Soccer is the most popular sport in many countries, and for the children in Tyr, Lebanon, that is no different. However, soccer fields are few and far between, and the rare and valuable playing space can only be reserved for a fee leaving the local youth few places to gather and play. Now they have a field of their own. With funding and support from the One Community program [8], the Cadmous Christian School and the Islamic Charity Organization gathered local Christian, Sunni and Shia children to build a soccer field on the grounds of the school.
Although the field was built on the school's campus, the leaders saw the importance of bringing the children together, despite their religious backgrounds and officially turned the field into public property through the local municipality, so it can be used by children of all religions.
To officially announce the opening of the field, the two organizations held a three day event which included basketball tournaments, footraces, and a soccer tournament that mixed students on teams from the Sunni and Christian schools to play together instead of against each other.
"There were a lot of winners [in basketball, running and soccer]” the head of the Cadmous School remarked during the program's closing ceremony, "but the real winner today is Lebanon."
The One Community [8] program supports positive interfaith interaction and collaboration by bringing together pairs of religious leaders and their community members for joint community development projects. Six projects have successfully been implemented throughout Lebanon and the program continues to support interfaith cooperation by creating networks with religious leaders to open channels of communication and provide stability during times of potential conflict.
Following implementation of the community grant projects, religious leaders from all different backgrounds will gather to discuss the success of their collaborations and how to continue to working to bring their communities together in peace in a time and place where more often religion seems to pull them apart.
One Community: Promoting Inter-Faith Cooperation in Lebanon [8] is funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor [9] and implemented by IREX and its partners, the ADYAN Foundation [10] and Nahar Ashabab [11].