On the 29th of October, 2018, the First Lady of Germany, Mrs. Elke Buedenbender, arrived to Hawch El Dahab IS to visit the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, in her role as a German patron for the UN agency, together with a delegation of over 30 people, as well as UNICEF’s representative in the MENA region, Ms. Tanya Chapuisat. At the IS, they attended a Youth Basic Literacy and Numeracy (YBLN) English class after they were welcomed by Mr. Assem Chreif and a group of LOST staff. The class included 22 Syrian beneficiaries aged between 14 and 24 that were learning basic English. Then, they continued to attend a Life Skills Training where activities were being implemented by a group of Lebanese and Syrian youth beneficiaries aged between 14 and 22. The two classes were under Skills for Active Youth project, funded by UNICEF. Furthermore, five Syrian families with their children were interviewed in the IS. “The living conditions of the refugees are hard”, Mrs. Buedenbender stated.
Moving from the IS, the delegation arrived to Bedneyel center at 1:00 pm where Dr. Rami Lakkis, the founder of LOST, greeted them. Upon arriving, they spoke to CBT sewing class beneficiaries who had some of their products displayed, in addition to some of the MAT beneficiaries of painting and music classes. These beneficiaries have some of their artwork displayed such as paintings and musical instruments. Afterwards, they had lunch, which was prepared by the CBT Gastronomy class beneficiaries. A musical show played by the MAT class beneficiaries was taking place during the whole period of the visit.
Furthermore, the delegation attended a brief presentation with Mr. Assem concerning LOST and UNICEF’s collaboration in various domains. Later, they entered a marketplace arranged by the GIL winners; each winner had his winning prototype displayed and ready for demonstration. They interviewed each group alone and took an idea about the project they are working on and how the GIL training helped them in the labor market. They were divided into two groups, where part of them attended a Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) class, and the others attended an Injaz class. Finally, a focus group discussion with the job-placed CBT beneficiaries was taking place in the center before the delegation’s departure at 3:15 pm. Mrs. Buedenbender was very pleased with the visit, and stated, “everyone is working immensely hard to educate the children and young people, and to give them a better future”.
