YALLA VOTE ‘08 Our Voice. Our Future.

AAI is proud to introduce the Yalla Vote Field Organizers. For information about these amazing young men and women, and how to contact them, please visit the Field Organizers page here at Yalla Vote.
Hassan, our Field Organizer in Michigan, gives us an update:

Yesterday, the staff here at the AAI Michigan Field Office had the great honor of meeting with a delegation of visiting Arab and Turkish community leaders and activists from Germany. The German guests were visiting our community on a tour with the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). The IVLP is an exchange program run designed to build professional connections between communities in the U.S. and leaders abroad. Past alumni of the IVLP program include over 200 past and current heads of state, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

The mostly Turkish group, along with their German translators, met with with our staff at our Dearborn office in order to learn more about the Yalla Vote campaign, and other strategies used by AAI in order to empower the Arab American community. The visitors inquired about the electoral and political power of Arab Americans, and ways in which Arab American youth have organized around issues that concern the Arab American community. In a sometimes free ranging discussion, our German guests were impressed by the great diversity of political opinion and active involvement of Arab Americans, and stressed the need for even greater integration into the American political process.

AAI Michigan Intern Sandra Jaward adds her observations of the event:

Yesterday we had the unique opportunity to exchange ideas, conversation, and a few laughs with our foreign German Turkish visitors. They were particularly interested in how our organization mobilizes the youth to be engaged in politics. After the conversation I sensed that the challenges Arab Americans face when they endeavor to participate in politics to influence policy is similar to their challenges of getting the Turkish community in Germany involved. I learned after this discussion that it is imperative to stress the need for civic participation while we endorse the yallah vote campaign. Addressing the need to every citizen to voice their opinions in an effort to guarantee and sustain democratic values is essential for the subsequent success of any community, whether here in Michigan or Germany.