Academy of Active Citizens

 The Academy of Youth is preparing youth to be more engaged in civic affairs. After a series of interactive workshops on citizenship, civic participation and conflict resolution for around three months, youth became more aware of their role and duties in society. They became more involved in community affairs. In fact, they decided to respond to the call of the Ministry of Culture to clean the inside of the ruins of Ballbeck. On Saturday the 23rd of July more than 160 youth participated in the cleaning campaign for more than four hours of hard work. The campaign by itself was a practical call to draw the attention of local authorities to do its work more than an event to clean the temples of Baalbeck. This is the right based approach that youth have learned in the Academy.
The engagement of youth in community issues was reflected  by drawing murals with different messages visualizing their calls  to draw attention to issues  they found relevant in their communities. In Hermel, youth preferred to send a clear message for people to take care of their environment, in Baalbeck, youth decided to draw different road signs signaling a special care to road safety since they believed that many citizens of their ages are victims of car accidents and damages.