Beach Cleanup

On 30 April 2016, a dozen youth gathered up and participated in Recycle Lebanon’s Beach Cleanup project at the Okaibeh coast.
Recycle Lebanon is an environmental campaign that gained traction in the middle of Lebanon’s garbage cycle. Their aim is pretty simple: clean up the random waste disposal sites, sorting out the recyclable material and ship them to the recycling plants, take care of the remaining waste in a proper manner.

 During that project, the Youth for a United World (Y4UW) took to the ground and worked with Recycle Lebanon and the Scouts Group of College Saint Joseph Antoura in what was a massive cleaning day. Volunteers sorted over 100 bags of waste which came from Nahr Ibrahim river during the last rain and back onto the beach. Later on, everyone enjoyed a picnic at the beach and the Y4UW had the chance to mingle with other volunteers are to tell them about the United World Week and who we are.

Movie Screening

On 5 May 2016, the Y4UW Lebanon organized a movie screen in a music hub/venue in Beirut.
We wanted to screen a movie or documentary that could help us deliver the messages of the United World Week, and we chose HUMAN – The Movie, a documentary by the French environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The film is almost entirely composed of exclusive aerial footage and first-person stories told into the camera.

HUMAN is a collection of stories about and images of our world, offering an immersion to the core of what it means to be human. Through these stories full of love and happiness, as well as hatred and violence, HUMAN brings us face to face with the Other, making us reflect on our lives. From stories of everyday experiences to accounts of the most unbelievable lives, these poignant encounters share a rare sincerity and underline who we are – our darker side, but also what is most noble in us, and what is universal. Our Earth is shown at its most sublime through never-before-seen aerial images accompanied by soaring music, resulting in an ode to the beauty of the world, providing a moment to draw breath and for introspection.

We chose 4 of the 15 topics that HUMAN tackles; War, Forgiveness, Happiness and the Meaning of Life, and in this order. The message was clear, human beings are all alike, we all want to have a meaning for our lives, we all want to live in happiness, and whenever we’re faced with war (and other struggles / conflicts), we all want to forgive, let it go, and start all over on the path to love and unity.

This event was an opportunity to take our ideal of unity, relate it with worldwide works and perspectives, present in a public venue to attract a wide audience, and most importantly a chance for the attendees to reflect on the movie, share some of their experiences and their impressions of what the movie have left them feeling.

Feed the Homeless

The final project of our UWW 2016 was supposed to be on the weekend of 7 & 8 May 2016, but due to the Municipality Elections in Beirut and Mount Lebanon during that weekend and the weekend after; we had to reschedule to the weekend of 21 & 22 May.

It was the second year in a row that we organize a Feed the Homeless project, however, this year was a little different. We partnered with the Teens for Unity and collaborated with FoodBlessed (another NGO) to reach an even bigger number of people in need. An estimated 100 persons were expected to be served and unlike the first feed the homeless event, this time, we shared lunch with the people whom we served and spent some leisurely time together.

On Saturday, all of the shopping had been done, pasta cooking and sauce preparation went underway at the Local Gen Gemmayze. The Y4UW who were cooking on Saturday took back the pasta to be heated in their homes on Sunday so that we could serve all the pasta as well as possible.

Sunday Morning everyone met at the Local Gen to finalize the remaining preparations, salad making, fruits cleaning, and we headed to the Jesuites Garden in Ashrafieh Beirut, where we served lunch, spent some time singing old Lebanese songs with the people in the public garden and playing some traditional board games.

A lot of unexpected changes happened to our project during that weekend. We had to change location, deal with the lower number of people served (due to changing our location) and the need to give away the remaining meals to avoid throwing away good food. Thankfully, Mission de Vie (a missionary movement in Lebanon whom we know too well) were able to accommodate the sudden arrival of pasta meals in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. However, this did not affect the positive energy and mood that the Y4UW were in.

The general atmosphere after that weekend was a feeling of heart warmth and gratitude; being able to draw a smile onto a lot of strangers in need, spending some quality time with those who feel unwanted by society, and leaving with a peace that only God can give through the concrete acts of love.

Walid Massoud