Amman, May 18 (Petra)– Recognizing that every human has the right to lead a dignified life begins with a conversation. That conversation took place amongst 100 Jordanian youth, Friday, in an event called Dignity Day. The students joined Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah and members of the Young Global Leaders (YGLs) in a passionate and inspiring conversation about what it means to live a dignified life and how to treat each other in accordance with the principles of dignity.
The event brought together the three cofounders of the Dignity Day initiative, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway, Professor Pekka Himanen of the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, and Operation HOPE Founder and CEO John Hope Bryant, as they reunited with several other Jordanian and international YGLs.
Students from a number of different schools across the Kingdom came together at Al-Jubaiha Secondary School for Girls to partake in this special day. After a brief morning assembly they broke out into small groups, each lead by two YGLs, to perform the different exercises outlined in the Dignity Day curriculum.
Queen Rania briefly joined each session where she encouraged the students to tell her of their definitions of dignity, what they felt was necessary to lead a dignified life, and how they would go about passing on dignity to others. "It is a hard word to define, but we’re more concerned about living with dignity than we are with the definition," said the Queen.
After hearing a number of different definitions, she told one of the classrooms, "I’d also like to share with you my definition of dignity… Dignity means that our lives matter – no matter where we live."
In another one of the sessions, Bryant told the Queen, "we came here to discuss dignity with the students, but these young people are teaching us about dignity!"