It’s Time to Change, Time to Make a Stand

“Step towards Municipal Elections” a LOST Program funded by The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Lebanon is in its third cycle, with every cycle reflecting a growth in participation and success. Now participating in the program are women from the regions of Deir el Ahmar, Kasr, Hawsh L Rafeka and Ein.
The “Step” programs’ main goal is to increase the number of women taking part in political decision making. This program is designed to educate women on active citizenship, civic participation, collecting the right information and leadership.
The culture norm of the Lebanese community is that a woman has no business in government, especially in the presence of a man. This norm is outdated and this program is engraining in the minds of women of all ages that it is crucial for every citizen to engage in their local communities, even on a small scale. Participant from cycle one of the program, Jihan Assad agrees.
Jihan Assad, a teacher of math and science in Beqaa public schools, said the “Step” program represented a change in the Lebanese community.
Assad feels her experience in the program changed her life. She said, “ Even though I am an educated person, our society is still very closed to ideas such as women participating in campaigns.”
This program gives power to women to use what is available to let their voices be heard online and in real life. Before being involved in this program Assad never participated in political discussion around men.
Assad said, “The program helped me gain confidence about my political stance and things going on in the country, I was actually able to take part in discussing politics with whoever was talking.”
An influx of social media activism has occurred between the recent months and before the program started a year and a half ago. Women are using social media tools on the Internet like, Facebook, specifically the Women Political Empowerment (WPE) Facebook page, Twitter and blogging sites to discuss political matters that will hopefully foster development.
Before the program Assad didn’t use social media, and now she said if the world comes to end she wouldn’t give up using Twitter to voice her thoughts.
It is the natural basic right of every Lebanese citizen to have a say in his or her countries’ political processes’, and to deny that right is only hurting the country as a whole. “I have a voice, I am a person like any other man, it is important to say ‘Hey, I am here’.”
“It opened our eyes, made us feel valuable and that we are entitled to participate in decision making, to be involved and to make our presence known, so we can change this reality we live in and get over the timidity that women have in the society,” Assad said.
At the end of first two cycles about 200 women participated in a mock campaign organized by LOST. Twelve participants, six from each cycle ran for candidacy.  They discussed politics, problems and how to harbor about change in their speeches. At the end everyone got a vote. This was a hands-on experience for the participants to show their readiness to implement change in their communities. It was also an opportunity for the participants to hear from powerful female figures, like Judge Rania el Lakkis.
Assad feels her experience in the program changed her life. She said, “ Even though I am an educated person, our society is still very closed to ideas such as women participating in campaigns.”
LOST members encouraged the volunteer groups to go out into their municipalities and stand up for their right as Lebanese citizens.
Assad plans to participate in the next election and running for office. She said, “Even if I don’t win, it is important to say I tried.”
The “Step” programs’ agenda to enlighten the female population through knowledge and basic leadership skills in order to cultivate change is eye-catching.
Everyone wants to see change but there is a fear embedded in women from men that they can’t handle the responsibility and it is not in a woman’s place to do such things [politics].
Assad said, “This is my right, they need to keep designing programs like this for more women to participate, so more women can be knowledgeable about these matters, the things I didn’t know before this program was immense!”
 “I know now, I won’t surrender that right.”

Helping Women Raise a Stock of Their Own

 The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) with the assistance of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) are working together to provide 60 Lebanese families with sheep in their project called “Food Security for Vulnerable Bekaa Families”.
The project was launched in April 2015 and will progress for the duration of three years. Sixty families, picked after careful evaluation and specific criteria for selection based on need for income, received a sheep from LOST. The mother figure in each family will be the beneficiary of the sheep and responsible for its well-being.
Since May 2015, Monitoring and Evaluation officers from LOST have been performing routine check ups on the families that received sheep. The goal of this project is to enhance socio-economic relations between Lebanese and Syrian residents and to ease tensions due to the aftermath from the Syrian Crisis.
This Food Security Project aims to relieve tensions between Lebanese and Syrian citizens by providing a trade market, encouraging communication and civic peace through workshops. These workshops focus on peace building, social cohesion, techniques to sell products from sheep raising.
The project will aid in creating gender equality in the community, where women will have a role in sustaining their families and providing food security. Women will have a role in providing for the welfare of their children and ensuring that their children have the nutrition they need to grow. It gives women a chance to be breadwinners in their households, resulting in two incomes to live comfortably.

