“Cohesion between Lebanese and Syrian youth”; that was one of the main goals of UNICEF’s “Education and Life Skills education for Syrian refugees and Lebanese adolescent” project. Yet among closer inspection we witnessed a more remarkable turn of events in the form of magnificent social cohesion among the Syrians themselves. The setting of this story is Yammuni Cultural Club, a local LOST partner. The set up in Yammuni holds 25 Syrian youth, who are being trained on Basic Life Skills. These youth are from an array of ethnic, social and economic backgrounds, upon the first meeting LOST knew they were on to something. These kids separated and alienated themselves into groups; some of the less fortunate kids even wanted to leave because they saw their clothes and looks unworthy.
LOST trainer Boshra Shreif intervened right away and started with a pep talk, leading these youth into a series of trainings that took them out of their shells and into the comfort zone of dialogue. Day by day we saw these youth blend in and become good friends, it went from sharing food to walking to training together and even up to home visits, and all that was crowned by their late request of a unified outfit. Just the thought of youth ignoring their individualism for the sake of group bond and equality is leaps and bounds of aspiration.
