Open till June 15th from 1pm till 7pm.
The need for a public permanent skate park is obvious. Skaters aren’t allowed to skate anywhere and it doesn’t make any sense. Let’s pop-up until it happens!
For more pictures check the Lebanese Skateboarding Association album on Facebook or Flickr.
Check Lebanese Skateboarding Association:
From Left to Right: Mrs. Olga Mjzoub from AUB, Mrs. Dima El Khouri from INJAZ-Lebanon, Mr. Antoine Tayyar from CoCa-Cola Middle East and Dr. Elie Samia from LAU.
The Coca-Cola Foundation in partnership with INJAZ Al-Arab represented by INJAZ Lebanon are inaugurating the Ripples of Happiness program today in Habtoor Grand Hotel, Sin El fil.
Mr. Antoine Tayyar, Public Affairs and Communication Director, Coca-Cola Middle East, opened the round table with an introduction about Coca-Cola and its vision. He played a short guidance video. According to Mr. Tayyar, the youth in the Middle East has a lot to say and it should be provided with the means to do so. It is very active and effective. He also pointed out that the big number of NGOs in the area helps a lot in making positive impact.
The program is aimed at training university students on identifying opportunities in their cities as well as inspiring them to implement projects that will have a positive impact within their communities. The Ripples of Happiness Program falls in line with both The Coca-Cola Foundation (NGO) and INJAZ Al-Arab’s longstanding strategy to empower youth and foster social responsibility. The program will stretch over several years and is funded by the Coca-Cola company. The Foundation focuses on four global priority areas that subscribe to Live Positively:
The program has been made from scratch for the Middle East. The budget for the program is multi-years and around $850,000 without including the promotion for it.
The universities:
The program involves 20 selected students in every university and will take place over 6 consecutive weeks, with one day each week holding a 1-2 hour session about subjects that will help putting the plan together and execute it.
Throughout the Ripples of Happiness program the students will have the opportunity to learn a wide range of fundamental corporate social responsibility concepts and important principles for work readiness. With training and mentoring from a team consisting of volunteers from Coca-Cola team in the Middle East and volunteers from the INJAZ Al-Arab network, the students will be engaging in sustainability focused activities aimed at making a positive impact within their communities.
The first phase will take place from March to April as this is suitable for the Universities and avoids clashes with exam times. The second phase will take place from September to October of 2012. During the 1st and 2nd weeks of the program, students will identify an opportunity in their community that is dear to their heart and to the future generations. They will also decide on a solution to tackle this opportunity, and then proceed to implement their solutions during the 4th and 5th weeks of the program. The 6th week they will be asked to compile all their documentation to create a one minute Submission Document that will be judged by a panel. The winners will be supported in taking their projects further and scaling them.
In Lebanon, the Ripples of Happiness program is hosted by the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University and commenced on March 16 as a pilot with aim to growing to more universities in the future. The choice of the Universities for the pilot program was based on their readiness to adopt the curriculum.
A judging panel combining representatives from the Coca-Cola Foundation, INJAZ Al-Arab, and various community leaders will then join forces to choose the top community project in each market. The winning project will receive a grant to support the implementation of the project on a larger scale.
Mrs. Dima El Khouri, Executive Director, INJAZ Lebanon introduced the organization and pointed out its importance for the students and their employability. According to Ms. El Khouri the important part of the program is the learning process that happens during/after the 6 weeks and the information the students will gain to be able to create other community projects or engage in social entrepreneurship and create positive change. She was happy that she found an immediate positive response when the program was announced on INJAZ-Lebanon Facebook Page.
Dr. Elie Samia from LAU and Mrs Olga Majzoub from AUB spoke about how community service is part of their mission and about the motivation students showed for the program. Hundreds of students have applied making the selection quite difficult.
I’m not exactly comfortable with the name of the program: “Ripples of Happiness” but all in all it’s a good idea and I can’t wait to see what projects the students will propose!
For more information you can:
As part of the Breastfeeding campaign World Vision in partnership with the International Orthodox Christian Charities is launching in March 2012, this Public Service TV Ad, filmed with the support of the Ministry of Public Health.
The conclusion of research paper published in 2009 (made by AUB) was that “there are a number of cultural beliefs that could potentially discourage breastfeeding among Lebanese women. Understanding and addressing local beliefs and customs can help clinicians to provide more culturally appropriate counselling about breastfeeding.”
Some beliefs are as irrational as the fear to communicate physical pain to the infant. By observation, I have noticed that many of the new mothers have abandoned the idea of breastfeeding for other reasons. Ranging from aesthetics to fear of communicating a disease many of them found that using formula somehow is comforting and lessens the feel of guilt of maybe doing something wrong and harming the baby.
I’m not got to argue; I’m not a mother yet but if I take things rationally, research showed that breastfeeding is beneficial for both the mother and her baby.
Did you know that there was an international breastfeeding symbol?
For more information about World Vision you can:
We have bad internet. Paypal doesn’t serve Lebanon. Few are willing to do e-commerce with us because the latter is not regulated. There is no reference in case of litigation. Isn’t it enough already?
Would it hurt to focus the energy (if there is one) on the things that would make the economy roll and open up the market to new possibilities, more export , creating jobs and some fairness? No?
Freedom of expression, whether anyone likes it or not is SACRED. If they can’t handle different opinions and criticism, they better stay home and not talk with anyone. The rest of us have things to say and ideas to share. THEY SHALL NOT MUTE US! Thank you.
Check the following links:
Source:
I read Women can’t program or understand Math today. I have been thinking about several related and other extrapolated issues these couple of days.
I think it all starts from the beginning: from when parents find out the gender of the baby or when the doctors pulls the baby out of his mother’s womb and says: “It’s a boy/girl!”. After that, it’s blue or pink; miniature cars and Barbie dolls; pants and dresses, karate and classical ballet. And the list goes on…
Culture is not made of rock. It evolves. But many still hang on to their rock because they are afraid to be pushed out of their comfort zone. What do I mean by that?
I am glad that my parents never put me in a “pink” box. I may dress in a skirt and wear high heels; but it doesn’t mean that I like them. I don’t HAVE to. I took Kung Fu classes and I took dancing classes. I can watch all kind of science documentaries for hours and I always wonder how things are made. I like technology… But yet again
The sum of all this brainwashing made that today many functions have become one gender dominated. And when a member of the opposite gender comes in, he/she is given a one way ticket to hell. Female surgeons, male nurses, female engineers, male classical ballet dancer, female car mechanics, male make up artist, female machine operators & drivers, male stay-at-home-to-take-care-of-the-kids etc, female astronauts, female in high-tech.. they all have experienced this.
My question is: Why does it have to be this way? Why do we have to be judgmental of people’s personal preferences and career choices? Why does it matter who does what? Why do we have to stand in the way of people who like different things?
Then the gender-based violence comes in and laws aren’t there to prevent them from happening. Why do “need” to take sides? The are evil and violent people from both genders. It’s the harmful action that caused grievance that should be punished no matter the gender.
And then again, I look at the media, I am disappointed. Instead of diffusing change and gender neutrality media keeps on holding to that old rock. The thing is that when get things get really bad, you see extreme opposite reactions.
Some random examples:
Humans are made of dreams, inspirations, choices, preferences, interests etc… go beyond gender based stereotypes. Those companies may mean well. I’m not attacking anyone, but such messages nowadays are bound to be misinterpreted; which means they will lose audience and they will lose sales.
Sources:
