Dubai teen’s Bullying Is Not Okay campaign tells victims to speak up

Teenager's experiences motivated him to target physical and cyber bullying, and support children who are victims.

Yazan Zamel, a student from Abu Dhabi International School, set up an anti-bullying campaign after being bullied. Ravindranath K / The National

DUBAI// The message of a teenager who launched an anti-bullying campaign after he was the victim of abuse has gone worldwide thanks to social media.

Yazan Zamel created Bullying Is Not Okay four years ago as a way to help and support other children.

“I decided to start this because I was a victim of bullying during elementary school,” said the 16-year-old Jordanian, who is a student at Abu Dhabi International School.

“I didn’t want any student to go through what I faced. In addition, I want to develop students’ abilities and boost their confidence.”

His unpleasant experiences became the spark that motivated him to create the campaign which targets physical and cyber bullying.

It was launched in 2013 when Yazan was in 8th grade. He praised the support provided by his friends and teachers.

There are three key elements.

At the school level, Yazan raised awareness about the types of bullying. He made videos, distributed brochures and conducted plays from 2013 until 2015.

He expanded it to inter-school level with projects held at places such as Al Najah Private School and International Community School, with presentations given to grades 1 to 6.

The campaign then spread globally on social media.

“I’m taking advantage of Instagram and Facebook to raise awareness at the international level,” he said.

“In fact, I’m assigning ambassadors in different parts of the world. I also assigned them from schools in the UAE.”

One of the biggest problems in tackling bullying is that many children do not speak up about the abuse they suffer, he said.

“The victims simply keep the problem to themselves, allowing the bully to influence and negatively affect other students and the cycle goes on,” he said.

“In fact, one of the targets of the presentations is to make students speak up. They shouldn’t fear those bullies. Those bullies are actually scared, that’s why they threaten the students.”

Constant bullying can have significant impact on a child’s self-confidence and self-esteem.

The campaign has helped to give confidence to many children, Yazan said.

“We have had students who didn’t like to present and get engaged in the class because their classmates used to tease them,” he said.

Schools did not take bullying seriously but that is changing as online bullying has increased in recent years and now tougher rules are in place in many schools, he said.

“In fact, there are serious consequences if someone bullies a student even outside the school such as online sites. Cyber bullying, unfortunately, makes bullying easier as users can be anonymous on certain sites.”

Schools should focus on raising awareness of the damage a bully can do rather than simply sending them home for a couple of days.

Sally Faisal, a biology teacher at Abu Dhabi International School taught Yazan at Grade 8 and has seen the impact his campaign has made.

“Even though he was bullied he was strong enough to do something about it and help other children in a similar situation,” she said.

“I saw how he gave courage to other children to speak about their experiences in front of the school and how touching that was.

“Every pupil was listening to what these children were saying and I think many more understand how damaging bullying can be.”