LOST Distributes Flowers over Tourists during International Baalbeck Festivals

On July 30, 2015, more than 20 youth participants involved at the LOST/UNICEF project and as part of their Peace Education training delivered by the Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training distributed flowers at the entrance of the ruins of Baalbeck welcoming tourists and sending messages of hospitality during the first day  that marks the beginning of the International Baalbeck Festivals.
The move was closely coordinated with the municipality of Baalbeck and the International Baalbeck Festivals committee. This symbolic gesture by the participants was a direct outcome of the peace education training they have been taking for 12 weeks, thus holding themselves accountable to openness to others and sending a message of inclusiveness.

LOST strongly supports such activities which give a positive and civilized image about a region whose reputation has been heavily tarnished by the media. It also suggests a roll model of active citizenship and civic participation. Moreover, hard work will always result in excellent outcome; dedication and insistence to improve ourselves, our community, and above all our country are the main reasons that lead to such a great move. 

The Embassy of Netherlands Rehabilitates Water Streams in Hermel

The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) in partnership with the Embassy of Netherlands in Lebanon launched a campaign to tackle issues of infrastructure in the Northern Bekaa as part of a "Social Cohesion" project funded by the Embassy. 

The project studies the underlying causes of tension arising from the huge influx of Syrian Refugees into Lebanon with dire repercussions on the hosting community. It also works on conflict mitigation through analyzing the local community’s common needs and conducting small community projects that address these needs. After an exhaustive needs assessment exercise, project beneficiaries in Hermel initiated the restoration of water streams in Hermel in order to achieve immediate reforms to a network of irrigation water that would help farmers in watering agricultural lands and which affects the city of Hermel in decades. 

The project restored two main streams. The first is located in the east side of the town and the second in the west side. Such locations secure fair distribution in water and benefit for the whole town. The families of Hermel were very grateful for the project implemented and wished for more future projects.

LOST seized the opportunity to thank the Embassy of Netherlands in Lebanon for their continuous effort to support LOST in its endeavors to help reduce tension among local stakeholders and improve their living standard in light of the existing unemployment and deprivation. The Embassy of Netherlands in turn, promised for more future projects that will reinforce peace and prosperity for the whole society.

LOST and UNICEF Initiate 16 Youth-led Summer Camps

On July 4th, 2015, the Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) in partnership with UNICEF and in line with its dedication in enhancing livelihood and building capacities of youth,  instigated 16 summer camps (40 adolescents each) to engage youth from both Lebanese and Syrian communities in Baalbeck Hermel Area. 

In order to prepare coaches who will oversee the camps, LOST organized a series of training of trainers (TOT) to 16 trainers who will deliver material on needs assessment and campaigning to camp participants. The 16 summer camps targeting 650 Syrian and Lebanese youth will be structured at 16 villages in Baalbeck/Hermel region and will combine two main components: workshops on community needs and campaigning, and recreational activities. The workshops will cover several topics which may include but will not be limited to community needs and Needs Assessment, and campaigning on issues of interest like environmental protection, health, cleanliness, and hygiene, social cohesion, and GBV Life skills. 

Each camp in a projected area will be concluded in the implementation of a youth-led initiative that deals with the local community's needs. This will interact Syrian and Lebanese youth in serving community. Furthermore, these youth will service the respective society and take out reasons of conflict thus creating a positive atmosphere of coexistence and social cohesion.

These summer camps, each lasts for 2 months (3 days/week) in the summer of 2015, will provide a platform to LOST to promote social cohesion among 650 youth from the two communities where Syrian and Lebanese youth are engaged in identifying local community needs and jointly devising campaigns to tackle these needs.

EU Senior Delegation along with UNICEF Visit ITS in Baalbeck

On Saturday June 20th, 2015, The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) along with UNICEF, Bekaa hosted two senior delegates from the EU and all together visited Hosh Al Rafka IS in northern Bekaa.

Ms Marisa Matias, Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Chair of the Parliament's Delegation for Relations with Mashreq Countries - Con-federal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left and Ms. Elisa Reschini, Political adviser from GUE/NGL paid an ITS in Baalbeck a visit to discuss the present conditions of the 200-refugee IS. They met the watchman, meandered across the location, and made a few meetings with random families to get some information about the refugees’ way of living and the level of suffering.

Showing a great sense of empathy and highlighting the humanitarian side of the visit, EU delegation played some entertaining games with children and listened attentively and compassionately to an old lady whose two of her children died in Syria where they demonstrated a high philanthropic level of support.

