E-LINC II Project

Refugees communities in Lebanon are constantly facing hardships with no signs of positive change. Different factors contribute to the current situation including marginalization, deprivation of basic rights, deterioration of social and economic conditions and instability of currency and banking system. Some of these problems are affecting the whole country, while others have direct impact on the refugee communities. Labor regulations have been enforced by the Minister of Labor restricting the work of Palestinian and Syrian refugees with no permit, affecting their livelihood and potential work opportunities. Thus, refugees are in a situation where they compete with each other for the available scarce resources while suffering from marginalization. This initiated a mutual blame between the refugee and host communities for the marginalization and deterioration of living conditions.

Therefore, the interventions of civil actors are becoming more essential on the level of basic assistance and support and to reduce tensions between the abovementioned communities.

Working with youth and adolescents have proved its effectiveness in decreasing tensions and instilling change, especially that youth are more open to meet new people and build new friendships. Thus, under Result 1, the project aims at equipping social activists, NGO staff members and volunteers with new conflict transformation skills. Result 2, will be building bridges and strengthening social cohesion among different community members. Result 3 will allow the engagement of 500 youth in screenings of short films with the chance to share their thoughts and ideas. Finally, under Result 4, an intervention called Power of Digital Story, will be delivered to help youth produce resources documenting their experiences, reality and conflicts..

This project funded by Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations with mean proved by the German Federal Foreign Office.