Our Partners
Women in Information Technology is a Lebanese non-profit association. Launched in 2006, its primary goal is to inspire more women to have the will and capacity to use technology as a tool for their empowerment. WIT serves as a platform for professional women to exchange information, tackle issues of concern, implement strategies and search for opportunities by using Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Location: Beirut Director: Nada Hamzeh, Director
Society of Lebanon the Giver is a non-profit organization established in 1983 that deals with educational, cultural and social awareness. Its policy is to create projects that will result in financial returns, thereby providing funds for assisting the needy and creating job opportunities. The organization has worked in the fields of education, training, marketing, and health, and it has 735 members from 17 villages in Mount Lebanon.
Location: Aley Director: Hayat Arslan
Development, Culture and Giving Association was launched in July 2008 with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development for a project focused on creating public spaces for children and youth. The project aims to develop the role of youth in the community and allow them to display their talents. It also seeks to provide them opportunities for activities, relaxation and leisure through organized sports.
Location: Hermel Director: Akram Kanso
UMAM D&R aims to preserve and revive fading memories of civil violence and war, as well as to provide a platform for public access to, and exchange of, such memories. UMAM D&R believes that they are essential for building the future - as a key to historical and political self-analysis, to understanding national and individual identity formation, to acknowledgment and recognition of responsibility and blame, and potentially to reconciliation.
Location: Haret Hreik Director: Monika Borgmann
Women's Association of Deir El Ahmar (WADA) is a Lebanese non-profit and non-governmental organization established in 1994. Its goal is to promote the role of women in rural development and the welfare of society in the region of Deir el Ahmar (Bekaa- Lebanon). In 2002, WADA received the Dubai International Award for best practices, recognizing its work to improve living conditions in Deir el Ahmar. WADA's partners include prestigious local and international institutions such as ministries, municipalities and NGOs. These partners helped WADA successfully implement many projects including establishing a rural development center; planting 700 trees around the center; and training rural women in handcraft making, agro-food production, sewing, knitting, and other income-generating activities.
Location: Deir el Ahmar, Bekaa Director: Dunia Khoury
Baakline National Library implements many cultural and developmental initiatives in the Chouf region. Today, through its website, the library is linked to the Arab world and beyond, enabling readers, students and researchers to access greater resources and thus setting an example of excellence for other regional libraries.
Location: Baakline, Chouf Director: Ghazy Saab
Deir Kanoun Al Naher Cultural Center was established in 1998. The organization engages in a number of activities related to culture promotion and social animation in the village and surrounding areas. Among its achievements, the center has established a computer room for IT training; a game room; a library with educational, cultural and children’s books; and a garden and outside meeting area. Additionally the center hosts weekly activities for children and young people interested in sports, theatre, music and art. With the support of experts, the center also offers training sessions for women and young people in language, IT, the protection of children, civic education, animation, peace building and conflict resolution.
Location: Tyre Director: Hussein Kasir
The Voice of Women was founded in the 1970s by a group of female volunteers. It started when volunteers took action to ensure the right of prisoners to stay in touch with their families. The group established a library filled with books in Arabic, French and English for people at all reading levels. Today the group focuses on helping the needy and families displaced from their homes by conflict and war. The Voice of Women’s center provides numerous services, including social work for individuals and families, school aid services, a nursery, summer camps, IT courses, English language courses, jewelry design, and dental clinic courses.
Location: Chiah, Metn Director: Georgette Azar
Medical Cultural Center of Patriarch Sfeir is a center that works primarily on health and cultural issues. It functions under the supervision of the Rayfoun municipality. The center’s goals include:
- Launching a cultural movement in the region
- Providing an oasis for meetings and cultural interaction among intellectuals
- Organizing arts, culture and heritage activities
- Raising health and social solidarity awareness among the youth and the wider community
- Cooperating and coordinating with educational institutions on cultural and social development in the region
- Establishing a public library and publishing a cultural magazine
- Creating a book fair.
Location: Rayfoun, Kiserwan Director: Melanie Sfeir
Development for People & Nature Association (DPNA), is a secular, Lebanese, non-governmental association founded and led by social activists to work with and respond to the needs of the local community, especially the disadvantaged (children, adolescents, youth, women and people with special needs) on the basis of sustainable development. Development, solidarity, human rights and environment protection are the basis on which DPNA builds its partnerships and alliances with the local, regional and international community.
Location: Saida Director: Fadlallah Hassounah
Abadieh Scout Group is part of the Progressive Socialist Party network of organizations and works with youth of both sexes. Following the spirit of the world scout movement but adapted to the reality in Lebanone, the group prepares its members to be active citizens in society. The aim of scouting is to encourage the physical, intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual development of young people so that they take a constructive place in society as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities.
Location: Abadieh Director: Hussam Abou Hamzeh
The Young Women’s Christian Organization is the oldest volunteer organization for women and girls in Lebanon. It is affiliated with the World YWCA, an international volunteer membership movement uniting 25 million women in over 100 countries. The aim of the YWCA is to achieve social justice through programs for community development. To this end, the YWCA has given priority to the advancement of women and to ensuring their greater participation in leadership at all levels of society. The Lebanon YWCA was the first organization to bridge the gap between formal and informal education in Lebanon by introducing, as early as 1920, vocational training for young women. The Jbeil branch offers leadership training for the advancement of Lebanese women by educating young women for the world of business and giving them, in the process, self confidence and a sense of their own worth.
