Launched in 2010, Generation Change is an online platform dedicated to empowering and networking a new generation of innovative young leaders in Muslim communities around the world. It provides a platform for the free exchange of ideas across borders, cultures, and faiths, as well as a community of positive role models, peers and mentors who help to create and implement solutions for local and global challenges. The first chapter in the US was launched at a State Department event that brought together 74 innovative youth leaders under the age of 30 – from prize-winning poets to filmmakers, to youth activists and founders of national charities. Generation Change aims to encourage young people to take control of their destinies, and to help them implement solutions that are in the common interest of both America and their communities. The platform has since expanded to a global one with over 50 chapters in place around the world.
Iftiin Foundation, as a founding member of Generation Change, has played an important role in growing the program. In partnership with the US Department of State and the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Iftiin launched the first Generation Change chapter in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu that brought together ninety youth activists and entrepreneurs to discuss the role of youth in changing a post-conflict society for the better. Many of these youths are using technology to move ideas forward. Their ability to amplify the power of traditional community organizing with new media will allow them to lift their voices beyond their own geographic or cultural boundaries, and their ripple effect will make waves. Members of Somalia’s Generation Change network are launching initiatives and projects that are changing their communities for the better.
