By Ramy Lakkis | Director, LOST
The Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST) has had a busy summer this year! Some of our activities have included:
Academy of Active Citizens
The Academy of Youth prepares youth to be more engaged in civic affairs. Over a three-month period, youth became more aware of their role and duties in society through participating in a series of interactive workshops on citizenship, civic participation and conflict resolution. They became more involved in community affairs. In fact, they decided to respond to the call of the Ministry of Culture to clean the inside of the ruins of Baalbek. On Saturday, 23 July more than 160 youth participated in a 4 hour long cleaning campaign, which was a practical effort to draw the attention of local authorities to make greater efforts to keep this important historical site clean.
The engagement of youth in community issues was also reflected by drawing murals with different messages about issues they found relevant in their communities. In Hermel, youth preferred to send a clear message for people to take care of their environment, in Baalbeck, youth decided to draw different road signs signaling a special care to road safety since they believed that many citizens of their ages are victims of car accidents.
Conflict Resolution for teachers in Baalbek
In July, LOST organized a conflict resolution training course in Baalbeck. This new course aimed at training teachers on how they can resolve the various types of conflicts that usually occur between students and teachers or between students’ parents and the teaching staff in any school.
In the first course offered, more than 20 teachers from different schools in Baalbeck- Hermel participated. The courses included training on the following topics: the roots of conflict, the different skills of conflict resolution such as dialogue, negotiation, mediation and adjudication.
One teacher noted, “It was a chance provided by LOST to help us solving the problems that we face in teaching.”
Future Activities
LOST is working with Bridging the Divide to finalize the structure of the women’s empowerment course that it will implement through Global Giving funds. LOST works with many women’s groups and organizations in the Baalbek-Hermel region, and is currently identifying potential candidates to take part in the training courses. Due to the challenges of successfully running an income-generating business, participants must satisfy preliminary criteria that demonstrate local market knowledge, and commitment to the project.
In addition, LOST will continue to organize IT training workshops and community service activities for youth in Baalbek-Hermel.
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