Students at QF Use the Power of Communication To Take a Stand Against Bullying

Students at a Qatar Foundation school have been recognized for their work in leading an anti-bullying campaign that has run for over six months.

Qatar Academy Doha (QAD) – a school under Qatar Foundation’s (QF) Pre-University Education (PUE) – celebrated its students’ efforts by awarding them certificates of recognition at a special event, and inviting their parents to witness the final outcome of a journey of advocacy and learning.

Empowered by a sense of agency and the desire to voice their ideas from an early age, students at QAD chose bullying as the topic they wanted to shine a spotlight on through an integrated media campaign called Bullying Hurts Everyone.

Led by students, designed for students, and supported by PUE, QF’s Communications Directorate, and QF alumni, the students harnessed their range of communication skills to address various types of bullying and emphasize its short and long-term impact on its victims through different types of media.

“Primary and senior school students met at a brainstorming session and, after discussions, we agreed that bullying is a major topic we need to address and to try to find a way to help stop this behavior,” said Alia Ahmed Al Maadeed, a Grade 4 student at QAD.

The campaign focused on how bullying affects everyone, including those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness it, and how it reflects negatively on their mental health and wellness, leading to depression and anxiety as well as skipping school.

Having a passion for video creation and multimedia, Hissa Al Hitmi, a Grade 9 student at QAD, was very enthusiastic about the anti-bullying project. “It all started back in March 2020 when Activists in Action, a QAD student-led group which aims to ban plastic bags in Qatar, received a letter from His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Amir of Qatar, congratulating them on their efforts,” she said.

“The students’ reaction to the letter was recorded and I had the privilege to create the video. I then received positive feedback from QF’s communication team, which was extremely useful and helped me enhance the quality of the video.

“The team saw how passionate I was about using different media to portray a message, which sparked the idea of sharpening the students’ communication skills to send a message they care about to the world, and the message the students chose was how to fight bullying.

“We attended masterclasses designed by QF’s communications Team which helped us dive into the different functions of communication. The students then started discussing how we would bring awareness to this important topic, who the target audience was, and what would be the most effective way to engage them. Every student thought of different ways to raise awareness, such as photos, social experiments, and newsletters.”

Hissa decided to create an animation video, saying: “I felt it would attract the audience to watch and listen to the message’ it has both visuals and sound, making it more engaging.”

Alia also worked with a group of other students who have an interest in photography to develop photo stories that use the power of images to highlight how a student feels when they are targeted by bullying

“A photo is a moment-freezing time, full of emotions and feelings,” she said. “When anyone sees a photo, they will stop and think, especially if the photo is taken professionally, and it will bring back all the emotions and feelings that happened at that moment. So each photo we took tells a story.”.

As a QAD alumna, and a Senior Communication Outreach Specialist at QF’s Communications Directorate, Dana El Ghazal co-designed and organizing child-centric media masterclasses along with other colleagues of her department to support the students. She hopes these classes and one-to-one mentorship will empower the students to find their inner storyteller and equip them with the tools to learn how to authentically share and communicate their own stories to the world.

“I can’t help but think of the saying ‘When one teaches, two learn”,” she said. “It’s been an invaluable journey with these students, witnessing youth ambassadors advocating for anti-bullying through their unique pieces of work.

“It was such a delightful experience. I remember how intimidating it felt for me at their age to be around working professionals, and to see how confident, engaged and enthusiastic the students were was beyond impressive. I’m extremely proud of them, proud of my school, proud of where I work, but mostly how interconnected our QF ecosystem is, and how it is designed in a way that fosters these magical experiences for everyone within its community.”