LOST aids 80 women per month to become Self-Reliant

 The Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings and MCC have been working together on the project "Supporting Women Refugees in Baalbek-Hermel". In August 2015 LOST started the recruitment process and Training the trainers in life skills, reproductive health, family planning, Civic Education and Law, and trauma healing thus giving them the information they need to pass along to the fellow women participants. After the trainers attended workshops on various topics they recruited 20 participants from the four LOST branches, Baalbek, Ein, Hermel and Bednayel. Each trainer is responsible in making sure that at least 80% of the participants are Syrian women and the remaining should be Lebanese. In one month the participants complete four training sessions and receive their dignity kit; dignity kits are basically like goodie bags to promote cleanliness and femininity for the women participants as well as respond to their basic needs.

Every month 80 new ladies (20 from each branch) are recruited to take these trainings and build their capacities in society. The women have appreciated the trainings and attain useful information from them. They feel self-reliant and have made small changes in their lifestyles to have a better, safer, more dignified way of life. So far LOST has trained and distributed dignity kits to a total of 240 women.

Through the trauma healing sessions, LOST is helping vulnerable Syrian women feel more at home in a country that isn’t their own and hear their concerns. Giving them a platform to share their feelings helps the women feel relieved and puts them in a positive mood that affects the household and this cycle affects the psychology of the children to be peaceful.

LOST launches Youth Forum so Raise your Voice; Someone is Listening

The Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training launched the opening ceremony for the new project "Youth Forum: Amplifying the Voice of Youth in Northern   Bekaa" in association with OTI/USAID in Tamooz Hall in the presence of Bashir Chord, governor of Baalbek-Hermel on Tuesday November 10th, 2015.
The seats in Tamooz Hall filled with 120 participants from all eight villages, field officers, trainers, and special guests like Colonel Mohammed Nasser, Father Paul Keyrouz, and municipality officials. These young men and women will participate in a set of trainings to build their capacities in leadership, communication, issue identification/analysis, conflict transformation and resolution. After they have been conditioned to be original thinkers, the youth will come up with eight different projects after a series of surveys with the people to solve a specific problem in their individual communities.

Founder of LOST, Ramy Lakkis, said, "the project is vital and useful for youth from Hermel, Ersal, Fakiha, Ein, Labwe, Baalbek and Deir el Ahmar to interact with each other positively. The project aims to develop the capacity of young people and enhance their leadership roles in the community as well to improve relations with each other."
After the training workshops the youth will attend a general conference to convert the problems and needs into small community projects, and through the projects communication between the regions channels will be enhanced. By seeing that every village has similar problems and by setting aside differences, individual voices will become a voice in unison to interact with the surrounding environment and homeland.

Governor Khodr came up to the podium saying he isn’t a stranger to the LOST's project and that he is delighted when [he] sees young people attached to their land and their community, and taking part enthusiastically in  workshops to work on developing their knowledge abilities and potential, and [he] sees in a bright future for them. He continued his motivational speech by saying that among this group of 120 there are the leaders who will take action in public affairs and political offices and influence the region.
He quoted Pope John Paul II on how important development is to reach peace and continued asking for all to join together in the advancement of Baalbek-Hermel,
Khodr said "there is no development without security and stability. Security is considered a priority for development, it is not the responsibility of the security forces, but is also your responsibility, and the responsibility of everyone in society."
He concluded saying: "I started from among you, and I'm one of you, so we together enhance our country."

LOST through this project aims to plant the seed of development and inspiration in Lebanon's' youth for the country and the country's' people to flourish and live in dignity.

Women Participating in Political Processes at LOST

October 29th 2015, an opening ceremony for a project funded by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung(KAS) was held under the auspices of the Governor of Baalbek-Hermel, Bashir Khodr, at the Lebanese Organization of Studies and Trainings(LOST). More than 100 participants in the "Promoting Women's Role in Political Participation in Baalbek" project attended along with Administrative Director of the project from KAS, Hana Nasser as well Mufti Sheikh, Khaled Soleh, and Elias Rahal, Pastor of the Greek Melkite Catholic Archbishop to support the launch of such an important initiative.

This project aims at fostering social change and by empowering 80 women in Baalbek-Hermel Region to participate in the decision making process at the local level and institutionalize their political inclusion. It also gives an opportunity for silent and passive women to become more proactively involved in the local decision-making processes. These 80 women will take training workshops, for the length of the project of two months; including familiarizing themselves with their rights as Lebanese citizens. By expanding their knowledge and acquiring useful skills through the trainings the local participation of women in the municipal elections will increase.
Governor Khodr said, "Why are women absent [from political participation] nowadays? While the making of Constitution and the law of the Lebanese people women were there with the right to equality and to participate in nomination and election before by many Western countries, like the United States, Britain and others. Then the excuses in society and in the mentality of the country about women's participation [are wrong] , the basic responsibility for women is to participate and those who are reluctant to participate in public affairs are giving up their rights."
KSI Project Director Nasser said, "The most important factor that helps women to play their role to the fullest is they constitute half of the society, they are our educators and the media makers and that contributes to raising awareness, and women themselves are responsible for the progress of society, they must change the way they see themselves before they can change the way the world sees them."

Nasser stressed that the "Lebanese women are pioneers in their field of influence, but fail to participate in the political sphere."

President of LOST, Ramy Lakkis said, " "History bears witness to the struggle of women in various places in the world and their suffrage movements to have equal rights and  here we have our society which recognizes women's participation in public work and our women don't exercise that right. And the importance of participation is it promotes a democratic culture."

LOST believes in building the capacity of women in society to enhance the present predicament of Lebanon. Social change is important to better the community and ensures that each person lives in dignity and safety.

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.