At the end of September 2022, Teach For Lebanon held a two-day alumni retreat at Nature Land in Bzebdine, where 20 alumni from different cohorts got together and had the chance to reconnect, gather insights, and set action plans for the future. 

This year’s Summer Institute (SI) has brought 52 Fellows together for a six-week training program where they gain the necessary skills to become exceptional teachers and leaders.

On August 25, 2022, TFL celebrated the Projects Outcome Celebration of the Access Alumni Mini-Grant projects (rounds 1 & 2), carried out in 2021 and 2022, at Haigazian University.

Another TFL milestone has been reached and another group of education and community leaders just completed their Fellowship. On Friday August 5, a graduation ceremony for Cohort 12 was held at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, in the AKSOB building. 

On July 13, 2022, a "Learning Forum: Climate Education & Leadership" panel took place with the presence of Wendy Kopp, CEO and co-founder of Teach For All and the founder of Teach For America, where speakers and leaders across the TFALL network attended and talked about their insights about climate education and their projects. 

Winner at the Innovation Camp (ICAMP) on June 15, 2022, which is a project done by TFL in partnership with INJAZ, 17-year-old Gaccia Norshahian, one of Teach For Lebanon’s students at TFL’s partner school Sahaguian College and a student of Fellow Ahmad AlBaghdadi, was invited to be a speaker at the conference. 

Global Head Of Climate Education and Leadership at Teach For All, Mr. Lennart Kuntze, chose and invited Cohort 13 Fellow Ahmad Al Baghdadi of Teach For Lebanon and Mr. Edson Donga of Teach For Zimbabwe to represent the network and offer their direct knowledge of climate education. During the workshop, Ahmad and his colleague emphasized the need to incorporate climate education into existing curricula rather than use it as a stand-alone resource.

A big part of TFL’s efforts is to connect Fellows and students with network partners. These connections and collaborations come under different umbrellas and objectives. In May, we had an exciting collaboration “Classrooms without Borders Exchange Programme”, which is an international exchange program between Mexico and Lebanon, where a couple of Fellows arrived in Lebanon to meet with their TFL counterparts after engaging in online sessions.

TFL and Injaz Lebanon (a non-profit organization that aims to educate and prepare Lebanon's youth to become successful entrepreneurs and qualified employees) have joined forces where Fellows delivered INJAZ programs in their schools and classes, in order to introduce entrepreneurial concepts to students at a young age. 

Here at Teach For Lebanon, we believe that lessons are not only taught by words but also through art. In April 2022, and in alliance with our 1001 Nights project, we were excited to offer our partner schools with their students from grades 3 to 6, the chance to participate in our "A Night in Colors" arts competition, to showcase their artistic abilities by submitting either a drawing or a theatrical play portraying one moral value either learned or new and inspired by the 1001 Nights project. 

Fascinated with the Hispanic culture, TFL Fellow Khaled Kammah wanted to take the initiative and start a collaboration with a Spanish-speaking country, and hence picked Mexico. In May, he was behind the fruitful collaboration called the "Classrooms Without Borders Exchange Programme," which is an exchange program between Mexico and Lebanon, took place. 

In March, we were delighted to receive Mr. Ray Debbane in our Badaro office. Mr. Debbane has been a long-time supporter of Teach For Lebanon. His effort not only resulted in the organization’s expansion, but it is also important during the critical period Lebanon is passing through.

During the holy month of Ramadan, Teach For Lebanon collaborated with Meta Middle East and MTV Lebanon to promote reading and digital literacy for its student beneficiaries.
Through TFL’s acquired educational application and channel called "Storyvoice", and with the help of Meta, TFL co-hosted live read-alouds with celebrities and influencers, which were live-streamed on Facebook, and were recorded.

On April 13, Teach For Lebanon was delighted to receive both Norma and Thomas Abraham, exceptional people, and TFL loyal donors, who have been supporting our mission for several years now through the Abraham Foundation.

A principals' meeting attended by 20 school principals from various regions of Lebanon was held on February 19, 2022. The main discussion revolved around the work that TFL undertakes through the Fellowship program, the principals’ feedback, as well as the schools’ needs, and potential concerns. All in all, the purpose of this gathering was to lay the groundwork for open-ended communication between TFL and its school partners.

We’re happy to announce that the TFL team including staff, Fellows, and Access teachers gathered for a Christmas lunch event at the Lancaster Tamar hotel on December 12th; 

We are thrilled to announce the winners of the Storyvoice "Everyone Has a Story" writing competition! Both 1st place winners had their stories read on the Storyvoice application, and all the participants received certificates.

