STORY PREVIEW

2021

Dawha Academic Bridge

Makassed Dawha School

Saida

MENTOR

Noura Yehya

Step 1 FEEL

List the challenges or problems in your surroundings (school,neighbourhood etc.) that bothered you.

We are all living the economic crisis and inflation of the lebanese pound and cost of products that have increased drastically. So a big part of the community is no longer able to secure food and essential products. In addition the covid situation did not help, as the most vulnerable were not able to sustain themselves. There are so many problems that we are all going through that it would be hard to list them all: increased poverty, no electricity, no fuel, no medicine, high stress...

State the problem chosen to work and why.

We decided to work on the lack of access to food and lower the stress in the community. Access to food is a basic right, unfortunately it is no longer the case in Lebanon as food prices have increased a lot, money is retained in banks so people cannot access their money and the inflation has in any case devalued the capital. We feel we cannot let our community hungry and stressed.

Who were the people affected by the problem? What were their primary concerns?

Most of the community is affected by poverty and hunger. In addition covid got our community disconnected from human values.

Step 2 Imagine

List ALL the different solutions you came up with.

1- to distribute money to people 2- give gifts to children 3- prepare boxes in the school Boxes are divided in three: money, toys, clothes Increase humane values

Which solution from those listed above did you choose to implement and why?

We chose the boxes solution because it is more sustainable. To increase sustainability: peer to peer game to prepare for the transition to transfer the boxes to the next promotion. The game revolves around DFC and the following values: 1-kindness 2- cooperation 3- responsibility 4- giving/generosity In that way we make sure that the spirit of the children is still connected with the project.

Step 3DO

Describe very briefly the process of implementing your solution(s).

Leaders who have already done DFC projects in the past, have asked the grade to put two money boxes that are created by the students themselves: 14 students have done 14 boxes. In 20 days of school they were able to gather 3.553.250LBP. We realised we need more help becaise we realized how big the problem is, so we collaborated with 3 NGOs: 1-the first one we gave 200.000LBP to Jil for sustainable development (distributes money to families), our condition to give the moeny to that NGO was that they match the amount and help us distribute gifts to two orphans children 2- NGO Ahlouna and NGO Chahid Rachid Brom We cooked and at the end of August we distributed the food to 40 families: riz au poulet, gateau and fattouche as well as mouneh to 7 families

What was the result or impact of your project?

40 families have received a pleasurable meal (a traditional dish rice and chicken, a traditional rich salad,and a dessert). They did not dream to have such a nice meal. Storage food for 7 families and toys for 2 orphan kids.

How many people were impacted by your solution(s)?

237

What did the impacted people have to say about your project? Provide 2 quotes or testimonials:

The orphan children were so happy by the activity that they went to our school and thanked us. One of them liked our activity so much that they wanted to join our DFC summer camp. We took him in without any fee. We had left one meal for us to share and taste our own produce at the end of the distribution. Heading back to school and excited to try the food we encountered a family in need, so we decided to give them the meal. They were so surprised and touched that they did not know how to express their feelings except through sending many prayers for god to protect us, they even wanted to hug us but with the health situation we had to refuse.

What challenges did you encounter while implementing your project, and how did you overcome them?

The first problem was: how to gather money, we thought we would only get 400.000 or 500.000 Lbp So we decided to think about a good communication strategy with teachers and parents so that a large number get interested in participating to our fundraise. 2- with the covid situation we were not able to meet altogether and we had time constraints, so we did virtual meetings or one-on-one meetings in the school with the teacher until the school opened its doors again and then we were able to get everything done faster. 3- We realized that the poverty problem is so spread and we are just a few of us ... so we collaborated with other NGOs to increase manpower and resources.

How long did it take to implement your solution?

MORE THAN 30 DAYS

Which global goals does your story align with?

No poverty

Please explain briefly why do you think so?

Because through these sustainable actions we might give access to food, toys and clothes to more and more families thus allowing them to live more decently.

Step 4 SHARE

How did you share your project with your school and community? Who did you share your project with? What was their response?

We did 12 radio emissions (twice/week) Dawha news (youtube, social media) that were shared with and by the community of our city Saida, the Lebanese community and even outside. Please check the following program as an example https://youtu.be/SKKTRLausHI

Approximately how many people did you share your story of change with?

More than 100

Briefly share your plan to sustain the impact of your project?

These boxes will be always present in the class for future donations. Most importantly the spirit of the values that were taught will continue to be enriched through activities and experiences.

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