Leadership Begins with Listening: Hanaa's Journey with the IMPACT+ Club

Across the West Bank, children and adolescents are facing increasing pressures affecting their psychosocial wellbeing. Violence, economic hardship and school closure are only a few of the daily worries they have to carry. This continuous stress takes a toll. According to a recent World Vision survey, 46% of caregivers reported that their children's mental health had deteriorated since November 2024, while 48% of children showed frequent signs of psychosocial distress. Recurrent or chronic stress during adolescence can disrupt development and affect emotion regulation and decision-making, increasing risks of anxiety, depression, and difficulties with concentration and impulse control that can persist into adulthood.

But, behind these figures, are adolescents full of ideas, energy and abilities that may simply need someone to recognise and believe in them. This is what Hanaa, a young community activist and IMPACT+ Club leader in Tubas Governorate, has learnt since beginning her journey with adolescents in 2023. At first, Hanaa viewed adolescence in much the same way many others do. "We used to think adolescents liked to rebel and that this generation was difficult to deal with," she says. "But with time, my perspective completely changed." Through her training and work with the IMPACT+ Club, Hanaa began to understand that adolescents do not need someone to judge them or change their personalities. They need someone who listens, understands and gives them space to discover who they are.

One sentence from her training has stayed with her ever since: "There is nothing wrong with what is right; there is what is right, and what is more right." It changed the way Hanaa approached young people. Instead of immediately dismissing an idea or answer, she began trying to understand their perspective first and then helping them explore better choices without making them feel that their ideas had no value.

Putting that principle into practice was not always easy. While working with one IMPACT+ Club group, Hanaa found herself facilitating adolescents full of energy and movement. Instead of forcing them to sit quietly, she changed her approach. She introduced active exercises, assigned responsibilities and gave them opportunities to take part in leading the sessions. It taught her another important lesson. "Working with adolescents is not about trying to change their personalities," she says. "It is about understanding them and channelling their energy in the right direction."

But it was her experience with a group of adolescent girls that showed Hanaa just how far this approach could reach. When their IMPACT+ Club sessions began, the girls were so quiet and shy that some wondered whether the club would succeed. During the first sessions, participation was limited.

Then things began to change. Session by session, quiet voices started to be heard. The girls began discussing, sharing ideas and participating with greater confidence.

One girl had been particularly shy, not only at the club but also at school. Later, one of her friends told Hanaa that she had become more sociable and increasingly confident about participating and interacting with others at school.

It was a small moment, but for Hanaa it represented something much bigger. "I realised that the impact we leave with adolescents does not end when the session or the club ends," she says. "It can influence their everyday lives, their relationships, their school and the way they see themselves."

Since then, Hanaa has learnt to look differently at shyness, high energy and even behaviours that others may see as challenging. She believes that talent is not always absent; sometimes it is simply hidden behind limited confidence or a lack of opportunity. "To me, an adolescent is a flame full of ideas and energy," Hanaa says. "Our role as a community is not to extinguish that flame, but to embrace it, strengthen it, encourage it and guide it in the right direction."

Today, Hanaa's ambition extends beyond leading an IMPACT+ Club. She hopes to become a Training of Trainers facilitator and eventually a Master Trainer, passing what she has learnt to other leaders so that the impact can grow from one group to another and from one generation to the next. Her bigger dream is to create a space that nurtures adolescents and their ideas – somewhere they know their voices are heard and their ideas have the potential to become reality. Because for Hanaa, success is not about remaining the leader. It is about seeing the adolescent she supports today become a leader tomorrow — someone who believes in others, just as she once believed in them.

In 2025, World Vision's child and youth resilience and life skills programming reached 15,300 children and young people through 66 clubs across the West Bank. This included 19 IMPACT+ Clubs like Hanaa's, engaging close to 6,300 adolescents in active citizenship, employability, social entrepreneurship and leadership development, alongside 47 Makani Clubs supporting nearly 9,000 younger children through after-school life-skills sessions. Over the summer, 2,260 children also took part in World Vision summer camps across 24 villages, combining recreation with mental health and psychosocial support. Together, these clubs offer thousands of adolescents across the West Bank the same thing Hanaa gives the girls in Tubas: a space to be heard, and the chance to become leaders in their own right.