Imagine if you stop at the Census Department at your area to register your new born baby, pick up a death certificate, or any type of paperwork, and you find that the building looks like anything but a public facility! To add to that, the department’s employee takes a long time to find the necessary data to complete your form, and even when that is done, there is no printer to get your form printed out! What would that do to a community of a population of 80,000? Who would take action in such a case, and what can be done?
Luckily, the youth of the “Youth-Led Initiatives” program, which is one of the 5 training programs UNICEF and LOST are implementing together under the Youth Program, have found out that Labweh’s Directorate-General of Census at Ein area has been sinking in negligence for a while, and needs urgent and extreme refurbishment and adjustment. As a result, they decided to take action right away.
The “Youth-Led Initiatives” is a training program which engages 1,500 Lebanese and Syrian girls and boys aged 14-24 years in three 4-month mobilizing youth-led initiatives (60 in total) in a learning to be, learning to do, and learning to live together program. In each initiative, 10 Lebanese and 10 Syrian youth will form a Youth Lead Group. In each initiative, the youth lead group will receive a series of needs assessment, project design, team work, and communication trainings, and then will conduct a needs assessment in their respective communities, followed by community projects dealing with the needs assessment results and promoting the role of youth. The other 4 training programs are the Basic Literacy and Numeracy (BLN) Program, the Competency Based Skills (CBS) Program, the Social and Individual Skills (SIT) Training, and the Peace Culture Training (PCT). These 5 programs as a whole aim primarily to mould the characters of youth into literate, productive, and self-directing individuals who can coexist in an interdependent society and stand up to life’s ever-changing circumstances.
Labweh’s Directorate-General of Census’ significance lays in the fact that it covers a wide range of 5 other local municipalities extending from Al Bazzaliyah to Ersal. Mayors of the surrounding municipalities frequent to this department for all formal paper work. Since the department was in such bad shape and was missing almost all the necessary equipment to function effectively, interference was of urgent need.
The department was planned to be renovated upon two stages because of the huge amount of adjustment required. For stage one, walls were painted inside and outside, electric cables were extended, furniture and vital office equipment were provided (desks, chairs, benches, wooden closets, iron lockers, printers, a fax machine, and telephone lines). The work was conducted over a period of one week with a budget of $3,000. As for stage two, the plan is to build an additional office for archive paper work supplied with lockers specified for each municipality separately.
Labweh’s Head of Directorate-General of Census Mr. Ali Abdo praised the efforts done and explained that all previous equipment of the department were supplied on his expense, when there was no other source of aid. He noted, “The service which has been offered serves all the citizens of the region. There is more respect to the human being and his dignity is preserved. The officers are more comfortable with their jobs now, because the lack of logistics earlier left no possibility for proper work.” He added, “Only now I can literally feel that I am a Head of a public facility who can serve people, the way service should be properly presented.”
With the continuous support of UNICEF through the German, British, and Netherlands donations, assistance is provided, where it is most needed, as in this case. This process is complete only through the involvement of youth who are enriched with a new experience, which helps build their sense of awareness and responsibility deep within, and is reflected outside towards their community in the most constructive way possible.
