Student council elections at three Lebanese high schools exposed students to the fundamentals of democracy.
 

High School Students Experience Democratic Process - September 2008
Students from three Lebanese high schools experienced the democratic process firsthand while uniting to plan a community development project aimed at benefiting teenagers in a region beset by political and religious divisions. Led by local nongovernmental organization 05Amam with support from USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives, students from Christian, Druze, and Shiite backgrounds in Mount Lebanon elected nine of their peers to an interscholastic student council. Following the election, the successful candidates joined a Project Planning and Implementation Committee to come up with ideas for a community development project.
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Douma residents enjoy the first theater production performed and produced by their newly formed village theater company.
 

Community Theater Harnesses Youth Talents - August 2008
A bit of Broadway came to Lebanon recently, as young people staged their own contemporary theater productions through a project designed to encourage youth participation in creative activities instead of divisive politics. Led by Lebanese nongovernmental organization Zico House with support from USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives, villages in four different regions of the country have set up amateur production companies. The project has introduced youth to possible careers in the arts and fostered positive relationships between participants who come from the Beqaa, the north, the south, and Chouf and who represent a mix of religious and political backgrounds.
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The Kfar Zabad Site Support Group leads a hiking activity through the wetland that is uniting neighboring villages.
 

Conservation Project Unites Neighboring Villages - August 2008
Two villages are overcoming religious and political differences through a project designed to mitigate conflict by preserving an environmentally significant wetland in the Beqaa Valley. A local nongovernmental organization, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL), is heading the project which encourages residents from both villages to work together to preserve the wetland. In turn, the project is helping to bridge the gaps between the communities and diffuse tensions exacerbated by a polarized political climate.
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Shamam Al Nasser (left) and Abdallah Ali Obeid exchange olive-farming experiences and techniques after an SRF workshop in southern Lebanon.
 

Southern Lebanese Farmers Find Common Ground - June 2008
Lebanese farmers from seven villages in southern Lebanon shared stories of their agricultural successes and challenges in a series of workshops designed to improve cross-confessional cooperation in the segregated region. Led by the Scientific Research Foundation (SRF), a local NGO, the inter-village workshops focused on better agricultural practices in an area largely dependent on olive farming. Participants reported that bringing farmers together was an innovative way to enhance agricultural productivity and address the acute needs of an area that is still recovering from the damages inflicted during the 2006 war.
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Tanya Abi Nassif and Khalid Jazarli participate in a small group activity at a Beirut workshop that connected students from different communities.
 

Youth Network Spreads Message of Tolerance - June 2008
The USAID Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) is supporting a network of 180 youths from all regions of Lebanon to engage in civic activities through community-based initiatives. For community activist Maria Assi, who coordinated the project in all of the country’s governorates, the youth participants have come to see themselves as “a microcosm of the Lebanon they want to see.” Echoing this sentiment, 20-year-old Al Kurdi said the training and youth-led activities “empowered us with the ideas and skills to pass the message of tolerance on to others.”
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Nehna Kelna’s convoy tours Beirut’s seaside communities during the April 13 public appeal urging Lebanese civil society to “take a stand” for peace.
 

Music and Song Urge Lebanese To Take a Stand - April 2008
Music was the language of choice for Nehna Kelna's public appeal for peace and unity on the 33rd anniversary of the start of Lebanon's civil war. With OTI support, the activist youth group, whose name means All of Us in Arabic, recorded and broadcast a song, "Take a Stand," from a convoy of cars during a 14-hour musical advocacy tour of Beirut and the southern city of Saida.
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Nehna Kelna’s convoy tours Beirut’s seaside communities during the April 13 public appeal urging Lebanese civil society to “take a stand” for peace.
 

Music and Song Urge Lebanese To Take a Stand - April 2008
Music was the language of choice for Nehna Kelna's public appeal for peace and unity on the 33rd anniversary of the start of Lebanon's civil war. With OTI support, the activist youth group, whose name means All of Us in Arabic, recorded and broadcast a song, "Take a Stand," from a convoy of cars during a 14-hour musical advocacy tour of Beirut and the southern city of Saida.
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A former combatant publicly apologizes for his role in forcing people to seek shelter in their bathrooms during Lebanon’s civil war. It is estimated that the war claimed more than 100,000 lives.
 

Enough of Hiding in Bathrooms: 600 Toilets Make a Dramatic Point - April 2008
"Haven't 15 years of hiding in the toilets been enough?" This was the question posed by a public exhibition of 600 toilets to commemorate the Lebanese civil war at a time when deep divisions have raised fears of renewed conflict. The two-week exhibit by Lebanese artist Nada Sehnaoui and supported by OTI served as a stark reminder of the dangers posed by the political stalemate and increasingly polarized rhetoric.
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Young women in Hey Al-Muassiseh participate in a creative group activity illustrating their vision for an improved community.
 

Improving Conditions in Underserved Communities - April 2008
With support from the Office of Transition Initiatives, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) is helping to improve the quality of life in areas housing a mix of Palestinian refugees and low-income Lebanese citizens. Home to the poorest of the poor, these informal communities, or “gatherings,” have long been forgotten, as they fall outside the official refugee camps administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. ANERA is working with local partners in the southern city of Tyre, where successive waves of Palestinian refugees have created pressures on cash-strapped municipalities and tense relationships with neighbors.
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Hayat Dalal, a young activist with No Sectarianism, discusses the group's vision with a Lebanese man during a book exhibition.
 

NGOs Make Inroads Despite Political Crisis - March 2008
Despite a volatile situation and an uncertain future, Lebanese nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) continue to act as service providers, voices of change, and consensus builders. Since September 2007, the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Lebanon has built ties with diverse partners working to diffuse the tensions exacerbated by polarized political rhetoric. Through small grants and technical assistance, these NGOs are creating youth committees, using alternative media to deliver social messages, and helping to resolve community-level conflicts.
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Lebanese volunteers from different regions and backgrounds work together to clean up an oil spill on one of Beirut's public beaches.
 

Youth Advocacy on Environment Demonstrates Shared Vision - March 2008
Recent forest fires and a major oil spill caused by the bombing of a power plant in July 2006 have renewed public interest in environmental issues. With OTI support and in partnership with the Association for Forest Development and Conservation (AFDC), a Lebanese nongovernmental organization, a group of approximately 30 youth with differing political backgrounds from Lebanon's six regions have joined forces to publicize air pollution studies and encourage government officials to adopt stricter measures to control air pollution. The project is demonstrating that the Lebanese people can work together to address critical issues affecting the country.
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A meeting of the consensus team in Tebnin is attended by community leaders and a field officer from DPNA, CRS's local implementation partner in southern Lebanon.
 

Teams Seek Consensus on Development Priorities - March 2008
With support from the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is working in Lebanese villages to build consensus among different community and religious groups. In four villages in the North and four villages in the South, CRS has been forming "consensus teams" that are reaching out to members of all groups and communities to identify development priorities and draw up strategic plans for each locale.
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