Lebanese Youth Tackle Tough Topics on TV

Making use of an innovative approach, the YMCA of Lebanon has put young people on the airwaves to debate such traditionally sensitive topics as Jihad, national identity, and a woman’s right to pass on citizenship to her spouse and children.

Billed as the “Televised Awareness Campaign Sessions,” under the media outreach component of a MEPI-funded project, YMCA tapped into a range of media agencies – including New TV and Lebanon’s leading television station LBCI – to broadcast live throughout the country, across the Middle East, and to other parts of the world.

“Through dialogue, we shall overcome the problem of women not being able to pass on their citizenship…and the politicians will listen,” said Lina Abu Habib, president of a Lebanese NGO that protects women’s rights, during one of the broadcasts on New TV. 
And she may be correct.  At the end of one show in the 24-part series (including 13 radio segments on Voice of Lebanon), a well-known politician and opponent of a woman’s right to pass on citizenship said he was won over by the arguments he had heard during the youth-led debate and vowed to help resolve this issue.

Instead of merely having one or two people voice their opinions on the air, these sessions employed a format carefully designed to be interactive.  Young men and women were brought together with professors, politicians, parliamentarians, and other decision makers to openly debate and examine a wide range of issues, including youth unemployment, women’s rights, and corruption.

Through this program, Lebanese youth from various political and religious backgrounds were given the rare opportunity to constructively debate key topics of public interest, such as democracy, freedom of expression, citizenship, and socio-political and economic challenges facing the country with politicians and government officials.

The program was an offshoot of a project called “Policy Innovation for Leadership Learning and Reform,” or PILLAR, which was developed and implemented by the YMCA of Lebanon, with support of the leading Arabic daily newspaper in the country, An-Nahar, as well as the Forum for Parliamentary Dialogue, and the International Management and Training Institute.

In addition to this and other media-oriented programs, such as the training of young journalists and civil society organization media liaisons, the PILLAR project has featured volunteer work camps for youth, student model parliaments, and the training of moderators, school teachers, and young leaders, among several other activities.

YMCA has made great strides in several areas throughout the course of this MEPI project, doing so at a time when Lebanon has been struggling with internal political divides and severe public tension, making all the more significant the value of these contributions.