RAWALPINDI: In what he says is his greatest badge of honor, a Pakistani design expert from Islamabad has joined a Palestine-based course to teach design thinking to high school children in the West Bank.
The computer science and design thinking program Code.X launched its Palestine edition, Code for Palestine, in 2015. Sponsored by Palestine Telecommunications Company (PalTel), it has volunteer instructors teaching students in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. In 2015, 20 kids graduated from the course. In 2019, the number of graduates was 150.
"There's a lot I've done in life that I'm proud of. A lot that most don't have. But this beats all of it," Syed Faizan Raza said in a tweet on Saturday. "Teaching these kids, kids who've had an incomprehensibly difficult life, about design sounds like the perfect way to use what I know and love and cherish to give back."
"What inspired me to apply for this program is mostly Palestine, that I would get a chance to teach kids there," he told Arab News, adding that it is for him a "once in a lifetime" and "life-changing" opportunity.
After a series of interviews where he presented what a class with him would look like, the 28-year-old computer designer from Islamabad was selected as an instructor for the 2021 Code for Palestine, with online-based classes beginning on June 18.
"Faizan will be teaching a class of our West Bank students," Taylor Sihavong of Code.X told Arab News. "Our program has a 2:1 ratio of students from the West Bank and Gaza."
While he will be a teacher, Faizan says the course will be an important learning experience for him as well.
"Seeing what they want to be, what they want to do, how they face the realities of their circumstances, that's something I want to learn," he said.
"These kids will know much more about empathy than I ever would."
