YALLA! is an initiative which leads groups of religiously diverse American and Lebanese students around Lebanon to engage in service projects, exploration excursions, and dialogue sessions throughout the country to take on important issues facing the youth of both nations. YALLA!, meaning “let’s go” in Arabic, aims to bridge cultural, religious, and political divides both within Lebanese and American groups, and across them.
In today’s world, perceptions Americans and Lebanese have of each other are often marked by a mutual sense of bias and mistrust. The founders of YALLA! believe that these problems can only be tackled through interaction and cooperation; and attempts to address these issues through a program of open exchange and respect. By experiencing this curriculum together, participants have the opportunity to develop multi-faceted, lasting relationships with each other, surmounting the pre-existing prejudices previously lined by misunderstanding.
Program Objectives
Religion continues to be used and abused as a dividing force in politics and media internationally. By engaging in service-learning projects with religiously-diverse groups, we can have dialogue through action, and give reveal how different religious traditions can inform a common call to action in peace-building and humanitarian service. Through this, participants experience:
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
YALLA! has researched and worked with local NGOs in order to discern areas and projects within Lebanon that require community action/outreach to improve the lives and land of Lebanon, as well as provide poignant and relevant learning experiences for its participants. Some previous and potential projects include: art/discussion sessions with Palestinian refugee students attending the UNRWA Jarmaq school, planting trees in underdeveloped areas of Northern Lebanon, painting a peace mural, and rebuilding war damaged areas in southern Lebanon.
EXPLORATION
In order to truly experience and learn from a foreign country, it is crucial to explore it and immerse oneself in it as much as possible. YALLA! aims to achieve this by guiding its American participants through a country quite different from their own, as well as connecting Lebanese students with parts of their country which cultural, religious, or political gaps may have prevented them from learning from. Together,YALLA! participants will visit key areas and landmarks in Lebanon including (but not limited to) Al-Khiam prison, Byblos, Martyr’s Square, and Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. All excursions are followed by an engaging discussion to share thoughts, feelings, and views associated with these visits.
DIALOGUE
Dialogue is perhaps the most powerful tool in forging change. In addition to the discussions that follow each of YALLA!'s service projects and excursions, panel/round-table dialogue sessions are set up for the students with prominent Lebanese figures, artists, and politicians. In this open space, participants are free to deconstruct pertinent issues surrounding concepts of particular importance in Middle East-West relations today such as religion, conflict, and political freedom. Previous discussions to this end have been led by Mayor Wajdi Amin Mrad of the city of Aley, war documentary filmmaker G. Charmoun, and “Seige Notes” author, Rasha Salti.
Please see the Application for more information. Questions can be sent to:
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