The Voices of Youth

"Amplifying the Voice of Youth in Northern Beqaa" , a joint project wirh OTI/USAID will be executed in the following eight areas, Hermel, Ain-Fakiha, Ersal, Labweh, Baalbek, Dayr Al Ahmar, Britel, Chmostar-Bednayel, bringing youth together to become activists in the community.

These areas border each other and are composed with families of different theological backgrounds and a history of skirmishes resulting from the clash of sectarian values. There will be around 120 participants total from the eight villages. The youth participants will take trainings in Leadership skills, Issue Identification, Conflict Transformation and Communication Skills while brainstorming and sharing opinions of what the problems are in each area. From each of the areas two participants will be nominated by the group as true leaders and will represent the group throughout the project. These 16 chosen leaders will form their own group called the Youth Steering Committee in decision making and meet with key stakeholders as well as organize the Youth Forum.

After surveying and analyzing the potential problems in the areas, the participants will produce a pamphlet with key issues in the community and a plethora of pragmatic solutions. This pamphlet will be distributed to INGOS and NGOs during a press conference that the participants will use as a platform to voice the individual and shared concerns of each area.

The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings working with OTI have a vision of a unified Lebanon especially the deprived Beqaa region that they will accomplish in the long run with this project as a stepping stone. Together they are taking Lebanese participants from the variant backgrounds to become representatives in their areas and bridge the ideologies of the people to enhance Beqaa. LOST's ultimate goal is to build an imperishable community of peace that generates positive approaches to negative situations and nourishes an open mentality.

Who Says Women Can’t Work? Certainly Not LOST

In Hermel, Bekaa on Thursday October 1st, 2015 Regional Head of Education in Baalbek-Hermel, Lamia Husseini, gave an empowering speech to young women on success in a man's world. The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings invited Husseini as a motivational speaker as part of the "Step towards Municipal Elections" program funded by The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

More than 100 women attended ranging from 15 to 50 years old. Husseini shared her experience of how she landed a role in decision making on education related topics in the Baalbek-Hermel area after a life time of teaching.

Husseini said, "Women playing a role in society other than the traditional housewives role promotes and aids to the development in the country; it is very important for women to participate in the community. I don't like to hear a woman or man saying 'women can't or shouldn’t do this, that, or the other', I am a strong and firm believer in gender equality. Physical differences should not be reason to stop women from doing a man's job but that's what culture has misled us to believe."

STEP aims to educate and promote women to participate in decision making in their municipalities and run for office in the municipal elections. During the several trainings participants learn their rights, where to go for information, conflict resolution skills, social media and computer skills and more. LOST wants to flip the board and increase the one percent statistic of women holding political seats.

Communication is Key

The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings (LOST) is six months in to its project "Food Security for Vulnerable Families" funded by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

During a workshop on September 23rd, 2015 under the life skills category, LOST gave training on child care and the psychology of child. One week later a Lebanese participant named Nada Sarout a 40-year-old mother with three kids, Ali (5), Mohammed (11) and Khawla (12) shared her thoughts on the training. Sarout takes care of her husband as well as her children. Her husband experienced a stroke that had left his whole left side of the body immobile and so he is unable to provide for his children. Influenced by the workshop she said, "I am used to just smacking my kids [especially my youngest] when they do something wrong before giving them the chance to speak. After learning about methods to understand children, I have stopped using the old methods with them."

"I now ask them what is wrong and try to understand the problem; it makes more sense to communicate because hitting isn’t getting us anywhere."

This project aims at empowering women by distributing sheep to the most vulnerable Lebanese families. Thus Lebanese women become assistant head of households by increasing the income generation to provide for their children. The Food Security project also bonds Lebanese and Syrian Refugee women to coexist peacefully through life skills and peace building workshops. The sheep Sarout owns now has a little lamb offspring.

In addition, the Syrian and Lebanese women attending the workshop created a Whatsapp group to communicate throughout the week.

Advocacy for All

The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST) has been recognized as Lebanon's Country Focal Point for the Sphere Project on September 28th 2015. The Sphere Project functions as a board composed of activists from worldwide humanitarian agencies and organizations that follow virtuous guidelines and honor basic human rights. LOST was chosen by the Sphere Project for having similar principles and working towards improving the lives of people in need in order for them to live in respect and dignity.

As a country focal point LOST will introduce Sphere to government ministries to follow sphere support in context of disaster management and civil protection. LOST will also act as a point of contact, answer questions and train people and organizations using the Sphere Handbook among other tasks.

LOST has several training of trainer sessions in the near future to capacitate the LOST team and affiliates with Sphere guidelines and tools in dealing with humanitarian issues. LOST also has a schedule to train INGO local employees on humanitarian response, relief, and recovery as well as protecting the needs of people.

 

 

We Are for Each Other: LOST Acts as Middle Man to Help the Vulnerable

The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings officially launched their "Nehna La Ba3d"(We Are for Each Other) Initiative Monday September 21st 2015 with a cake cutting ceremony with staff and partners involved in this charity project.

Bags have been distributed along with flyers and LOST has received bags with fall and winter clothing from staff and friends. LOST will collect the bags on Thursday October the 1st and Friday October 2nd, 2015.

