Economic Growth Lebanon Project #44651

Support 100 Financially-Vulnerable Youth in Beirut

by The Nawaya Network

Project Report | May 12, 2021
Employment Program a Lifeline for Lebanon's Youth

By Celine Akkary | Marketing and Communications Manager

Fiona Walks the Streets of Beirut

Hello,

I hope this update finds you and your loved ones in good health.

While the world races to achieve immunity against COVID19, works to support those affected, and revive economies in the aftermath, Lebanon continues to free-fall into economic collapse, in addition to the pandemic and its effects.

As stressors in the country continue to add up, poverty in Lebanon is likely to worsen in 2021.

UN ESCWA estimates reveal that more than 55% of the country's population is now trapped in poverty and struggling for bare necessities, while Lebanon’s youth watch in complete despair as their education, and hard work “goes to waste”.

While some choose to leave the country, those with no means to do so, now more than ever, depend on programs like The Nawaya Network’s Employment Hub for hope, continuity, and yes, the monthly stipends provided within the program.

For many, this stipend is the only source of income in the household.

As such, we renew our thanks to you for your continued support to the youth enrolled in the Employment Hub, and would like to bring you up to speed on progress achieved to date.

Eighty-one youth have now completed the program, including the internship, online training, and coaching sessions, some of whom have landed jobs with organizations they were interning at during the program.

All of the youth participating in the program have expressed the value of the learning and development experience received throughout the duration of the program, therefore reporting higher levels of confidence, and motivation to pursue their job hunt despite these difficult times.

We’ve also onboarded fifty-one new youth into the program. They’ve now completed their internships enabling them to add hands-on experience to their CVs.

From a strategic standpoint, we’re continuing to expand our network of partners with the aim of broadening the spectrum of internships to match the number of youth and their majors.

Before we move on to have a look at what the numbers say about the program, we’d like to remind you that 100% of your donations to the Employment Hub go directly to fund the youth stipends:

92 youth have completed 23 online training sessions,
84 youth completed their internship with Nawaya partners
Reported drop-offs are usually due to early employment opportunities, education purposes, and/or moving out-of-country
20% of youth interning in the call center unit have stayed on as volunteers as they’ve discovered a newfound passion for community-driven work.

Last but not least, we’d like to invite you to watch this short video of Fiona’s success story, one of the youth who has completed the program.

As always, we would love to hear from you, please feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, or suggestions at contact@nawaya.org.

Thank you as always for your generous support and for standing by Lebanon's youth during these challenging times!

Sincerely,

Celine Akkary

Links:

Employment Hub - Fiona's Journey

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Jan 12, 2021
Employing Youth in Lebanon - Against All Odds

By Celine Akkary | Marketing and Communications Manager

Youth at the Christmas Market

Hello,

Happy New Year 2021 on behalf of The Nawaya Network team!

We here at The Nawaya Network are so proud of our recent work to provide youth in Lebanon with employment opportunities, and we’d like to thank you for believing in our mission and for being a part of our community.

Youth in Lebanon bravely fight and defy difficult circumstances day in and day out.

Our youth are remarkable, and their strength is inspiring. They are young adults, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, spouses, parents, friends… They laugh, cry, and have HOPE in the face of these terrifying times.

For the past three months, we've been able to build strong working relationships with acting relief organizations with the aim of supporting 27 youths from areas affected by the Beirut blasts. We've worked hard to connect them to paid internship opportunities (thanks to your generous donations!) by working with relief organizations and have partnered up with Jobs for Lebanon to provide them with online employability skill-building.

These 27 youths have been interning with numerous NGOs, including:

Live Love Beirut, a social enterprise on a mission to build communities that create hope, and a positive impact for nature, society, and culture in Beirut.

At Live Love Beirut, referred youth have supported the organization by managing their relief call center which supports thousands affected by the explosion, inputting the data from the calls on the system, assisting with events such as the Christmas Market, and sorting and managing donations.

