Melhem Mansour of Syria is studying at the Coady International Institute. (Heather MacAdam photo)

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Melhem Mansour is keeping a close eye on the news to see what is happening in his home country.
The native of Syria is in Antigonish in the diploma program at the Coady International Institute and hopes the experience will help him in his work giving a voice to youth in his country.
Syria is currently facing massive protests as part of the Arab Spring – a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests in the Arab world. Protests began on Jan. 26 this year and escalated to an uprising by March 15.
Mansour said he arrived in Antigonish about two weeks ago and is settling in well, with the exception of the weather.
Mansour works with the EU (European Union) in different projects in addition to being in the Syrian Youth Parliament.
Through his work with EU, Mansour said he works with state and non-state actors to plan and fund different capacity building projects, especially around the theme of sustainable development.
“This is my main work. We get funding and technical support and people do the projects themselves,” he said. “We observe and monitor the projects.”
The Syrian Youth Parliament is a new project in his region, Mansour said.
“We have European Youth Parliament, Canadian Youth Parliament, in every province there’s a youth parliament. We wanted to start something similar in Syria and it’s funded by the British government.”
The project is a democratic pilot project, not only for Syria but for all the Middle East.
“Because of the situation and the crisis that started in Syria, we ceased the project. But we had a lot of steps we made in order to promote the idea of the Syria Youth Parliament.”
He said before the crisis began people were against the government, against regime and dictatorship system in the country.
“I’m one of them,” he said. “But we wanted to work to improve the situation. But after the crisis, it’s just split between young people with or against the regime – there’s no more dialogue.”
Mansour said he was in a dialogue position and through his work he tried to bring the opposition and pro-regime people together to discuss what should be done better the country.
“But within this kind of crisis the regime itself excluded the voice of young people,” he said, adding only youth in support of the regime would have their voices heard.
“At the end of the day we had meetings, we made road maps, we asked for political involvement of young people but at the end of the day [nothing was accomplished].”
Whether the regime continues or not Mansour said the aim of his work is the have the voice of young people heard.
“Not only heard, we need the young people themselves making their policies and making their future.
“Their voice is still excluded.”
This type of democratic revolution will take time, Mansour said, adding he hopes to see a time when his society becomes more similar to European countries.
“[They] have young ministers and young leadership in their social and political structure.”
Mansour said being away from him home, family and friends is very hard. One reason is it’s the next day before news from his country reaches here.
“It’s a very tough feeling. You feel destroyed until you hear some piece of news.
“At the same time I’m feeling a bit more relaxed. In my country, I was under investigation because I was opposing the government. It’s very hard for any intellectual or any leader to live within this kind of crisis bubble and not criticize. Some people claim that they are leaders, they are trying to solve the situation but at the end they don’t offer a solution – the win-win approach.”
Mansour added he had concerns he wouldn’t be able to come to Coady because he may have been blacklisted at the airport. However, now that he is here, Mansour said he is happy to focus on studying leadership and development.
“The two terms are very challenging,” he said.
“Development is very challenging work for everyone because, first of all, it’s not sustainable. We devote our [energy] and our time just for others. Leadership is also challenging because it’s a game of power – you have people who are satisfied with your role and others who are not satisfied.”