This project funded and managed by LOST aims to relieve vulnerable Lebanese families by distributing second-hand gently used clothing. LOST is providing bags and picking up donations from businesses and households. In Arabic there is a proverb, "Give and God will give back", and giving a family in need clothing that would otherwise go in the trash is a Robin Hood moment.

 

 

Turning our Negatives to Positives: It's a win-win for Women and Men

In part to raise awareness about women's social security rights in the workforce, the Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings (LOST) along with twelve other organizations teamed up with Search for Common Ground (SFCG) in their project "Hakkik Daman Ayltek" or "Your right to Guarantee Your Family".

Spokespersons for the project from SFCG and partner organization ALEF filled LOST staff in on the employment laws in Lebanon and what is not being honored. "Hakkik Damanik" aims to empower women socially and economically by building the capacity of organizations to launch joint advocacy campaigns for men and women to have equal rights.

LOST, through media awareness campaigns and through present and future projects, like STEP which aims to empower women through civil law supports SFGCs vision. When women's rights are honored and implemented, equality is created between the ratios of working women to working men. Women aged 15 to 24 make up 22.8 percent of the working population according to the Lebanon Knowledge Development Gateway. The percentage decreases as the age increase; working mothers are unable to guarantee their husband or children and until 2013 didn’t have the right to maternity leave for up to 10 weeks.

By contributing to increasing women's economic participation in the private sector, as a country we will be able to stimulate economic development.

 

 

 

If it Looks Good, then it Tastes Good: LOST initiating a Better Baalbek

Tuesday and Wednesday September 15 and 16 bakers and butchers with shops in the Baalbek district gathered at LOST headquarters to get their measurements taken for uniform aprons as part as the Baalbek Ahla Project- "Better Baalbek".

LOST launched this initiative after talking details to the Mayor of Baalbek Doctor Hamd Hassan on August 27th of 2015 and collecting a list of all the bakery's and meat shops in the city of Baalbek.

As incentive for the participation of the bakers and butchers in the Baalbek Ahla project, LOST is offering their sons and daughters a scholarship to enroll in classes in the ECC managed by LOST.

This initiative managed and funded by The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings aims at increasing tourism rates in the area. LOST has a vision to enhance the image of Baalbek; this area in Lebanon is rich with history and has a high potential to flourish like other areas in Lebanon, with the right tools. To increase tourism LOST will train restaurant waiters on dialogue and serving etiquette, as well as pass out aprons, gloves and cutting boards to butchers and bakers.

 

 

Congratulations to Our Future Leaders!

Under the Auspices of the Governor of the Baalbek-Hermel area, Bashir Khodr, Monday September 7th, 2015 students from the Electronic and Commercial Arts Center, managed by The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings, graduate with certificates to show for their hard work. The summer graduates took courses cosmetology.

 

Founder of LOST, Ramy Lakkis said, "It is an honor for both us as an organization and you as a student to have made it to this day."

Lakkis continued, "Studying and participating in extracurricular activities isn’t done just for the pleasure of having a degree, it's for us to become better Samarians and activists in our community."

LOST offers programs to help in income generation and to open opportunities that were not there before. This year for the first time LOST offered courses in CISCO network technology. CISCO course educates students on networking and computer and career skills for entry level IT jobs. Students graduating with CISCO IT Training will receive a certificate recognized internationally.

A Divided Area Will Hopefully Merge with Future Youth-Led Initiatives

The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings, representatives from OTI/USAID, municipality mayors from Ersal, Fakiha, Labwe and Ras Baalbek, key stake holders and the youth participants gathered in the LOST center of Ein for the final event of the OTI/USAID and LOST project "A Youth Led Social Cohesion Initiative in Northern Bekaa" on Thursday, September 10th,2015.

LOST enabled he groups of youth from each village to take initiative in implementing projects to help soothe tensions between the surrounding communities. A video was shown showing the small youth led community projects and the reaction of the village residents. After the video two youth participants from each town came up to the stage to share with the audience their experience in the project.

Through the trainings and merge activities LOST provided for the youth, the youth felt a change in perspective and sense of leadership to make Northern Bekaa a peaceful area without the harsh sectarian divide.

LOST through this project tackled a major problem of social unrest in the Bekaa and aimed to make peace between tribal communities and stop sectarian feuds between Ersal and the neighboring villages.

 

In Positivity and Laughter: LOST Opens the Playground Doors In Chaat

Thursday September 3rd, LOST representatives visited the municipality of Chaat where more than 70 Syrian and Lebanese kids and their families gathered to celebrate the opening of their new playground.

 

The playground features new swings, slides, seesaws and more for the children to play together and interact with each other, in order to ease tensions and promote peace between the Syrian Refugees and Lebanese host community.

 

This playground was installed in the municipality as a small community project part of LOST and UNICEF’s campaign “Youth-Led Initiatives” that aims in encouraging youth from both communities in non-violent encounters. LOST helped in creating an independent space free of disharmony and negativity. Playing together and having the mothers and fathers at the playground with the children increases positive interactions between families and children.