The Volunteer Circle is an enterprise that connects NGOs to volunteers. Youth referred to the Volunteer Circle assist in coordinating and managing the different activities with the partners, finding volunteers for these opportunities, creating stories for communications purposes from volunteers, and data entry. Some of these youth have been deployed to do fieldwork with Beit Al Barakeh, Stand for Women & Ahla Fawda through The Volunteer Circle.

These 27 youth will be joining Jobs for Lebanon starting February where they will receive coaching support on the job application process and help in applying for three jobs through the Jobs for Lebanon platform. The main of this program is to increase the employability skills of youth in Lebanon and therefore increase their chances of landing jobs as they complete our three-months paid internship program.

In the coming two weeks, and by the third week of January 2021, we will be onboarding 54 more youth who will start their internships with Live Love Beirut, Arc En Ciel, Loyac, SE Factory, Rise Up Lebanon, and The Volunteer Circle.

By the end of 2021, we aim to have reached up to 130 youth in Lebanon through this program alone!

Our warriors are why we do what we do, YOU are the how! You are the essential piece of the puzzle, your support makes all of our work imaginable and possible and allows us to think bigger, and challenge ourselves to find better and new ways to serve youth every day.

With Gratitude,

Posing with Santa

Working with The Volunteer Circle

At Social Hub's Employment Event

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Sep 14, 2020
A Swift Response to the Needs of Beirut Residents

By Celine Akkary | Marketing and Communications Manager

"I help because I can", Hussein

Hello Friends,

As you all know, Lebanon is going through the most severe economic crisis in its history, exacerbated by the outbreak of COVID19 and more recently by the tragic Beirut explosion which claimed over 190 deaths, with thousands of injured, 300,000 displaced and thousands of homes destroyed. Many of the few businesses still running in the city were wrecked forcing unemployment rates even higher.

With no income to pay for rent, food, or medicine, people are turning to desperate measures to survive, while crime, violence, drug use, homelessness, depression, and suicide are on the rise. Meanwhile, the country's youth have been stuck at home or unable to work or find employment, causing an increased sense of hopelessness.

In response to this situation, Nawaya has once more tailored its #EmploymentHub program to support up to 80 financially-vulnerable, unemployed youth by matching them with paid internships in Beirut by supporting NGO relief efforts, while also learning essential employability and soft skills through Nawaya's online training.

Enrolled and committed youth will receive a monthly stipend for a period of three months, after which they will be connected to a number of local and remote employment opportunities through the Jobs for Lebanon platform, in partnership with UNICEF.

Youth who commit to the program will receive $200 per month from Nawaya for a period of three months to sustain themselves, therefore decreasing their sense of hopelessness and increasing their sense of purpose and direction.

So far, we have eight youth enrolled in our program; five of them are already on the ground supporting the Lebanese Red Cross with data collection efforts. Mohamad, one of the youth, tells us: "The most rewarding part of my job is when I visit someone to assess the damages and they send me to their neighbor because they think they might benefit from the help more." Mohamad hopes his job would enable relief organizations to respond swiftly to the needs of those affected by the blast.

Our goal is to enroll up to 100 unemployed youth in this program. So far, thanks to UNICEF, a very generous private donor, and a number of you who have already contributed to this crowdfunding campaign, we have secured funding to support the stipends of up to 85 youth! Will you help us secure the remainder?

This week, we're inviting you to join us in a celebration of the power of small acts of kindness for GlobalGiving's Little by Little campaign. From today until Friday, ALL online donations up to $50 will be matched at 50% !*

In the past month, we’ve learned just how important little actions—from cleaning up the streets of Beirut to feeding those in need —truly are.

Donate today to support unemployed, financially-vulnerable youth here. 100% of your donation will go to support the stipends of these youth affected by the Beirut blast. Your support will help get them back on their feet to rebuild their lives and will give them hope to get through this difficult time.

Forever Grateful,

Celine Akkary

Mohammad

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