“There is no greater challenge than improving and developing yourself.“

Doha – QatarDebate Center

The QatarDebate Center – a member of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development – considers the summer camps as an important means in developing students’ skills as a group activity characterized by a spirit of high communication and understanding the difference.

The camp is unique in its excellence and fun through interactive programs, which increase the depth of knowledge of the participants, and adapt to the international developments during the spread of COVID19, by using remote communication techniques between students and organizers. They are Mr. Abdulrahman Al-Kubaisi and Mr. Mohamed Khader from Qatar, Mr. Fahd Al-Subaie, Mr. Bader Al-Shatti from Kuwait, and Mr. Salem Al-Shammakhy, and Ms. Hawa Al-Jaradi from the Sultanate of Oman, and Hamza Al-Sioufi from Georgetown University in Qatar. This reflected positively upon them by building their abilities, despite differing attitudes and ideas.

The summer camp provided a favorable climate for young people to adapt and rely on self-confidence in their ability to analyze and refute the open debate on social, regional and international issues.

The camp showed the ability of center’s staff to encourage the youth to generate more ideas.

Abdulrahman Al Subaie

Mr. Abdulrahman Al Subaie – Head of Outreach Programs, at the QatarDebate Center – said that the situation of Corona, which sweeps the region and the world, did not hinder the center and the participants to focus the efforts in delivering the message to keep up with the goals of the center.

The professionalism of the center’s staff appeared in the camp by involving the minds of students in analyzing issues in all possible ways that were characterized by modernity.

A panel discussion with Dr. Ali Al-Sanad from Kuwait

The camp included a discussion session with Dr. Ali Al-Sanad from the sisterly State of Kuwait, during which he discussed topics affecting the debaters and the challenges they face. These challenges are related to their dealings with others and the extent of their interaction with the community after they were able to master debating and consider in depth the pros and cons that the debate brings. The students showed a distinct interaction during this discussion.

Opinions of some of the participants in the summer camp of debates

The camp had a great impact on the importance of training, presentation and discussion. The participants expressed their happiness to participate in the activities of the camp due to the importance of the activities which are conducted with a new theme that supports students’ cognitive skills in debating and discussing topics that touch their interests in the field of ethics and science.

Abdullah Al-Kubaisi (Qatar)

Qatari debater Abdullah Al-Kubaisi said: “The special thing about the camp is the meeting brothers and sisters from the Gulf under one developmental educational ceiling and promoting teamwork between them. The benefit of the camp is the development of debating skills, and I gained a set of knowledge in the ethical and economic framework besides being able to use what I learned in the debate.

On his experience in the camp, Al-Kubaisi said: “The camp is more than a wonderful experience through which I made many friends and developed my skills. In addition, this experience will remain immortalized in memory.  I express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the organizers for providing this beautiful opportunity for me and my colleagues.”

Fatima Al-Qarashi (Kuwait)

Kuwaiti analyst Fatima Al-Qarashi referred to the most important features of the camp by saying: “The camp’s atmosphere was competitive among the trainees, by providing educational content in an interactive way, and setting challenges and competitions that gradually increased in difficulty over the days of the camp. This made our enthusiasm increase day after day, in addition to choosing the best guests to present the discussion panels. Although the camp was run remotely, it was not a camp to teach skills and ideas, but rather there was interaction with the trainers who were keen to provide us with all the development skills. Making friends with the trainees is the biggest proof of the success of this camp and its uniqueness from others.

On the benefit of the camp, Fatima said: “This camp made me delve into several concepts and look at them at different angles. This broadened my horizons at different fields, including ethical problems in medicine, economics and technology. The camp also improved my debating skills allowing me to use them in daily life. This not only benefited my knowledge, but it also taught me time management and commitment skills, cooperative learning and competitive and challenging spirit. I learned how to use my hobbies in the field of debate.

She described her experience as unique. Despite her love for debates, she was more attached to this field and loved it. She feels proud of her participation in this camp, which included a group of distinguished students and coaches, which made the experience unforgettable.

Amna Al-Ajamy (Oman)

In turn, the Omani analyst, Amna Al Ajamieh, said about the fruits of the camp: “As for me, I have got new skills through the various workshops held in this camp. The most important of these skills is the management of dialogue and discussion sessions and the expression of opinion in different ways. This made me a good debater who can go into diverse fields with high levels, in addition to developing the skills that I need as a debater such as refutation, argumentation and arbitration.”

She describes her experience in the camp as the first of its kind in her debating career. The camp is an important station in her life because she has developed all her skills in debating and upgrading the cognitive level, and has added a lot to her in terms of methods of expressing her opinion and the method of accepting opinions and discussing them. Also, she has learned about the different methods that arbitrators and trainers use that you may encounter in the future. In addition, she gained knowledge and established friendly relations with the debaters of the participating countries – the State of Qatar – the State of Kuwait), thus, she reaped great benefits that came back from the camp.

As for what distinguishes this camp according to her opinion: “The camp is a precise implementation plan filled with activities, events, workshops, and everything that motivates the participating debaters to provide the best in all fields at local, Arab and international levels.

The contestants praised the camp program and the feedback and demanded that the workshops be applied as the discussion workshop presented by Mr. Saad al-Assad and the refutation workshop presented by Mr. Abdulrahman Al-Kubaisi.

Coach Mohamed Khader – QatarDebate Center

The motivational atmosphere of the camp created an atmosphere of enthusiasm and positive competition between the contestants

Coach Mohamed Khader

The perseverance of students and trainers has showed the features of happiness and pride in everyone belonging to the Qatar Debate Center. In addition, the ability of trainers to communicate and simplify information and interact with students in an interesting way enriched the participants’ passion and interest in all the details that contribute to increasing confidence in their skills and their capabilities to develop and update.

This was confirmed by instructor Mohamed Khader about the importance of distance training for students by saying: “During this camp, we presented a unique experience for a number of debaters from Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. This experience was characterized by being focused on debate. This was highlighted by the bylaw of the motivational system of the camp that created an atmosphere of enthusiasm and positive competition between the analysts in the various activities and training workshops.”

He added: “We were pleased with the great interaction of the debaters with the activities, which led us to add challenges and interactive activities through which the debaters were able to employ their skills in various fields and integrate them into the debate so that they could dazzle the organizers with their innovation and talent.

The programs stemmed from a sense of belonging to the global community, and opened the windows for positive dialogue based on respect for opinion, developing positive knowledge, skills and behaviors, caring for the principle of self-reliance within the team’s work and gaining the ability to carry out their collective responsibilities, and consolidating remote collective action.

Noting that everyone was in agreement about the importance of different social media in managing discussions and communicating and spreading important and useful information.

He concluded: “The interactive side was strongly present among everyone in managing the discussions and raising topics of interest to the region and the world.”