While the last piece of the visit was an exchange of experience with a few women of diverse circumstances (pregnant, sick, and a lady having a debilitated infant), they got some information about their sufferings and what they go through on a daily basis. Things can’t change overnight, Miss Matias asserted, but the whole team promised to do their best in order to voice the concerns of the refugees to the designated people so they can minimize the ordeal the refugees are passing through and make things a bit easier.

LOST seized the opportunity to explain to the EU delegation the objectives behind such a timely and efficient intervention at these ITS in partnership with UNICEF. LOST also expounded the approaches of social cohesion adopted at these location by engaging the Lebanese at the grass root level in the process of promoting for a more understanding climate towards the Syrian crisis.  

Forum ZFD Director Visits LOST and Attends a Focus Group in Ein

On July 16th, 2015, Oliver Knabe, the director of Forum ZFD worldwide, along with his senior team in Germany and Lebanon visited LOST premises in Baalbeck, Bedneyel, and Ein. He also attended a focus group for local stakeholders in Ein where participants mapped the priority needs of the local community.

This timely visit of forum ZFD to LOST came to assess the process of a longstanding and productive partnership between the two NGOs. This partnership aims at the establishment of local mechanisms of non-violent conflict transformation and decision making at the local level. Such mechanisms will engage key representatives from the hosting community and Syrian refugees in the promotion of social cohesion and co-existence in four of the largest cities in Baalbeck- Hermel region.

On a related note, the two entities finalized the visit of a senior delegation from the two organizations to Berlin, Germany to participate in a conference explaining the fruitful outcomes of this partnership and its impact on the local community.

Partnership between LOST and MCC- Income-Generating and Social-Cohesion Project

The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) in partnership with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) have initiated their 3-year income-generating and social-cohesion project targeting 60 most vulnerable Lebanese families in Baalbeck-Hermel region on June 9th, 2015.

This project aims to improve food security, family nutrition and economic well-being while empowering families to establish community cohesion by distributing sheep for 60 needy families, and training women in these families on milk production, marketing techniques, and community peace building education towards social cohesion. The end result of assistance in food security and peace education training will build the capacity of the local rural communities to cope with financial pressures, insuring stable incomes and ability to feed themselves nutritionally. Thus, it aims at empowering families in a certain degree of economic and food security while strengthening their potential to assist the refugees in helping create social acceptance and sympathy to their current situation.
This project will provide technical assistance and training along with the sheep distribution to increase the income of 60 families by $100 to $125 (per family) each month making them viable economically besides increasing their families’ nutritional status. Women targeted by this project will benefit directly by increasing the income of their families; thus easing the burden they carry for caring for the children and family living needs.
The project will allow LOST to be aligned with the Lebanese Crisis Response Plan (LCRP) and the strategic objectives of the Global Food Security Clusters. Through this project LOST will promote sustainable stabilization of food consumption for vulnerable households in northern Bekaa, ensuring food availability by supporting sustainable agriculture production.

Australian Ambassador H.E Glenn Miles Visits LOST to Assess DAP

  On Thursday June 4th, 2015, H.E. Glenn Miles the Australian Ambassador in Lebanon and two of his assistants visited The Lebanese Organization of Studies and training (LOST) at its branch in Bednayel. After a brief introduction about the implementation of DAP, funded by the Australian Embassy in Beirut, the whole team watched a short video in order to evaluate the success of the project.

The main course of the project was to renovate nurseries at 15 public schools in Hermel Caza. The renovation included tables, chairs, painting, carpets and boards. This generous gesture from his Excellency reinforced the trust and confidence in public schools from the parents and students alike. H.E asserted that LOST is a trust-worthy old partner, expressed his appreciation for the work that was done, and promised of more future projects.

Dr. Lakkis and LOST staff were very happy to keep his Excellency for lunch after a fruitful day for both parties.

LOST, UNHCR, and Intersos Capacitating Municipal Police in Mid and West Bekaa

 On June 6, 15, LOST in partnership with UNHCR and Intersos conducted the 3rd of a series of 4 workshops that are being held in Rashayya, the central town of western Bekaa to municipality members and staff of the region.  These workshops aim of building the capacity of municipal police and municipality members in western and Mid Bekaa in the fields of communication skills, emotional intelligence, role of municipal police based on principles of human rights, covering civil, economic, and political rights, and Refugee’s Rights. 

The 32 attendees of the workshop coming from the municipal union of Jabal Al Shaykh were very excited during the training, where they were eagerly asking questions related to their real-time context and paying attention to tiniest details.  After the training, the participants showed interest in getting additional workshops in the future to benefit more from the skills and information of LOST on various topics related to the nature of their work.