One door closes, another opens

After 20 years of dedication and devotion to serving the most vulnerable in the Beqaa area, World Vision is phasing out.

For Child, for Change, for Life.

Leaving an area of operations after a decade of work is not easy neither on the World Vision staff nor on the community. In 20 years, World Vision established a meticulous reputation in Beqaa through its Child Protection, Livelihood, Education and Water Sanitation and Hygiene projects. From forming different children councils where children learn about their rights and how to advocate for them; to saving groups that empowered the community members and helped them acquire the right practices, World Vision built solid relationships with different community-based organisations, schools, 32 municipalities and many faith leaders.

Despite the sustainable projects that World Vision set in the area, leaving amidst the hard situation Lebanon is going through, came as hard news for everyone. To ensure sustainability, World Vison supported the active members in founding a local organisation that will proceed with what World Vision already began. “The idea came as a sustainable move for the future”, says Caroline Hakim, Development Coordinator with Word Vision. “We gathered active members we worked with, whom we are empowering with proposal writing trainings and helping them to set components that the area lacks”, she adds.

“For Child, for Change, for Life” (CCL) is the organisation's name, and as Caroline Ziade, its elected president describes it, it is the dream of each member. Caroline founded with her husband a centre in Beqaa to teach the Armenian language and heritage collaborating with World Vision on different projects. “I am very excited because we all know that in order to have a healthy society we should start with the children. The components that CCL is proposing lack in our society, in the homes and in the communities. Especially now, within this economic crisis”, she declares.

Advocacy, child rights, life skills, and career guidance are some of the different components CCL aims to work on, “We want to offer the children what other organisations and entities are not”, states Rita, a member of CCL and a very active member in her society. Having years of experience with civil society, she is looking forward to investing all her previous knowledge into the success of CCL, “I want children to live their lives without being dragged into all the problems and conflicts the country is passing through”, claims Rita.

For Joanna, development facilitator at World Vision, the idea of CCL came as continuity for their work in the area, “we started different projects after COVID like saving groups with farmers, and new children councils and we believe we should work more on these projects, but unfortunately we are phasing out”, she says.

Every member at CCL brings something to the table based on his or her previous and current experiences. Tony, the media and public relations coordinator, believes that every member should work within their expertise for CCL to accomplish its purpose in order to achieve the ultimate goal, which is helping their community. About his role, Tony believes that “Helping and serving the communities we want to work with will go unnoticeable without the media and social media coverage, and here comes my part. And without media and public relations, it will be hard to reach our goals”.

“A dream that came to life” is what each member emphasizes while describing CCL. As World Vision closes one of its doors in Beqaa, opening another door of hope for a community-born organisation that will keep on serving the most vulnerable was a top priority.