Adding to the fact that children living in vulnerable areas and in refugee camps around the country lack the resources to participate in cultural and educational activities, the government’s lockdown due to the coronavirus led the children to increase their habits of addicting screen entertainment and smoking. School closure has widened learning inequalities, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable children and youth. This situation is even worth in the camps and marginalized areas.

Believing that every child has the right for education and play, and because our mission states the support of the children and youth, and having as mission to focus on children, young people and women in the pedagogical and development areas, we decided to participate in alleviating the problem and to develop a hobby of reading, and to improve education and implement exercises taken from the school curriculum for underserved children, to give enjoyable alternative to bad practices in children and youth free time. For the mentioned above, we implemented the Mobile Library, Mobile School and the Molding Beautifull Minds Programs Funded by Kinder USA, targeting 8665 vulnerable Lebanese and refugees in Beqaa, Beirut and South Lebanon. The programs included the below components:

Educational components:

-A mobile bus was equipped with books arranged by topic and age groups, targeting 140 children. It was also equipped with light mobile furniture, outdoor rugs, and foldable tables, allowing our team to execute different activities and games outside the bus. This bus was a joined effort between Fingerprint of Change and Al-Sabil association. In addition to books, the Mobile Bus carried a series of activities that steered the children’s interest in reading and opened up their curiosity about different topics. The activities and games were planned and implemented by a professional team with a background in child development. The activities comprised storytelling and reading, puppet shows, group-based short story writing and illustration, drawing and painting, board games, and writing competitions.

-1,385 Women were targeted, too, in book discussion activities and awareness sessions as per their request.

-An education component is being implemented through a curriculum that was designed by an educational expert to improve education, and to include exercises that are taken from the school curriculum for underserved children. We targeted around 2,220 children aged between 8 and 12 years old. The aim of this curriculum is to give quality education through the method of learning by practice and in a pleasant way. And it was implemented by a professional team with a background in child development. Lessons were arranged by topic and grade to target three groups: illiterate children (teach them reading and writing numbers and sentences, school students, and students enrolling in online education). It included printed homework distributed to children to ensure they would study at least 3 days per week.

-Illiteracy We targeted around 2,370 children aged between 8 and 10 years old.

Psycho- cultural components:

-kids produced creative craft works demonstrating innovation in concepts, formal language, and/or materials, and used resourcefully locally available materials to make different products (objects) with the community’s help. We targeted around 450 children aged between 8 and 12 years old. These arts are mirrors that reflects their spirits and help to innovate and bring out what is inside them. In addition, they designed creative works that show their abilities to innovate and embody their ideas in forms that they made manually through the use of available materials. Art created a space to be more expressive

-Drama: Acting and puppet-making classes were implemented as a kind of psychological and social support for girls and boys who suffer from difficult life circumstances and included training on acting, puppet-making, and shows. The drama classes are the space where our beneficiaries release their energy in a positive way, and express their inner beings. We targeted in drama around 120 children aged between 11 and 12 years old.

Socio cultural components

• were added to the program, aiming at promoting social cohesion and affiliations of the target groups; providing a comprehensive outline of the influence and the capabilities of the various cultural identities; in addition, the cultural approaches build up non adversarial relationships as it endorsed non-nationalist components while maintaining, when applicable, aspects of community identities. We targeted around 2,870 children aged between 8 and 12 years old.
  • Cultural tourism days aimed to introduce children to heritage sites and landmarks.
  • Cleaning days were held to educate children on the importance of cleanliness at the health and psychological levels and the importance of sorting waste and recycling what can be recycled.
  • Competitions included the children and their families, intending to break the stalemate between both, and spend together quality time, which differs from the complaints of the daily relationship between them.
  • Sports days are among the parts that form a link between our cultural programs and our sports programs.
  • Days were organized to celebrate many occasions, including Mother and Child Day, Refugee Day, and Teacher’s Day…
  • School materials like bags, stationery, and books were distributed to 1,420 children in all areas.
  • At the end of each quarter, we held a celebration where the children’s activities included a display of children’s works, theatrical performances, dances, clown performances, dancing, fun, and other things. The events gathered around 1,160 children
  • Organizing tours with flying Seagull team that presented entertaining shows for children through funny silent/mime theatrical performances. The aim was to engage and delight children through interactive and engaging performances that combine humor, physical comedy, and visual storytelling. The tours seek to create a magical and memorable experience for children, fostering creativity, imagination, and joy through the art of silent and mime theater.

Health days:

A public health doctor examined around 750 children and youth and elderly, in the three areas of implementation. In addition, awareness and support were provided by a nurse…. The children learned the value of books and how to respect and care for shared resources to allow other children to benefit from them. The programs served as free educational resources and helped connect children within the community through cultural and leisure engagement.