Storyvoice is back starting Thursday the 20th of May! 
TFL will be hosting one session a week through its channel on Storyvoice. Each session will feature live story readings hosted by our own fellows and open to all students in Lebanon. Buckle up as we take you on a weekly storytelling ride including fun activities and educational themes!

Click here for instructions on how to join TFL’s Storyvoice channel and on how to participate in our sessions.

This October teachers in Teach For Lebanon (TFL) partner schools and Catholic School Network (CSN) schools received 9 online training sessions designed to help them better implement the program in their classrooms, share best practices drawn from several months of pilot sessions, and showcase lesson plans for a variety of teaching subjects.

We have welcomed Cohort 13 to the Teach For Lebanon family, and from July 5 to August 6 they attended our Summer Institute (SI). 

Our very own Amir Hijazi, project manager at Teach For Lebanon, is participating in the Manhajna workshop series. Manhajna is a joint venture by the Centre for Lebanese Studies (CLS) and Learning Land (which was launched and is headed by a TFL alumni, Fahd Jamaleddine) aimed at educational reform in Lebanon.

 ~10% (500 out of 5000) of our student beneficiaries don't own devices with which to access online learning. This revealed itself as a problem most acutely when COVID-19 forced Lebanese schools to shut their doors and students without the means to attend online classes were left stranded. But even without the backdrop of the pandemic, digital skills are essential in order to navigate the modern world. Students should be taught these skills in school, and they should be able to hone them at home.

The TFL team and a few members of Cohort 12 welcomed the 26 out of the 34 Fellows-to-be who will form Cohort 13 at a matriculation event at Swings Camp, an outdoor activity park. 

The program is an academic curriculum composed of 36 lessons used in formal and informal learning environments to teach civic and peace education as well as life skills. The program is based upon the award-winning animated television series 1001 Nights which airs in over 70 countries engaging over 100 million children per year on premier television networks like Disney, Cartoon Network, Al Jazeera Children’s Channel and Discovery Kids. Each animated episode is designed to teach a different civic value including honesty, integrity, tolerance, empathy, gender equality etc…
TFL aims to implement the program in the schools we work in and train teachers in public schools on using this program (target: 150 schools).

Thanks to a much welcome expansion of our executive team, Teach For Lebanon is now based in two locations: our freshly renovated office in Hamra, and a new office in Badaro.

We’re pleased and proud to announce that our CEO, Salyne El Samarani, has participated in the 2021 iteration of the Humanitarian Leadership Conference by the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership. The conference took place virtually over two days (04/28 – 04/29). Salyne spoke on a panel entitled “Educators as first responders: how locally-led humanitarian action is key to ensuring that children aren’t left behind.” She was joined by Clarissa Delgado, CEO and co-founder of Teach For the Philippines; Larissa Hovannisian, founder and CEO of Teach For Armenia; and Dr. Randa Grob-Zakhary, CEO and founder of Insights for Education. 

In December, Teach For Lebanon launched a student art competition in two schools, Sahagian College and Dr. Wadih El Samad school. The aim was to produce artwork on the theme of rebuilding Lebanon “with will and hope,” with an emphasis on the values of justice, transparency, and equality. The 61 student participants were free to create art, poetry, music, or videos to convey their vision of a better Lebanon.

A committee composed of Lebanese artists George Khabbaz and Gina Halik, journalist and producer Dalal Mawad, and TFL alumnus and friend Karim Chebli evaluated the projects. In mid February 2021, Teach for Lebanon hosted a virtual meeting to discuss the submissions and pick the winners based on a set of criteria taking into account age, skill, creativity, etc.

We launched the Build Back Better project in order to support students and school communities affected by the economic crisis and the Beirut blast. The main objective of this initiative is to maintain students’ accessibility to quality education as well as basic hygienic behaviors and habits. To move toward this goal, we have distributed hygiene and stationary kits to families and students most critically affected by the economic crisis, the explosion, or both. 2000 kits across Lebanon have been delivered to 1000 child by the beginning of the year 2021 thanks to the generous support of the Canadian embassy and DHL.

Our dynamic teaching leaders continue educating students through innovative online and distant learning strategies. As they face the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re inspired to see them finding new ways to connect with and learn from each other with love and passion. Teach For Lebanon Fellows shared that they have used this time to reflect and appreciate things they had previously taken for granted, and that despite the distances they are able to find ways to connect to their students, noticing how powerful their role as educators is.

"That same day, I filled the application to join the Teach For Lebanon Fellowship program. Little did I know that my life would change so much in such a short amount of time and in such a great way".

