OCTOBER HIGHLIGHTS:
Projects to enhance social cohesion take on a wide variety of forms across the region. In Egypt, the Outa Hamra (Red Tomatoes) Troupe, composed of Egyptian, Syrian, and European artists, gave a performance during October on personal stories and songs from different cultures to a large audience from the Syrian and Egyptian communities. The troupe’s performances are part of a Community Support Project (CSP) which aims to engage impacted Egyptian communities and refugees from different countries through theatre and other artistic events.
In Lebanon, 14 new community participatory mechanisms were established, involving 222 new change agents, mostly youth (74) and Lebanese community leaders (77) who are now engaged to play a positive role and mitigate tensions and misperception at the community level. Local groups have been trained them on conflict analysis and resolution in Halba, Akroum, Zahle, Zgharta, and Hermel. Nine additional participatory mechanisms were established through activities in Social Development Centres, resulting in the implementation of nine quick impact projects by active youth. 79 of the most vulnerable communities now benefit from a participatory or conflict mitigation mechanism to facilitate dialogue and mitigate tensions.
In Lebanon, over 1,000 new individuals benefited from livelihoods activities in the month of September. This includes 341 beneficiaries of income‐generating initiatives and 685 new participants in vocational training initiatives.
In Iraq, more than 1,000 people participated in employment assistance, income generation activities or business development projects during the month, while almost 1,000 participated in vocational training or skills development programmes.