Location: Byblos Director: Elham Nassar
The Lebanese Council to Resist Violence against Woman (LECORVAW) was founded in 1997. A few years ago, the issue of violence against women (VAW) was not recognized or talked about in Lebanese society. VAW was considered an internal family affair and dealt with on an individual basis. This view was, and still is, reflected in the absence of any social or legal structures providing protection for women subjected to violence. In this context, the Lebanese Council to Resist Violence Against Women (LECORVAW) was created in March 1997 with the aim of breaking the taboo associated with the issue of VAW and establishing social and legal structures that can prevent this social problem. LECORVAW, the only organization in Lebanon exclusively dedicated to combating VAW be it physical, emotional, sexual, economical, or otherwise, has over the past few years made inroads in transforming the social perception of the Lebanese public on the issue of VAW and in breaking the silence by mobilizing public support against the abuse of women.
Locations: Tripoli and Beirut Director: Laura Sfeir
Al Fajer Cultural Club was founded in 1974 as a non-profit, public institution. This club hosts a series of seminars and lectures and organizes trips and concerts in the town of Kharayeb. In the summer of 2007 the club launched courses in computer and English for women. They began working with the Citizen Lebanon (NDI) project in 2008.
Location: Kharayeb, Saida Director: Abbas Khalifeh
The Lebanese Support of Human Rights (LSHR) is an NGO established by a group of energetic young people from different regions in Lebanon. It aims to support and promote international human rights standards and values in Lebanon while planning for sustainable development for the most vulnerable and marginalized people through advocacy, participation and educational projects. LSHR’s objectives include enhancing the physical, psychological, social, educational and developmental rights of citizens especially in areas where poverty, discrimination and weak education systems exist while advocating for a society free of violence, sectarianism and prejudice. Everyone has the right to education, therefore LSHR implements free educational activities such as training courses in the English language and computer applications.
Location: Broumana, Metn Director: Ramzi al-Hajj
Chwaifat Women’s Association was founded in 1967. It focuses on charity and culture. Its vision is non-sectarian, apolitical, non-partisan and non-clientalist. It is a member of the Lebanese Women's Council and a member of the Arab Network for NGOs.
Location: Chwaifat, South Metn Director: Lina Saab
Sho’oun Janoubiah is a monthly magazine that covers various activities, events and social, cultural, political and economic developments in South Lebanon. Janoubiah online is an extension of Sho’oun Janoubiah magazine in terms of purpose and objective. It is a free platform designed to open a serious discussion on issues of national, political and social developments through a direct dialogue on the internet.
Location: Beirut Director: Ali al-Amin
Voluntary Action Association was found in 1996 by a group of young Lebanese from all the regions of Lebanon that suffer deprivation and neglect. The association has numerous goals, including:
- Encouraging active volunteerism at all levels and in all regions
- Organizing volunteering conferences inside schools and universities
- Working on sustainable development in cooperation with official bodies and international organizations
- Supporting agricultural projects in villages by aiding of farmers and fortifying their material incomes
- Offering training courses on the management of voluntary and social associations and teaching English
- Working to improve environmental conditions and to encourage re-forestation and the protection of coastal marine zones while training villagers to sort waste and re-classify it.
- Encouraging women to take an active role in volunteer work
- Maintaining a high standard of living in rural communities to stem immigration to the city and support village life by all means.
Baldati is a national development, environmental and cultural association which works to develop simple and practical methods by which to revive Lebanese villages, reunite their communities, support their institutions and encourage dialogue among them.
Baldati promotes rural development projects in partnership with local municipalities and NGOs. It also organizes events and develops capacity building.
Baldati began work in Lebanon as a pilot project with an eye toward working in and serving the wider region.
Location: Elissar, North Metn Director: Chaker Noun
CESMO is a think tank specializing in security sector reform based in Tripoli, Lebanon. It has more recently widened its activities to include more political development programs and capacity building at the grassroots level. CESMO implements its programs with cooperation from local and international non-profit organizations.
CESMO fields seven teams in North Lebanon, and also has an office in Paris, France which focuses on publications.
Location: Tripoli Director: Mustapha Adib
LPHU is a non-profit organization of people with physical disabilities that has been working on disability issues since 1981. This grassroots organization is national in scope and includes community branches in six areas of Lebanon (Beirut, Byblos, Bar Elias, Mashgara, Nabatieh and Saida). LPHU is a national, non-sectarian organization and involves people from different religious groups with various forms of physical disability.
The organization primarily works on advocacy to raise awareness about the rights of people with disabilities in order to ensure their integration in society and access to equal opportunities and community development projects including physical rehabilitation, inclusive education and vocational rehabilitation.
Location: Beirut Director: Sylvana Lakkis
Permanent Peace Movement is a nongovernmental organization advancing peace and conflict resolution by elevating civil society and spreading awareness and education.
The Permanent Peace Movement was established in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1991.
PPM works on a number of issues related to peace building, as reflected in the variety of projects they implement.
Location: Mkalles, Beirut Director: Fadi Abi Allam