SAWA detailed info

detailed information on our local partner in the Bekaa, Lebanon

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SAWA, OUR PARTNER IN THE BEKAA

Introduction

Sawa For Development Association, Qab Elias, Main Street, Moallem Building, 1st floor, Beqaa, Lebanon. Sawa For Development was created in 2006 and registered with the Ministry of the Interior. Its objectives are community development in the Beqaa Valley in the social and humanitarian fields, human rights awareness, prevention of violence against women, early marriage of children, empowerment of women, capacity building for young people, child protection and education. Sawa has ECOSOC consultative status with the United Nations. Sawa is a member of GirlsNotBrides, UNEP, the NGO Soliya New York and the Anna Lindh Foundation, Pure Heart Foundation, International Women Peace Group in South Korea and Save the Children International. Sawa works within the Lebanese community whenever necessary depending on the needs of the beneficiaries and the availability of funds. Its main activities are located in the Beqaa region, where refugees and underprivileged local people are concentrated.

Link with Ushagram Suisse *

Sawa for Development met Ushagram Switzerland for the first time in 2016 in Lebanon, in the person of its director, Jacques Albohair. Since then, Ushagram and Sawa have carried out several projects together:

2017 in Jib Jannine. Empowerment of Syrian and Lebanese women. Training trainers in sewing, knitting, embroidery and recycling. Sales support. Networking and regular follow-up.
2019 in Faour. Vocational training for 30 out-of-school teenagers aged 14 to 20 in car mechanics and tyre repair for boys and beauty care for girls, with basic accounting for both. The boys trained are still working in the region’s garages, while the girls are working in the camps.
From 2021 to date, three annual literacy and back-to-school programmes have been run in the camps in the villages of Mansoura and Qob Elias in the Beqaa, during which 725 children have been taught to read and write in the course of three 4-month training sessions with admission tests for state schools. 300 children went to school.

* See our 2017 orientation report “Why Lebanon” (french only)

Profile and identity, collaborations and previous experience

Sawa for Development is run by independent, non-partisan indigenous professionals with practical and technical experience in the various areas of capacity building in the humanitarian sector and community development projects, having completed training of trainers courses in humanitarian response, human rights, gender-based violence, child protection and capacity building and education. Its members contribute their time, energy and skills to the development and empowerment of socially disadvantaged and vulnerable communities in the Beqaa region, combating poverty and gender discrimination.

Sawa has been working for Syrian refugees since 2012. Numerous projects have been implemented on human rights and child protection, awareness-raising on the prevention of child marriage, non-formal education in tents, a three-year “tent school” project for hundreds of Syrian children. Two-year partnership with Save the Children in a literacy project. Accreditation by the Ministry of Education in 2016 to implement literacy and pre-school education programmes for refugee children (Community based early childhood education). Co-chairing literacy programmes in the Beqaa with UNICEF since 2020.

Objectives

SAWA’s work aims to achieve lasting social peace, equity and bridges between refugee women and the host population. Its objectives are socio-cultural development in the Bekaa, human rights education, rights education for women and young people, peace education, economic empowerment for women, and environmental sustainability.

Long-term intervention strategy

To achieve its objectives, the association tackles discrimination, marginalisation, poverty and the violation of human rights, in particular for women and girls as well as vulnerable, marginalised and disabled people, and peace education.

Sawa uses the community development model to involve target communities and build capacity for long-term planning, identifying community priorities, mobilising investment in resources and implementing development projects.

The organisation’s four key actions are to educate, empower, advocate and promote social change, and develop quality and effective programmes.

In practical terms, SAWA has been organising and running workshops, projects and activities for years, with the support and collaboration of local, national and international NGOs, with women and young people in the East and West Bekaa, focusing on human rights, gender-based violence, child marriage, protection and psychological support for marginalised children, education for all and social cohesion.

Programmes

Since 2012, direct intervention in child relief and protection. Organisation of workshops in refugee camps to provide education and psychological support (through drawing and story writing) and protection programmes for minors, raising awareness of early marriage. Support for women who are victims of violations of women’s rights, gender-based violence and early marriage.

