Peace and stability are precursors to democracy. Moreover, a democracy respects diversity. Lebanon is a small country in the Middle East with a multi-confessional demographic that has not found the right formula for its 18 confessional communities to live together peacefully. From 1975 to 1990, Lebanon went through a civil war that was fought along confessional lines and greatly weakened the state from within. Twenty years after the war ended, these confessional groups live down the street from each other but still don’t interact.
On October 21, 2010 [9], IREX’s Program Director in Lebanon, Peter Salloum [10], discussed IREX’s lessons learned on working with Lebanese youth to address conflict and corruption in that country’s most divided communities. In examining Lebanon’s historical and political context, Salloum shared how IREX mobilized youth leaders around a common cause—bad governance. Youth leaders worked together across confessional divides to advocate against corruption. By bringing together youth from across confessional groups, IREX was helping these communities bridge their divides and promote tolerance. Through intensive training and workshops and with the aid of small grants, youth had the opportunity to come up with their own solution to local problems. Many of these youth now had an alternative outlet for their time and energy—working with their peers to become local agents of change—whereas they could have been targets of radical groups.
For example, in the divided northern city of Tripoli, IREX assisted a youth-led NGO, We Love Tripoli [11], to initiate an e-volunteer management system to help youth coordinate their free time into volunteer time to improve their community. This group demonstrated how to reach out to youth across political and sectarian divides for the sake of transforming the community’s image. In East Saida, IREX grantee, Hassan Shreem, came up with the idea of setting up a complaints box for his community to collect reports of corruption incidences. Another youth-led NGO in South Mount Lebanon came up with an ingenious way of conflict resolution by reviving the old tradition of storytelling (hakawati) to interview elders about what community life used to be like before the civil war.
However, due to historical animosity, the conflict is still raw for some communities. In one village, Breih, a gathering of youth leaders didn’t go as planned; no handshakes were exchanged because some still harbored feelings of pain and mistrust from memories of a previous conflict between them.
In concluding his discussion, Salloum highlighted IREX’s three lessons learned from this and previous youth programming in Lebanon:
• First and foremost, young people should be listened to because they are experts in their own development.
• Second, youth are open to change and need to be to be recognized as agents for positive social change in their communities.
• Third, like-minded youth will need a structure and a network of resources and support systems for continued leadership growth and development. He reminded the audience that there’s much work to be done, especially when trying to engage youth in conflict areas.