GIRLS AND BOYS VOICES AGAINST GENDER BASED VIOLENCE is a high-scale project designed by Teach For Lebanon and funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives to combat gender-based violence by enhancing the leadership of youth. The project's closing ceremony was held at ESA Business School on February 23rd, at the presence of Her Excellency Mrs. Emmanuelle Lamoureux, Ambassador of Canada to Lebanon.

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The Teach For Lebanon Summer Institute is a six-week training program on Education Pedagogy, certified by the Lebanese American University and supported by USAID and BLOM Bank Lebanon, where Fellows-to-be develop a theoretical and practical understanding of the frameworks of teaching

 

 

Maybelline NY Levant chose Teach For Lebanon as the beneficiary of their 2019 CSR Campaign “ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE”, to celebrate the launch of their newest line of lipstick, where with every purchase of any Maybelline New York lipstick, 1$ will go to Teach For Lebanon.

Students from Sahaguian-Levon Meguerditchian College, led by their Teach For Lebanon Fellows, explored and analyzed issues that have been affecting the lives of less-privileged communities.

Teach For Lebanon Fellow Ghadeer El Saghir was selected among 370 delegates to attend the GGMUN conference in Malaysia, in January 2019, with over 70 people representing their countries as ambassadors for SDG Goal 4: Quality Education.

Cohort 9 Fellow Samia Habli has been teaching English in Sarafand, South of Lebanon. Read her touching testimonial about her experience with the Teach For Lebanon Fellowship Program!

Teach For Lebanon was honored to be taking part in the Lebanese Independence Week at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, to celebrate Lebanon's 75th year of Independence.

[...] This is what Abdel Razzak Abd Al Wahhab's dad, Syrian refugee, told me in an interview at their house: "We live on a farm, and live off of what the farm produces; we never know what the future will bring us; we take each day as it comes".

The Teach For Lebanon (TFL) 2018 Summer Institute took place at the Lebanese American University - LAU in Byblos from July 27 till August 3. The theoretical sessions were sponsored by BLOM BANK and certified by LAU’s Continuous Education Program (CEP).

Teach For Lebanon had the pleasure of attending the YouthCan! Program kick-off, launched by SOS Children's Villages Lebanon, and in partnership with DHL and Johnson & Johnson.

Manal Jaber, Teach For Lebanon Fellow and PhD student at the Beirut Arab University, took part in the Hult Prize Lebanon, a competition held between University students to design an idea for a social enterprise in order to tackle one of the UN Sustainable goals.

Teach For Lebanon CEO Salyne El Samarani was a guest speaker at the Harvard Arab World Conference held at the Kempinski Hotel in Lebanon on April 21, 2018.

Société Générale Banque du Liban sponsored two financial literacy sessions for Grade 9, 10 and 11 students at Sahaguian-Levon Meguerditchian School (Sin el Fil), and Père Afif Osseiran Foundation (Fanar), as part of Teach for Lebanon’s continuous learning program.

Under the patronage of the Minister of Telecommunications Jamal Jarrah, TOUCH and Teach for Lebanon launch e-touch: an educational project for disadvantaged children that aims to support Lebanon’s most disadvantaged children in rural areas. The project, which forms part of touch’s Positive touch Corporate Sustainability program, was officially launched in a ceremony in Béqaa held under the patronage of the Minister of Telecommunications, Jamal Jarrah and in his presence.

A full day workshop was held on Saturday, December 9 in Beirut, with the generous support of BLOM BANK who sponsored the event, implementing the “Spark With Us” fund: a professional development day for the young graduates taking part in the TFL Fellowship Program.

When national and regional leaders gather to support quality education, children dreams have higher chances to become true. Mrs. May El Khalil-Founder and President of Beirut Marathon, Mrs. Salam Hamzeh Ghaith- Founder and President of Smallworld, Mr. Silvio Chiha- Lebanese Professional Athlete, Ms. Michelle Mouracade- Al Fanar Country Director for Lebanon and Deutsche Post DHL Lebanon-- all joined efforts with Teach For Lebanon in its annual event, TFL Week.

In an atmosphere of art and colors, Teach For Lebanon welcomed the Brazilian artist Romero Britto at Haigazian University on Saturday, April 22nd, 2017. Forty students from different Lebanese schools, where Teach For Lebanon Fellows teach, participated in the painting workshop.

We are thrilled to announce that Teach For Lebanon CEO, Salyne El Samarany, and Teach For India Manager of Student Leadership, Sanaya Bharucha, have both been nominated by the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity (the Education Commission) to serve as members of its Youth Panel.