Doha: A number of officials of Arab youth hostels praised the State of Qatar’s hosting of the 54th International Youth Hostel Federation Conference, highlighting the efforts exerted to succeed the conference and the good organization, as well as the Arab consensus which resulted two Arab candidates winning the membership of the IYHF Board of Trustees.
In press statements, Ashraf Ali Othman, President of the Egyptian Youth Hostels Association and Secretary-General of the Arab Union of Youth Hostels Associations, said that Qatar Youth Hostels succeeded in hosting the meetings of the 54th International Youth Hostel Federation Conference which crowned the success of the march of Qatari and Arab youth hostels with a great achievement for the first time in the 90-year march of the international federation - which is the victory of two Arab candidates in the elections for the Board of Trustees of the Federation.
He considered this great Arab achievement is due to the keenness of the Arab Union of Youth Hostels Associations to attend and vote as a united bloc in favor of Hussein Ali Al Hababi, the Financial Director of Qatar Youth Hostels, and Abdul Salam Al Mukhtar Al Arabi, the Executive Director of the Libyan Youth Hostels Association; noting that 13 Arab members of the International Youth Hostels Federation agreed to support the Arab candidates.
For his part, Executive Director of the Libyan Youth Hostels Association Abdul Salam Al Mukhtar Al Arabi praised Qatar’s hosting of the IYHF conference, noting that the Arab success in the elections of the IYHF Board of Trustees must be build upon during the coming period in order to push the activities of Arab youth hostels forward.
He noted that he will intensify joint efforts with Al Hababi within the IYHF General Secretariat to achieve the required addition that develops the performance of Arab youth hostels.
With regard to the future Arab action plan within the IYHF General Secretariat, he said: “We will attend the executive meeting of the Federation to coordinate joint work in order to transfer all expertise to Arab associations and interact better to achieve a qualitative leap in the performance of Arab youth hostels.”
He noted a consensus between Qatar Youth Hostels and their Libyan counterpart to give more attention to young people, educate them well, and introduce them to other cultures through trips and various youth training programs in order to raise their skills and capabilities.
