New agreement with Al Bireh Municipality to promote social entrepreneurship

Birzeit University, represented by its president Abdullatif Abuhijleh, and Al Bireh Municipality, represented by its mayor Azzam Ismael, signed an agreement to support community engagement initiatives and promote social entrepreneurship under the umbrella of the Leadership and Active Citizenship Program — Masari.

The agreement comes as the program is preparing for its sixth station, which will start in the upcoming 2019-2020 academic year. This station works on social entrepreneurship by encouraging the students to reflect on the knowledge and skills they accumulated through their learning journey and gain new competencies in assessing community needs and designing initiatives.

With the support of the Ramallah and Al Bireh Governorate, the municipality will offer all its facilities to contribute in enhancing the life-skills of the students, helping them to implement their social and community-oriented projects. The university and the municipality will jointly work on creating a stimulating and supportive environment for innovation and creativity, in addition to organizing relevant workshops and events.

Abuhijleh said that the partnership with Al Bireh Municipality will help the university’s mission in shaping the economic, cultural and social well-being of Palestinian youth.

“Working together with municipalities will create a more innovative and inclusive community,” he added.

Ismael assured that working with higher education institutions can reinforce innovate, creative and high-quality work, which nurtures the structure of the students’ projects for the benefit of the Palestinian society as a whole.

Laila Ghannam, the Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, expressed her enthusiasm about this new collaboration which will, according to her, play a part in the development of the society and the establishment of its institutions through community-led initiatives, and develop its youth’s sense of belonging and giving.