A Teacher with High Hopes
4 years ago, Bayd’a left her home town Syria and moved to Lebanon, she settled in Jeb Jannine located in the Beqaa Valley, the journey to a better and safe life was brutal. “It was a harsh phase to transfer from your home town to a refugee in another country”, Bayd’a said. A huge number of Syrians moved to Jeb Jannine to seek safety and to access better services for their families, “It take me 2 year to adapt to the new lifestyle, I didn’t interact with the people around us because they didn’t accept us at the beginning and that was hard for me” Bayd’a added.
Bayd’a is a 27-year-old teacher, she loved her job and children and you can see the passion in her eyes. Her passion and dedication didn’t stop when she left her home and she always searched for different opportunities to level up her skills and knowledge. Badyd’a was one of the training participants of training of trainees that was conducted to youth aged between 20 and 29 coming from refugee community and host communities, the training build their capacities in the area of social integration and education, that aims to contribute in the creation of active generation of educated and capable young men and women, in order to support their society through positive participation in the development process, the trained young men and women will train students male and female from schools in Bekaa region on life skills and leadership.
“It was a new interesting experience for me, it changed my perception of social cohesion within the host community, the training not only increased my knowledge and skills it was an opportunity to meet new people”, Bayd’a said. The 5 days TOT training focused on how to train school students on school leadership, it also covered topics like leadership skills, negotiation skills, active listening, presentation skills and HRBA.
“I faced some issue at the first day because everyone was new, but then we got to know each other which broke the ice between us”, Bayd’a added, the training involved participants from both the Syrian community and the hots community which is the core value of the training to have a cohesive environment within the communities. “I was happy that the trainers were Syrians and Lebanese this showed us the importance of social cohesions within us” Bayd’a said.
As a teacher Bayd’a focuses on skills related to leadership and that was one of the reasons she was part of the TOT training, “I always felt that I have a leader personality and this training boosted the skills I have to a new level”, Bayd’a said. The trainer Bayd’a conducted a training for school students between the age of 14 to 18-year-old, “I used to teach first grade students, but it was not hard for me to deal with a different age group, I focused on how to create a friendly relationship with them instead of adapting the spoon-feeding method, I was really happy”, Byad’a added.
The two years project will target 800 male and female students in order to promote life skills and leadership skills. The project also aims to promote community integration among the students, the Lebanese and the Syrians, which is being implemented through the holding of summer camps and activities in schools
