Program Details: 
Creating New Opportunities Through Technology

Mercy Corps has worked in Lebanon since 1993, providing development assistance to thousands of disadvantaged citizens around the country.

Historically, Mercy Corps' work focused largely on rural and agricultural development, environmental protection, and community-based economic development and infrastructure repair activities.

During and after the war of summer 2006, Mercy Corps ran a large-scale relief and recovery program to aid those most affected by the conflict. In addition to providing emergency food items and relief supplies to tens of thousands of people, Mercy Corps worked to rehabilitate more than 60 war-affected schools, provided psychosocial support to over 70,000 children and youth, and assisted hundreds of small farmers to preserve their livelihoods.

Mercy Corps Lebanon has a diverse, dynamic and committed team that reflects the rich cultural, religious, and political composition of the country as a whole. This team strives to implement excellent programs that work with Lebanese civil society organizations, communities, private sector actors and government representatives to achieve Mercy Corps' mission of helping to build secure, productive, and just communities. Our activities have been supported by numerous donors, including European Commission Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), USAID, UK Department for International Development (DFID), Partnership for Lebanon, Episcopal Relief and Development, American Life Insurance Company, and several private donors.

In each of its areas of strategic priority, Mercy Corps is focused on helping the people of Lebanon envision the positive, lasting change that they want to see in their communities and then realize their shared vision.

Programs in Detail

Youth Transformation
For the past two years, Mercy Corps has implemented a wide array of youth-oriented projects in Lebanon, reaching a total of more than 70,000 young people from a variety of religious, ethnic, geographical, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Two Youth Leadership Centers in poor neighborhoods near Beirut help young Lebanese develop critical thinking, communications, advocacy, and other skills, while at the same time helping them to engage their communities through service projects. An IT Center for Excellence in South Beirut provides access to IT training and assistance for disadvantaged youth to help them develop their small businesses. Other programs have supported youth in engaging school and community leaders to advocate for their needs and interests and taught them to use multimedia programs and other technology to capture their own stories and share them with their communities. After the 2006 war, dozens of projects around the country provided psychosocial support to youth through sports, cultural, and community service activities, giving participants a rare opportunity to explore their own creativity and relationships to their communities and youth from other backgrounds.

ICT and Business Development
Mercy Corps believes that Information and Communications Technology can be a powerful vehicle for supporting social and economic development. Helping marginalized or disadvantaged communities join the ICT Revolution opens up access to a world of new information, as well as social, educational, and financial opportunities. The goal of the Center for Excellence set up by Mercy Corps and its partner, the Union of Arab ICT Associations (IJMA3), is to provide a safe space where community members in the poor southern suburbs of South Beirut can obtain Microsoft-certified computer training and other types of computer-based courses. The center also offers the opportunity for entrepreneurs to receive assistance in developing their business concepts and obtaining small loans to turn their ideas into reality. Through the Leveraging Education through Access Rehabilitation and Networking (LEARN) program, Mercy Corps and IJMA3 worked to increase ICT access and skills in 12 of Lebanon's public schools. The Connected Communities program engaged local "Community Leadership Circles," groups made up of local citizens in five communities around the country, in identifying social and economic development priorities. The program then worked with representatives of the Partnership for Lebanon (made up of Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Oxidental, and Ghafari Systems) to develop ICT projects that addressed these needs.

Global Engagement
With technology helping to connect the global community as never before, Mercy Corps is tapping into this ever-growing stream of possibility and using it to build cross-cultural connections that reduce isolation, create more accurate perceptions and deepen each groups' understanding of the other's political and social realities. Mercy Corps' "Laysh La/Why Not?" makes use of the Internet to overcome these geographic and cultural barriers. Through Why Not?, youth in the Middle East, participate in an online educational and cultural exchange with young people in the United States. In Lebanon, the program includes youth in the predominantly Shiia Muslim neighborhood of Bourj el Barajne, as well as youth in the predominantly Armenian Orthodox neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud in North Beirut. This program will soon be expanded to include youth from around Lebanon.

Conflict Management
Violent conflict defines much of Lebanon's history, and even its present. This conflict is not purely political in nature, but can be found at all levels of society. Helping people develop the tools they need to peacefully manage conflicts is a priority for Mercy Corps. In approaching this work, we bring to bear Mercy Corps' wealth of experience in community mobilization, advocacy training, and conflict management—including the expertise of Mercy Corps' Conflict Management Group and the principles of "Getting to Yes," an interest-based approach to negotiation and conflict management.

Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, Women, and Other Marginalized Groups
While many people in Lebanon suffer a lack of educational, economic, or social opportunity, some groups are particularly disadvantaged or marginalized. Mercy Corps is dedicated to assisting these groups to find their voice and to advocate for their equal treatment. First, Mercy Corps seeks to ensure that women, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized people are represented in and served by all programs that we implement in Lebanon. In addition, Mercy Corps looks for ways to focus specifically on promoting the inclusion and integration of marginalized people. For example, Mercy Corps will soon launch "Towards Inclusive Development in Lebanon" (TIDiL), which will assist USAID and its implementing partners to become more inclusive of persons with disabilities, while at the same time providing disabled individuals with improved job skills and the opportunity to gain job experience by working in a humanitarian or development organization.

Assistance to Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons, and Especially Vulnerable Individuals
War, displacement, and extreme economic hardship can cripple families, especially if they were poor or vulnerable before they experienced a period of hardship. Wherever possible, Mercy Corps works to ease the suffering of people facing crisis. At present, Mercy Corps is establishing a program for people in northern Lebanon affected by the 2007 battle that leveled the Nahr el Bared refugee community. Through this ECHO-funded initiative, Mercy Corps and its partner, Najdeh Association, will employ laborers from vulnerable families to carry out light infrastructure projects selected by the community, thus providing a quick infusion of cash to families to assist them in resettling in the camp. ECHO also funded a recent program through which Mercy Corps and its partner, Tracon, helped preserved the livelihoods of hundreds of small dairy farmers in the Bekaa Valley. The program provided veterinary services, artificial insemination, supplemental feed, and training to help farmers prevent and treat basic diseases among their cows.