IOM Lebanon’s community stabilization programming in North Lebanon seeks to enhance social cohesion and stability, in order to decrease tensions between Syrians and Lebanese in many areas in Lebanon. This community-led project is a part of “Peace-building through cooperation” funded by the Government of Canada and implemented by the International Organization for Migration, in partnership with UTOPIA.

Baal Al Darawish, which is one of the poorest areas in Lebanon, was chosen to implant the IOM project in.

The main object of this intervention is to resuscitate the community’s dormant sense of agency and ownership in Tabbeneh while bringing together Syrian and Lebanese families to collaborate for their own advancement and alleviate the tension amongst them.

Two Syrian-Lebanese committees have been established, and they attended several sessions, which took place at ABJAD Socio-Cultural Centre.

Each committee was formed by a Twenty-Four key influential people from Al Darawish. They have been through a period of three months of conflict resolution mentorship. They were trained on the basics of problem-solving, teamwork, conflict resolution, and project design.

These sessions were a chance to bring people together, to encourage communication, to improve the perception of one another, to address community needs and suggest collective solutions.

By the end of the project, two social action initiatives have been implemented, which benefit the entire community, exclude no one and require the collaboration of Syrian and Lebanese families to be sustained.

The male committee project was a basketball court in Baal Al Darawish. The aim of the court is to provide the opportunity to build constructive social relations between Lebanese and Syrian youth, by affording a safe and equipped place where they can play basketball together. Such sports activities empower youth’s capabilities and help them to become catalysts of peace-building and positive change in their community.

The female committee project was workshop carpentry “Al Mashghal”, where women make handcrafts and sell them. This project aims to achieve the economic empowerment of women and strengthening their role in society by creating job opportunities for them, which protect them from exploitation.