The "Lebanese Development Network - LDN" in partnership with "Al-Makassed Charitable Association" implemented the project "Empowering Local Communities to Create Peacebuilding Initiatives" in conflicting zone of Al-Tariq Al-Jadida area in Beirut thanks to the special funding of UNDP and UN-Habitat.
The project aimed to build the capacities of local actors within three groups: youth, women, and the reference committee composed of the area's main actors in order to increase the level of awareness on the importance of dialogue to find common ground and reduce the intensity of conflicts among the various groups.
The project dealt with a specific approach which allows these groups to benefit through live experiences and participate in an interactive and dynamic way to secure the best conditions for the continuity of the project.
As for the techniques used to achieve the goal, they ranged from relaxation techniques, groups and workshops, theater, exercises, life testimonies, case studies, films and other methods that depended on the participation of the local community in all its spectrums.
The work was carried out in the framework of cultural and intercultural dialogue under the theme "Peace Building and Conflict Resolution."
The youth groug had organized an entertainment festival in which the youth of Tariq Al-Jadeeda took on the responsibility towards their local community by inviting the children to an educational activity away from the street with the participation of more than one hundred children.
As for the second activity, it was demonstrated by taking pictures of the Sabra region by the young people themselves, after they underwent a series of trainings on this technique, to later organize an exhibition with which they were able to say their words by describing the region or by suggesting the change that they dream of.
The curators described the project as pioneering because of its partnerships in implementation and the results it achieved that were reflected on individuals as much as on institutions, through the skills acquired in addition to the plans drawn.
