Youth contribution‘: Being part of the military wing gives you authority here in the camp’‘Aous’ with Sally Youssef

Aous is 18-year-old Palestinian refugee living in a refugee camp, in Lebanon. He first got involved with the Fatah movement through his scouting group when he was around seven or eight years old. He used to hold a flag and go with the other scouts to protests about the Palestinian cause and the status of Palestinians in Lebanon, wearing a blue shirt that they gave him. In the camp, there are many problems. Thieves and drugs make it unsafe for everyone. This motivated me to guard the camp against such things, especially since there are children here whose lives are affected. For example, there was a time when we had to kick someone out of the camp because he used to sell drugs to very young children. The number of robberies has increased since the Lebanese economic crisis because of the impact on the currency.

Suggested citation

Youssef, S. (2024). Youth contribution:‘Being part of the military wing gives you authority here in the camp’. In Young People in the Global South (pp. 307-310). Routledge (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003341666-32/youth-contribution-sally-youssef)