Skill-building for Unemployed Youth in Lebanon

Dear Friends,

I hope you're all keeping safe and well as COVID19 and its many variants continue to threaten our very lives.

Let me start by thanking you for believing in us, supporting our mission, and for your continuous support.

Youth in Lebanon now, more than ever need your support.

Here's why!

While the world battles COVID19, in Lebanon, and in addition to the pandemic our list of struggles continues to grow by the day. The economic collapse, shortages in food, water, medicine, fuel, and power, etc... have brought the vast majority of the Lebanese to their knees.

All of these factors have left youth in Lebanon crippled, confused, and hopeless. Thousands have left the country but those who cannot afford to do so live in deep despair.

As such, we here at Nawaya are committed to upskilling youth and equipping them with essential entrepreneurship skills for financial stability and in turn personal wellbeing. This is exactly what we continue to work and fight for through this program.

With over 6,843 youth trained and 929 micro-enterprises launched through this program over the past few years, you've given youth the opportunity to generate an income through these enterprises, but perhaps more importantly the opportunity to believe in tomorrow and hope for a better future. 

Amid these struggles, some youth within this program are shining beacons of hope and resilience. Such is the case with Karen and Yasmina!

Twenty-three-year-old Karen started a modern crocheting business inspired by her mum, whose hobby was crocheting. With minimal resources and a lot of creativity, Karen has managed to turn traditional crocheting into fun toys, ornaments, and decorative items.

When her dad lost his job, Karen doubled down on her efforts and despite the deep economic crisis, she's now enlisted her mum, dad, sister, and neighbor to work full time at Crochet by Karen! 

Karen is now the bread-earner in the family and was able to do so through this very program, thanks to the support of UNICEF.

Twenty-two-year-old Yasmina is another inspiring youth in our program. Deeply passionate about the environment, she sought to solve one of Lebanon's biggest challenges: glass waste management. She created a machine that breaks down this glass into small particles which are ten times stronger than cement and can easily replace it in construction and decoration.

With Lebanon's mountains being destroyed to extract and process raw construction material, and glass waste being largely ignored, Yasmina's simple yet creative approach is a perfect solution to these two problems!

Yasmina is now working to build relations with municipalities and waste management organizations for the collection of glass waste for processing! 

We hope these two stories have instilled a little bit of hope in your hearts, they sure have in ours.

Until our next update, please stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Celine

Dear Friends,

It's been a while, I hope this update finds you and your loved ones in good health.

While COVID19 is still taking the world by storm and with the vaccines making their way slowly but surely to the masses, here at Nawaya we have launched our entrepreneurship program for low-income Lebanese and refugee youth. Our goal for the year is to support 750 youth by guiding them on how to start their own small businesses.

We have taken the first three months to overhaul our training curriculum based on developments in Lebanon this past year and have launched online learning in early March 2021.

Our curriculum is now divided into four main stages:

Stage 1: Entrepreneurship
This 12-day entrepreneurship training offers youth the opportunity to learn how to turn problems in their respective communities into opportunities, conduct field research, determine the building blocks and viability of their solutions, and lastly the opportunity to pitch in front of a jury.

Stage 2: FinCamp
FinCamp is a 7-day training that enables youth to dive into the financials of their projects, by creating realistic projections and a solid financial plan to back their ideas up. This stage is the final qualifier for incubation, with the second round of pitching, and a more solid plan.

Stage 3: Coaching
Successful youth who move on to the Incubation stage will get a chance to work with a coach, hone their business skills, develop a prototype and cover other business topics related to their projects. Incubation takes 2 to 3 months and follows a methodical approach for optimal results.

Stage 4: Post-Programme
Post incubation, youth will receive additional support through short-term mentorship, educational online sessions, referrals to local, regional, and international competitions, as well as other opportunities within the country, including GIL’s flagship events, Hakaya and Jawa2ez GIL.

In order to better understand the shifting variables in the Lebanese market today, and following a thorough economic market study conducted by an external surveyor, we're now able to guide young entrepreneurs on which types of businesses are more likely to succeed in this volatile climate. Some being: agro-processing and the agro-industry, tourism and hospitality, particularly local and rural tourism, education and development skills.

This brings us to 22-year-old Haidar from Sidon, a hospitality administration graduate who was looking to leave the country for a job in the Gulf before enrolling in the entrepreneurship program.

Through the program, Haidar was able to acquire sound foundational skills to run a small honey production enterprise as well as several beehives, which means he can now produce and sell his own honey, and more importantly generate and income and support himself and his family.

"I've had a passion for bees since my early childhood, bees drew me in due to the nature of their direct relationship with humans. They've also taught me so much" says Haidar.

We look forward to sharing many more stories from our young entrepreneurs throughout 2021.

On behalf of youth in our program and the Nawaya team, a very warm thank you for your donations, your support means that we can continue to serve youth through these difficult times.

Sincerely,

Celine