Ruwwad Al Tanmeya

Ruwwad Al Tanmeya is a regional non-profit community development organization that works with disenfranchised communities through education, youth volunteerism, and grassroots organizing. Our approach encompasses an array of programs and initiatives that deal with issues prioritized by the local community and strengthen agency among beneficiaries. Ruwwad improves resilience and access to livelihood programs in host communities that have shouldered the heaviest burden of the Syrian refugee crisis, whilst themselves being among the most disenfranchised and marginalized communities in Lebanon. Ruwwad Community Centre is located between Bab al Tabbeneh and Jabal Mohsen (BaT/JM), two neighborhoods with a history of violent conflict, with recent outbreaks of armed conflict related to the Syrian civil war, and among the most poverty stricken and marginalized communities in Lebanon.  

Through Ruwwad’s scholarship program, each year it enables over 100 youths from vulnerable backgrounds to take part in higher education in Lebanon in exchange for a commitment of 4 hours per week of volunteering in the local community on a range of projects and initiatives, as well as providing access to enrichment activities and civic engagement opportunities. By bringing youths from both neighborhoods to work together in both communities, Ruwwad plays a significant role in conflict resolution and peace building across sectarian divides. Ruwwad is a citizen led model, based on the premise that local people are those most affected by, and therefore experts in, the socio-economic challenges they face. Ruwwad bases its interventions on their insights, and designs and implement projects that aim to meet their needs, taking advantage of Ruwwad’s programmatic model and community service hours of the Scholars to achieve significant and measurable impacts. Ruwwad helps to create safe learning spaces for children and adolescents, mobilizes the community to launch grassroots campaigns that engender social change, and advocates for access to rights-based services through partnerships with the private sector, governmental agencies, and civil society organizations. 

Ruwwad’s efforts are organized into three fields inter-connected fields of intervention which form our core programmatic activities; Youth Empowerment, Child Development, and Community Support. 

Youth Organizing: When partnering with youth, Ruwwad aims to enable access to quality education, providing opportunities for personal growth, and enhancing leadership and community activism skills. Ruwwad aims to provide youth with the skills and experiences needed to become agents of positive change in their communities. The Youth Empowerment program consists of two components; The Scholarship fund, and the Enrichment program. The former provides approximately 100 youth annually with a full scholarship to attend the university of their choice in exchange for 4 hours of community service per week. The Enrichment program offers opportunities for personal and professional growth through training sessions, seminars, and workshops.  

Child Development: The Child Development team, largely from the community they serve, dedicate themselves to guiding each child through a journey of personal, emotional, and physical growth. Ruwwad aims to provide a safe space for children to reach their potential via educational, emotional, and psychological enrichment activities. Activities under this program are divided into 3 components; the Child Learning Incubator, School Outreach, and Parental and Community Support. The Child Learning Incubator nurtures a child’s imagination and curiosity by become active agents in their education, School Outreach provides supports to local schools by implementing successful initiatives inside schools, and the final component supports parents and the community to improve children’s educational outcomes and ensure their welfare.  

Community Support: Ruwwad believes that solutions to problems are best engineered by members of the community. We use a collaborative, participatory approach to community organizing and development, working hand in hand with concerned citizens and engaging them as partners and decision makers. This program is separated into two components; Partnerships and Services, and Women’s Advancement. In 2014, Ruwwad established a community kitchen “Atayeb Tarablos”- a social enterprise training and hiring ladies from Tebbeneh and Jabal Mohsen in financial distress and those who are victims of armed conflict and develops their cooking and managerial skills to facilitate access to job opportunities creating an income generating activities. The former encompasses all projects and initiatives undertaken in collaboration with outside partners, whether local CSOs, INGOs, the private sector, or government agencies. In collaboration with partners, Ruwwad is able to increase its impact in a variety of fields, from establishing livelihood programs, to providing psychological support to those suffering from the effects of witnessing violence. Partnerships with other organizations, whether CSOs, government agencies, or private enterprises, are conducted under all programs, while projects which receive funding from outside donors are conducted under the Community Support program. Here is a list of the donors we have previously or currently been funded by: French Embassy, Agence Francaise de Développment (AFD), DANIDA with the support of Expertise France, Swiss Embassy, Citi foundation, BMZ with the support of American University of Beirut and the World Food Program, BMZ with the support of Care International, and UN Women through ACTED.

Since establishment in Summer 2012 until September 2020:

• 306 Youth were granted a full scholarship at more than 15 universities and institutes
• More than 160,000 community service hours have been deployed mostly within Tebbaneh- Jabal Mohsen
• 105 Scholars graduated from their educational institutions
• On average, 1000 children benefitted every year from Child Development Program Activities within Center and Public Schools (Child Literature, Creative Arts, Sports, Music & Art,  Computer Literacy, Psycho-Social Support, Wood Workshop, Summer/Winter Camps, Ana Aqraa, After School, Better Parenting)
• More than 5000 community residents benefitted from employability support, entrepreneurship and educational projects and from Community Help Desk
• 300 women got trained vocationally within our community kitchen, from whom 50% were part of an income generation activity at a certain point in time and 15 were contracted for our  catering/ production operations