Left: Anti-government demonstrations in Beirut (2007) - Right: Anti-terrorism campaign in Nahr el Bared (2007)
Moderator and students during a school-workshop
Our projects
Tolerance is a skill that can be learned by everyone. By teaching the youth about awareness of differences, dialogue, negotiation and conflict resolution, we give them what they need to navigate the sometimes difficult aspects of a religiously and socially diverse society.
The three main aspects of our projects are:
Workshops: Through a series of workshops in schools we teach students about types of conflicts, conflict resolution, negotiation and mediation, and dialogue and tolerance. These modules address 16-22 year old students in an interactive way, including role-play and psychological ploys that bring out hidden assumptions. Through these workshops, we provide the youth with education and training on skills that they can use in their everyday interactions.
Summer camp: In summer, Y4T organizes a camp for youth from different social and religious backgrounds from all over Lebanon. During these camps, the topics of the educational workshops (conflict and conflict resolution, negotiation and mediation, and dialogue and tolerance) are further explored. We create a common experience as a starting point for tolerance, rather than have the participants discuss their similarities and differences of religion, politics or social issues. The camp program is a mix of entertainment and interactive role-plays that are meant to reveal biased belief-systems and bring out unspoken ideas. A documentary will be made about the camp.
Awareness campaign: Together with students and new-graduates from the Audio-Visual field, Y4T is working on a campaign to spread the message of tolerance to a youth (and others) from al social and religious backgrounds in Lebanon. The campaign includes a series of TV-spots, a documentary on tolerance and a helpful guide for conflict resolution. In this project, Y4T combines two of its main goals: to spread a culture of tolerance in Lebanese society, and to empower young people to contribute to social change by giving them practical help in expressing themselves. Ultimately, we aim to get tolerance education as a permanent aspect of the curricula in schools and universities.