Sport and play for Lebanese children and youth affected by conflict

This project uses sport and play activities to help Lebanese children and youth who were strongly affected by the war in the summer of 2006 to overcome emotional stress and become reintegrated into their day-to-day lives.

Recent studies have shown that children and young people who experienced firsthand the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s still suffer from anxiety and depression today. The conflict of summer 2006 has reopened old wounds, and the risk of civil war resuming is now much higher. Moreover, the conflict disproportionately affected the daily lives of children and young people. As a result, there is a great need for interventions that alleviate stress and trauma, not to mention an enormous risk of disorientation and substance abuse. Together with local partner organisation Oum-el-Nour, SAD has developed a meaningful and comprehensive programme that uses sport and games to support psychosocial rehabilitation among children and young people.

Project objectives

• Promoting reintegration of participating children and young people into day-to-day life, supporting stress and trauma management, and strengthening mental and physical well-being.
• Improving integration of children and young people above and beyond sectarian lines and social allegiances.
• (Re)establishing social relations and supportive civil recreational structures.
• Providing capacity-building opportunities for local coaches and strengthening civil institutions.

Project activities

The activities take place in the southern Beirut district of Shiah, which was deeply affected by the war. Three public schools are involved, each of which has 300 to 500 pupils. The pupils at all of these schools come from different religious backgrounds, which fits in with SAD's aim to use the activities to create a platform for inter-religious exchange.

Extracurricular sport and game activities are held on the school grounds, led by coaches with a high level of motivation. SAD prepared the coaches for their important role in the project by holding workshops on physical education and psycho-social issues.
Due to the extremely difficult conditions faced by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, the project also includes children and young people from the Palestinian refugee camp Borj Barajneh.

Experience with similar projects has shown that guided sport and play activities are very well suited for transmitting basic values that are crucial for peaceful and respectful coexistence, such as teamwork, respect for others, tolerance, acceptance of rules, and peaceful competition ('life skills education'). In addition, they can also be combined with informational and educational work (such as combating violence, preventing drug abuse, and raising awareness of HIV/AIDS).

Target group(s)

Children and young people affected by conflict in and around the Beirut district of Shiah.

Le sport pour la paix et le changement social (L'Orient Le Jour, Beirut 18.07.2008, jpg 278KB; article en arabe dans An Nahar , 29.07.2008, jpg 137KB)

Le sport, soutien social (L'Orient Le Jour, 24.02.2007, pdf 238KB)  

Evaluating Psycho-Social Sport Programmes

A Pilot Study Using Photo Monitoring in the Context of the Project ‘Sport and Play for Lebanese Children and Youth Affected by Conflict’, Mithra Akhbari, 2009

Download (pdf, 4.8MB)

Partner

Oum el Nour

Mithra Akhbari
Project manager
+41 (0)32 344 49 69 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it