI) has endorsed and supported each of these clubs.

Affreej YLP (Youth Leadership Program) was a program that ran between 2020 and 2023. It was a leadership and public speaking course for children between the ages of 12 and 17 (just the fundamentals). It proceeded in a sequence of batches, where each batch represented the group of participants in the program as well as the length of a typical YLP (roughly two and a half months with weekly sessions). Periodically, the YLP was extended to facilitate a new batch of 9.

Our story began amidst the challenges of the 2020 lockdown, where the Affreej Youth Leadership. The YLP program emerged as a beacon of opportunity for young minds aged 12–17. Despite the initial hurdles of working with online sessions, dedicated mentors, ToastMasters Abubakr and Fatima, steered each batch with professionalism and resilience. With each passing session and batch, our members, including Gavelier (Gavel Club member) Abdurahman and the dynamic Youth Leader Salena, embraced
the journey of self-improvement.

It is now 2024, and we have entered a new era. That being a Gavel Club, operating at JeddahPoint Café. This has been in the making since we started retaining members after a batch was over. Now, all of the drawbacks of continuing a YLP have been mitigated. After sorting out all the paperwork, finally became eligible and supported by TMI to have this: the AFFREEJ Gavel Club.