Free Spaces Rehabilitated with German Support
In the second round of the Youth-led Initiatives (YLI), youth participants of the Lebanese Organization of Studies and Training (LOST), in collaboration with UNICEF, successfully implemented the Youth-Led Initiative projects across Baalbeck-Hermel Governorate.
Youth of the “Learning and Skills Program for Syrian Refugees and Lebanese Youth,” who are enrolled in the YLI training, are estimated to be about 1200 beneficiaries. They were engaged in a series of trainings that would later enable them to carry out and implement community projects in their surroundings that serve to reduce tension and increase social cohesion among Lebanese hosts and Syrian refugees. These community projects are directed at the same time towards environment protection and water management issues among many others, according to the most urgent needs demanded by local communities. In addition to stabilization, a key idea behind these initiatives is to link social cohesion to local socio-economic development.
YLI participants undergo trainings on needs assessment, project design, team work, communication and environmental trainings, in addition to English courses as incentives, to build their capacity to work on field and execute the initiatives in complete coordination and collaboration with the municipalities. The initiatives were oriented towards free space rehabilitation purposes among 16 different locations in the 4 following locations: Hermel, Younin, Talia, and Shmustar.
In Hermel, LOST staff, hand in hand with the youth beneficiaries, worked on rehabilitating Hariqa Public School. The school, which was in terrible conditions, unsuitable and unsafe for the proper flow of the educational process for students, almost falling apart with its dirty walls, unsafe electric plugs, and shabby broken doors urgently needed a renovation plan. In a matter of weeks, the school was rehabilitated and ready to kick off a new academic year.
In the second location at Younin, assessments showed that local youth asked for a place of their own to do recreational activities equipped with a public library as well. After getting the municipality’s support, work was set off and a local hall was equipped with appropriate equipment to become youth’s new meeting educational resort.
On the move to Talia, closer to central Beqaa, YLI participants spotted a demand by youth of Saint George Church for a meeting place since they had no appropriate place to hold their meetings at, and at the same time the hall can be used as a gathering place for Lebanese and Syrian youth in the surroundings. In a matter of one month, everything was coordinated with the municipality and the Moratorium Commission to choose the most appropriate place for such meetings, and the work was accomplished fast.
The last location of the previously targeted locations is Shmustar. The initiative carried out in Shmustar, in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs, was perhaps the most important among the rest since it was directed towards rehabilitating the Social Affairs Centre in which a dental clinic, a gynaecologist clinic, and an ECG were situated with 8 solar energy batteries feeding the building’s UPS power system. These batteries can ensure the availability of electric power on a 24-hour basis, thus maintaining the health of residents and refugees and ensuring that proper medical services are provided efficiently.
The YLI completed at these locations basically aim to engage youth in society and build their capacities as they aim to link social cohesion to socio-economic development in cooperation with local municipalities. These initiatives and many more wouldn’t have been possible without the successful partnership and collaboration between LOST and UNICEF and without the generous support of the German people and government.