1. Empowerment of women

Education of women from 7 villages and 2 refugee camps on waste management in collaboration with the Development and Reconstruction Council (CDR) and the Union of Beqaa Communes.
Workshops on preventing child marriage for Lebanese and Syrian women and girls from the Jeb Jenine, Bar Elias and Qob Elias refugee camps.
English courses for women with USPEAK and the US embassy in Beirut, in collaboration with the municipalities of Jib Jenine, Majdal Anjar, Beirut, Qab Elias and Mansoura.
Training in embroidery, knitting, recycling plastic bags into handbags, economic empowerment in the villages of the Beqaa. Exhibition at Jib Jenine and sale of creations, with Ushagram Switzerland.
Empowerment of women and capacity-building in terms of women’s participation in public life and life skills, in partnership with the USPEAK organisation.

2. Youth empowerment and capacity building

Training 26 youth trainers in gender-based violence, child marriage, sexually transmitted diseases and drug awareness with UNFPA (UN Population Fund).
Ongoing work with young people on building community resilience to gender-based violence and reducing risk and vulnerability, with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
Workshops on child marriage and its risks, aimed at young Lebanese and Syrian women in the Jib Jenine, Bar Elias and Qab Elias camps, and raising awareness of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Vocational training for young Lebanese and Syrians (aged 14-20) from Faour with Ushagram Switzerland. Acquisition of skills in mechanics, accounting and beauty.
Educational programme (YFS) with ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid) in Majdal Anjar and Faour for 50 out-of-school Lebanese young people aged 14 to 24. English, accounting and IT.
Peace education programme for young people in partnership with the IWPG (International Women Peace Group) in South Korea.
Peace art competition for children in public and public schools and refugee camps, in partnership with the IWPG in South Korea.

3. Human rights and gender equality

Sawa for the promotion of gender equality” project: contributing to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in vulnerable villages in the Beqaa, refugee camps and gatherings. With the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI). Closing of the project with a marathon for the 1,500 participants from the schools involved.

4. Social enterprise

In Place of War” programme at the University of Manchester, with workshops on entrepreneurship run by the Anna Lindh Foundation. Submission of participants’ ideas and distribution of Uni Manchester certificates.

5. Community involvement and conflict resolution

Conflict resolution project for the most vulnerable Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian families, with the Lebanese company Vincenti. Throughout the country in collaboration with local authorities. 15,000 beneficiaries.
Artistic competition on peace for schoolchildren in camps, with the International Women Peace Group.

6. Environment

Participation in international environmental summits, with two hosts from Bekaa public schools in Japan, Norway, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea.
Reforestation campaigns: participation in the UNEP “Million tree campaign”. Planting of 50,000 conifers over five years in partnership with AFDC (Association for Forests, Development and Conservation) and the municipalities of Qob Elias, Bar Elias, Majdal Anjar and Mansoura. With UNEP (UN Environment).
Reforestation campaigns in the Beqaa with LRI (Lebanese Reforestation Initiative).
Waste management project with the CDR (Lebanese Council for Development and Reconstruction) and the Union of Municipalities of the Zahleh region. Training of 35 trainers in sorting and recycling.
Annual reforestation projects with the AFDC in the west and east of Beqaa.
Green technology training for 30 women in Bekaa cooperatives with the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Energy and solar dryers for the food industry.
SAWA has observer status at the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP).
Work on plastic recycling with our pupils in the tent schools.

7. Culture

In partnership with the Ministry of Culture, implementation of the following projects:

Encouraging children to read in collaboration with the municipal libraries of Bar Elias and Qab Elias;
Folk dance training for 30 young people aged 14 to 16 and participation in various school festivals.
English language and capacity-building courses for women aged 18 to 45 with USPEAK since 2018.
Partnership with the org. “Search for common Ground” for training on UN resolution 1325.
Partnership with IWPG in South Korea on a peace education project for young people.

8. Means of subsistence

Since 2012, supporting Syrian refugees in the Bekaa with food and clothing. Initially in the north of the Beqaa, then in the west and east of the Beqaa. Campaigns still underway thanks to donations in the Bar Elias, Qob Elias, Majdal Anjar, Saan Nayel and Housh Harimeh camps. 20,000 beneficiaries.

9. Research

Participation in the strategy of the National Commission for Lebanese Women in 2016 – 2017 on research into violence against women in the Beqaa. With the Swedish organisation “Operation 1325″ in 2018, presentation of a report on the implementation of UN resolution 1325 on women, peace and security in Lebanon. Participation with “Organisation1325” in Sweden in a study on “Violence against women in Lebanon”.