Training the youth of the Middle East and North Africa means equipping them to face the great challenges of tomorrow: artificial intelligence, rising sea levels, migration crises, biomimicry, and space exploration.
This is precisely what the Junior Ambassadors of the Fondation Jacques Rougerie achieved this summer through an unprecedented Summer Camp that brought together students from Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Egypt.
Organized by Maram Abbas, Regional Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa of the Junior Ambassador program, and supported by leading institutions - including the Syrian Engineers Syndicate, the University of Tartous, the Chaderji Foundation, the National School of Architecture and Urbanism (ENAU) in Tunis, and Heriot-Watt University Dubai - the Summer Camp established training centers in Tartous, Damascus, Latakia, Beirut, and Tunis.
Over the course of four days, participants explored six essential themes:
- Artificial intelligence, architecture, and urban planning
- Contemporary architecture
- Architecture of displacement
- Biomimicry and architecture
- Architecture and rising sea levels
- Architecture and space
The program highlighted the diversity and international commitment of the Fondation's Junior Ambassadors network, with lectures delivered by Dr. Samer El Sayary (Egypt), Dana A. (Lebanon), Ryan Wong (China), Dilsha Mottee (Mauritius), Jose Carlo Bolaños Padilla (Costa Rica), Teresa Rodríguez García (Spain), Mohamed EMAD (Egypt), and Maram Abbas (Syria), coordinated by Yahia Barkaoui (Tunisia).
This event, the largest of its kind ever organized in the Middle East, demonstrates that youth can train youth and build concrete solutions for the future.
It also reflects the momentum of a particularly active August 2025, marked by international activities and conferences in Costa Rica and Guatemala, led by the Junior Ambassadors of the Fondation.