Beirut, Lebanon - On Friday, November 14, the students of Grade 9 at the Beirut Evangelical School for Girls and Boys in Rabieh visited the Lebanese School for the Blind in Baabda in response to Global Peace Festival-Lebanon's call to participate in a Youth Service Weekend.

While both schools are located in the Greater Beirut area and are not far from each other, this established a new bond of enriching relationship for the children in both schools. The 48 student volunteers from the Evangelical School spent the entire morning with the children in the School for the Blind.

Prior to the visit, the 9th graders had contacted the social worker at that school and had asked about some of the students’ needs, learning that the elementary students would benefit from having taped stories to listen to in English and Arabic. The volunteers enthusiastically recorded over 50 stories in both languages and presented them to the blind children, along with a plant for each child as a token of friendship.

Beirut, Lebanon - Recording stories for blind children, planting olive trees for peace, singing songs with orphans, distributing flyers against drunk driving, playing games in a home for abandoned street children, and clearing a park area for a women’s center: these were some of the social projects which volunteers carried out during the Lebanon Youth Service Weekend on November 14 to 16 under the umbrella of the Global Peace Festival’s new national service program.

Billed as a chance to “do something good together with many people and have a whole lot of fun doing it,” the weekend attracted several hundred volunteers from schools, universities, scout groups, and public-spirited families. The service weekend was organized by the Universal Peace Federation in Lebanon in partnership with the national NGO, the Association of Volunteer Services, and entailed collaboration with civil society partners and with municipalities.

Beirut, Lebanon - This project was the brainchild of two Palestinians — a doctor and a student — in response to the Global Peace Festival-Lebanon call to participate in a Youth Service Weekend.

They chose Chatilla cemetery, the site of a horrific massacre more than 25 years ago, and asked Palestinian children to plant olive trees there on November 16, as a gesture of looking forwards towards a better, more peaceful future. The response was very enthusiastic.

Nabatieh, Lebanon - In the Lebanon Youth Service Weekend’s largest single project by number of participants, 130 scouts traveled from different parts of Beirut to the south Lebanon town of Nabatieh on November 16. There, they were welcomed by the Women’s Progress Association for Motherhood, Children and the Elderly. The association’s building includes a nursery, a kindergarten, and a community center for the elderly. Under the association’s vision, the grounds surrounding the building will be turned into a recreation area and park, but the area is in need of cleaning as the first step for realizing this dream.

Natascha Schellen, who traveled together with the scouts, described what she saw: “The scouts split up, each group working on one part of the field. Mostly they had to pick up trash and get rid of spiky, brambly-looking weeds. I admired the scouts for their organization, all working together and keeping people under control. They even had a first aid kit to take care of scratches and other small injuries (there were a few). It was the first time most of them had done this kind of work.”

Sarafand, Lebanon - South Lebanon’s coastal plains are a vibrant and fruitful area but, due to their exposure to conflicts and economic restraints, a number of social issues require attention.

Inspired by Global Peace Festival-Lebanon's call to service, 35 students and four or five teachers at the Sarafand High School decided that they would give 27 orphan girls a good time on November 15, treating them to a lunch and outing in the City Park of this south Lebanese town.

Beirut, Lebanon - During the Global Peace Festival-Lebanon Youth Service Weekend, a group of volunteers from the Jamhour School in Greater Beirut visited the Home of Hope, which is a place of residence for any and all homeless children on the streets of Lebanon. Established in 1999 by John Eter, the Home of Hope has the capacity to shelter 150 children at a time, and 2,500 children have passed through its doors in the past nine years.

Currently, 39 children aged 3 through 18 are residing there (most of whom are under age 10). They have three teachers who teach them all subjects and a house mother and house father who live in the same building with the children. The work is funded mainly by NGOs and churches; despite promises of government funding, requests by the Home of Hope for actual state funding have been met with reluctance because a large majority of the children come from migrant background and are not Lebanese.

Beirut, Lebanon - Whereas integration of children with special needs into society has improved over the years, it is still a pioneering task to make sure that mentally disadvantaged children receive more respectful, positive attention. A group of 30 students, ages 11 to 13, from Aksar Kassardjian School — a school affiliated with the Armenian-Lebanese community — chose this task for their participation in the Lebanon Youth Service Weekend on November 14, 2008 that is part of the Global Peace Festival-Lebanon

The students came to the Zvartnots Center in the Beirut neighborhood of Mar Mikael on a school bus, accompanied by two or three teachers. The kids brought cakes with them. They were greeted by Arexy Dabaghian, the center’s director. She welcomed the volunteers and gave them an introduction about the center, which provides five levels, or classes, and places students according to their IQ, not their age.

Beirut, Lebanon - A group of volunteers partnered with the Hope Foundation, a Lebanese charity, to perform for a group of orphans on November 14, 2008, as part of Global Peace Festival-Lebanon's Youth Service Weekend. When they arrived they found Mr. Ghosn, president of the Hope Foundation, busy giving a bunch of little kids pink and blue crowns/hats in dim light coming from barred windows. As has been the norm in Lebanon for years, a power cut was happening, and there was no electricity in this big, long room.

Mr. Ghosn told a little bit about his foundation, which provides free medicine to needy people and believes in helping everyone equally, whether they are Muslim or Christian. He also brought volunteers from both religions on this day.

Beirut, Lebanon - Global Peace Festival organizers seek the participation of schools, universities, and youth organizations in a special program of voluntary service November 14-16 throughout Beirut and beyond.

Global Peace Festival is holding Lebanon Youth Service Weekend on November 14, 15, and 16. During those three days, people in Beirut will witness hundreds of simultaneous service projects involving young people from schools and universities, scouts and NGOs, civic institutions and public-spirited families.

Beirut, Lebanon - The Global Peace Festival project provided a rare opportunity for young Lebanese to see other parts of their own country. Hussein, a young Shia scout from southern Lebanon commented: "The only chance I get to be with other religions is when I come with you."

In a country which has had its fair share of division and violence, giving young people the chance to experience different locations and communities opens the way to a greater sense of national unity. It was the Lebanese army, trusted by all as impartial, that opened the hill pass road. And it was a Lebanese army leader who, when informed of another, similar Global Peace Festival service project, commented: "This is our standard in the army.