صحبة creates theatre-based peer education workshops where performers representing two unnamed political parties start a scenario that quickly escalates. The scenario pauses, and youth in the audience are invited to participate and re-create the scenario to avoid the clash.
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Expressions Corner participant
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Expressions Corner participant
The challenge:
Friendships in Lebanon are often highly dependent on alliances or oppositions between political parties. So if two political parties form an alliance, then friendship between youth supporting one party or the other strengthens. And in the case where these political parties disagree or form an opposition, the friendship between youth supporting them weakens. Therefore, youth are not creating a separation between their friends’ individual actions and identities, and the political decisions of their political leaders. There is no clear disconnection between the individual and the totality of the political party he/she supports. The influence of politics on friendships is most pronounced during key political events such as wars, demonstrations, assassinations, sit-ins, and elections.
The idea:
Theatre-based peer education workshops where performers representing two unnamed political parties start a scenario that quickly escalates. The scenario pauses, and youth in the audience are invited to participate and re-create the scenario to avoid the clash.
The aim:
Youth in secondary schools willing to distinguish between the political and personal identities of their peers, through the workshops and performances facilitated by their teachers.
48 hours of Imagination!
The weekend of the 7th and 8th of July 2012 marks the pilot of five Imagination Studio ideas: غرام، صحبة، مشوار، خبرية، دردشة. The pilot platform is an Imagination Bus, which transports the five ideas to two regions in Lebanon: Jbeil and Zahleh. When the bus arrives to its destination, Imaginers set up a pop-up Imagination Market. Each idea has a booth within the market, and invites youth to experience what is it is like to participate in the idea there and then. We are very interested in the feedback that youth give us, and in evaluating the impact that our ideas have on integration behaviours in the areas we’re visiting. This helps us improve and iterate the ideas on a small scale early on, before time and money is invested in implementing them on a large scale and longer term.
This is the Politics & Friendship idea we will be testing at the booth:
صحبة: A theatre-based peer education flash mob takes place at the booth, where performers representing two unnamed political parties start a scenario that quickly escalates. The scenario pauses, and youth in the audience are invited to participate and re-create the scenario to avoid the clash and conflict. A number of different scenarios are played throughout the day.
A Nawaya Network initiative empowering deprived youth by connecting them to mentors in their areas on interest.
A network of youth civic organisations making a positive impact in Tripoli.
A short film made by young people in Henbury and Brentry, to encourage more of their peers to do a BS10 Pledge. BS10 is the postcode of Henbury and Brentry, and the aim of the pledge is for each young person to do a small thing in the community to make the area a better place. Zeina Saab suggested this might be a good approach for the civic education idea, by encouraging students to pledge to find out something new about other students from another area/sect/political party.
Hi Everyone,
I just thought of sharing with you this video documentary on the Theater Based Peer Education technique Charbel talked about during the last meeting. It may be modified to our topic and used.
Now to get back to business, I will share with you this initiative currently taking place by the Lebanese Society for Children Capacity Building (LSCCB) and the Youth Shadow Government (YSG) to have all stakeholders participate in drawing educational policies in Lebanon. This is very important if we are going to integrate anything into the Lebanese education system. I was and still am playing a major part in planning for this initiative (called the Policy Community for Student Development). The first pilot theme will be on soft skills and we already have the Ministry of Education, Educational Center for Research and Development, and other stakeholders involved and willing to participate.
I could get them to have the the next theme on Civic Education and advocate our ideas to the Ministry directly!!!
Here is the Concept Paper in English and Arabic
Here is the Theme Description in English and Arabic
Here is the Tentative Agenda for the first meeting in English
Let me know if you have any questions… I can answer :)
Sincerely, Cedric Choukeir
Student swap initiative by Youth for Tolerance, covered by AnnaharTV
SFCG and Youth for Tolerance
Hello Team!
As I mentioned in the email I just sent, I think it could be a good idea to meet with Search for Common Ground and learn a bit more about their TV programme where they placed students from different religions together in one house and filmed them. It could give us some good leads on friendship and what seemed to bring them together and what appeared to drive them apart. I will look into this and find someone we can talk to.
Also, I mentioned the Youth for Tolerance project. Youth for Tolerance introduced the initiative starting with swapping 3 students from Ras Beirut International School in Dahieh, Beirut, and 3 student from Antonine Sisters School in Ghazir, Keserwan. This small trial can act as a great pilot for implementing this strategy as a full-scale periodical program across a wide network of schools, colleges and universities in Lebanon.
While on the surface it applies to Regions and Mobility, it also applies to our group too. We can arrange a meeting with Elie Awad and learn a bit more about the experiences of the youth in the project, and maybe even meet with them to hear their stories. Were they able to make friends with those from a different religion/political affiliation? Why or why not? What would they advise us on what could work? Anyway, just wanted to get a discussion going on this and hope to hear your thoughts!
Talk soon,
Zeina
