Women of Baalbeck-Hermel are struggling to be an effective part of society, a society that gives them a minimal role, and deprives them from their right to be engaged in political life and the development of their towns.
Looking at the state of these women, The Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST), in collaboration with the LEAD programme of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), initiated the “Empowering Women to Lead 2” program. The main objective of this program is to empower women and men to assume leading roles in society, through capacity building, media campaigning, and community projects.
After the program was launched and the trainings took place in several villages of Baalbeck-Hermel region, the goals were beginning to be fulfilled. In Younine, the women participating in the project asked the municipality to be a part of the different committees operating. The municipal council welcomed the women’s request and accepted that four women can be part of each committee.
After this agreement, the real work began, where four women engaged in the health committee (Samira Wahoud, Nour Zougheib, Soukna Dorra, and Isaaf Haidar) knew that the municipality had an agreement with the Lebanese Red Cross to for a free checkup day for women over 40 from Younine in Baalbeck Governmental Hospital. These women are not insured or benefitting from the social security program or do not have enough money to go to the hospital. The checkup includes a breast and womb cancer test, and an Osteoporosis test. These four women were very enthusiastic and asked to be a part of this activity. They also visited women in Younine and informed them about this activity and encouraged them to go take the test.
As for the municipality, it elected Fatima Dorra to be the representative of the Health committee, in collaboration with the other four women. Looking at them working in pride and hard work was enough to find out that the trainings they took had a great impact and opened a new aspect for them in the political life and local development.