International Development (USAID), IOCC has been supporting more than 213 public schools in northern and southern Lebanon, the Beqaa, Beirut, and Mount Lebanon, through the Lebanon Education Assistance for Development (LEAD) Program. The program benefits nearly 75,000 public school students with science instruction laboratories and supplies, computer labs with internet access, media libraries, repairs to infrastructure, and necessary administrative equipment. The program also includes social awareness and educational activities that target students, parents and teachers and provide awareness and knowledge on issues relating to their physical, mental, and social well-being. LEAD also aims to build up community development and outreach activities through the activation of Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and Student Clubs that guarantee active community involvement and support, in addition to youth camps.
Programs Prior to 2008
In 2001, IOCC started implementation of a school feeding and education program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The program continued through 2007, and included weekly nutritious snacks to more than 45,000 students in 243 public schools. Posters, magazines and other educational materials were also distributed to schools to promote lessons on nutrition, civics and hygiene. The program also included repairing school buildings (new bathrooms, roofs, painting, etc.); capacity building for parents, students and administrators; and the provision of equipment for schools.
Following the July 2006 war in Lebanon, IOCC provided emergency relief to displaced families. With funding from the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and support from Action by Churches Together (ACT), IOCC provided hygiene kits, kitchen utensils, blankets and fuel for heating to more than 3,500 families in 65 of the hardest-hit villages in the South. IOCC also repaired 23 schools that had been damaged during the war and completed water and sanitation projects in 38 villages. In order to support returnees to reestablish their livelihoods, IOCC also provided grants to start small businesses, and young trees, seeds, and agricultural tools to farmers. IOCC implemented psychosocial support activities that helped villagers work through the trauma of the war.
Lebanon stories from the archives
