Asia 21 Young Leader of the Week: OMAID SHARIFI

Young Leader of the week! A human rights activist, Omaid who is the Co-Founder of Sela Foundation—an organization that works in improving the lives of the most vulnerable people of Afghanistan. He is also the Country Representative of the Hungary-based International Centre for Democratic Transition. He is also directly involved with Afghanistan’s civil society with his work as the Regional Manager of Tawanmandi—a civil society strengthening project. Omaid has worked with several national and international organizations such as USAID, the World Bank, British Council, and the Afghan government in different managerial and decision-making positions. He has also been working voluntarily for the rights of women, children, and youth in Afghanistan since 2004. He has been involved in establishing youth and social networks and organized workshops, seminars, conferences, radio broadcasts and TV shows around the country to enhance awareness about his advocacies. Omaid’s work to tackle corruption has been recognized by both Afghan civil society and the international community.

Omaid also holds memberships in several key organizations, including the Global Youth Anti-Corruption Network, Clinton Global Initiative University, South Asian Good News Channel, South Asian Youth Conference and he is a Board Member of the Paywand Afghanan Association.

On his being a part of the Asia 21 community, he says “Asia Society’s Asia 21—Afghanistan Young Leaders Initiative has been a diverse platform of key leaders from media, civil society, government and private sector. It is an effective network that can have a lot of influence in shaping policies. It has been a real learning experience in the last 2 years. This opportunity provided me with the chance to practice leadership and meet key leaders within government and international community. Membership in this program is vital in many ways; one of which is that I can raise my voice and concerns and provide solutions to the gigantic challenges that lies ahead of my country. As a part of our commitment to this program, we conducted town hall meetings and presented position papers on important conferences. I have been actively involved in both activities. We received a lot of recognition for the work that we are doing. It is a place where we can learn from each other and will continue to grow strong as a group.”