Projects

Beauty for a Better Life Academy by L'Oreal Foundation
May 2022 - Present

"Beauty for a Better Life" is a free institute for beauty professional training entirely dedicated to underprivileged communities in Lebanon. This training gives the beneficiaries a chance at success and opens doors for job opportunities. Together, L’Oréal Liban and Kayany Foundation launched their second academy in Taanayel with the will to extend utmost support to disadvantaged girls who have been deprived of their basic rights not just to have an education, but also to have a decent life in general.

Strengthening Tertiary Educational Pipelines (STEP)
April 2022 - Present

STEP is a 10-month blended bridge program aiming to equip refugees from Syria and vulnerable Lebanese host community youth (aged 18-22) with skills and knowledge that will enable them to identify and pursue self-defined educational and career paths in Lebanon or abroad through:

- Providing a foundation of academic readiness for success in higher education, and support to navigate university and scholarship application processes.

- Equipping students with transferable skills, including communication, digital literacy, and leadership, to use in education, employment, and their communities.

- Engaging students in co-creating, empowering, and inclusive learning communities where they can enhance their adaptive skills and experience solidarity and cohesiveness.

 

The program offers weekly courses in English for Academic Purposes, Digital Skills, Remedial Math, Science, and Humanities/Social Science tailored to support students in passing exams required for university entrance and providing academic foundations for success in university studies. Course curricula are developed by AUB faculty subject-matter experts in collaboration with local instructors and modified as needed on a yearly basis. Moreover, participants receive support via multiple avenues, most significantly through weekly “Student Support Days” consisting of soft skills, capacity building, and targeted guidance for the university and scholarship application process.

 

The HOPES-LEB project, within the frame of its course scholarship component supported by the EU Madad Fund, is allocating 50-course scholarships to students enrolled at the STEP program delivered by the Center for Civic Engagement and hydraclubbioknikokex7njhwuahc2l67lfiz7z36md2jvopda7nchid.onion Community Service of the American University of Beirut at the compound in Bar Elias, Bekaa region.

ProFuturo - Classroom in a Suitcase: e-learning Curriculum for out of school Children
2018 - Present

ProFuturo was launched in 2018, in partnership with the American University of Beirut, La Caixa Foundation, and Telefonica Foundation with the mission of narrowing the educational gap by providing quality digital education to the most vulnerable children. This project not only provides tablets to the students but also trains and equips local teachers with tablets, routers and a platform to be utilized within the classroom environment.

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Beauty for a Better Life Academy by L'Oreal Foundation
July 2018 - 2022

L'Oréal Levant, in cooperation with Kayany Foundation, launched its charitable program "Beauty for a Better Life" academy. It aims at empowering individuals in vulnerable situations by offering them high quality tuition-free training in the beauty sector, helping them regain self-esteem and reintegrate themselves into society. The “Beauty for a Better Life” program deploys customized teaching methods developed by L’Oréal’s haircare, make-up and beauty experts. The training is both theoretical and practical and takes place in an authentic, specially equipped academy built specifically for this intensive course.

Digital Skills Training Programme: Increasing Employability for the Online Market
September 2017 - December 2021

Digital Skills Training is a project in partnership with the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the UN World Food Program - WFP that focuses on creating new and sustainable livelihood opportunities for Lebanese participants and Syrian refugees coming from vulnerable communities affected by the crisis. The project aims to build digital skills that can empower those we serve to find work without being bound to a local market. This also means tapping into a growing global demand for labor-intensive services, such as data entry, data cleaning, image annotation, and photo tagging or editing. The program also includes intensive English sessions that facilitate the digital skills training. Visit Link

Coding and Digital Skills Training with CodeBrave Lebanon
2019 - 2021

This collaboration with CodeBrave has provided more than 35 students access to tech education. During the latest cohort in Fall 2020, students received a CodeBrave kit box (iPad and manual) to continue their education at home through the lockdown. They followed a 6-week course about Building Websites using tablets, used design thinking to create their own website, and learned other digital skills like email, search engines, and internet safety. With these tools in hand, the students can now build websites for business ideas of their interest.

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Partnership for Digital Learning and Increased Access (PADILEIA): College Readiness Program
October 2017 - July 2021

PADILEIA is a project in partnership with American University of Beirut and King’s College in London, which produces and delivers blended higher education programs to Syrian refugees and Lebanese participants. In Lebanon, the Foundation Certificate prepares students for the official exams and entrance to university through an intensive 8-month program in GHATA study hubs in Bar Elias, Bekaa. The partnership aims to broaden access to high-quality educational programs, provide a foundation for further higher education and prepare students for their futures.

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YOUTH EMPOWERMENT THROUGH BASIC LITERACY AND NUMERACY AND INNOVATION SKILLS
September 2017 - January 2018

This project was implemented in partnership with UNICEF and it aims at providing basic literacy and numeracy skills, in addition to life-skill sessions to more than 480 direct beneficiaries. The project also incorporated awareness sessions to 3000 Syrian families and community members in three locations in the Bekaa governorate and digital/entrepreneurship skills to 250 Lebanese and Syrian youth.

HUMANITARIAN INNOVATION LAB
June 2017 - December 2017

HIL is a UNHCR-funded project that seeks to create a field-based innovation lab and platform that assists UNHCR in streamlining the rollout, testing, and scaling of technologies used to improve communication with communities in need of humanitarian services and assistance. At HIL, a fulltime product development and software engineering team works in partnership with refugees, host communities, and the UNHCR to develop and scale new technological innovations that solve key communication challenges.

EMPOWERING ADOLESCENT FEMALES THROUGH THE PROVISION OF PSYCHO-SOCIAL AND AWARENESS SESSIONS
November 2016 - April 2017

This project was funded by DFATD, under the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), to initiate two training spaces at Kayany Schools to provide psychosocial support, resilience, awareness sessions and other types of self-empowerment trainings for girls between the ages of 14-18. The purpose of the sessions is to help nurture and strengthen the leadership capacity and resilience of Syrian girls and to drive their attention to various topics including early marriage, women’s rights, domestic violence, gender based violence, hygiene and health. The constructed classrooms represent a safe, child friendly space for girls where they can go to after school for reading and group activities. It also includes a library in order to allow the girls to go beyond their classroom textbooks and open their horizons, enhancing their self-development, knowledge and creativity.

THE RED PENCIL INTERNATIONAL: ART THERAPY
August - September 2015

The child protection team at Kayany Foundation reached out to several international NGOs specialising in art therapy and established a partnership with The Red Pencil International, Singapore. This collaboration allowed representatives of both organizations to encourage psychological resilience in children and their families through the use of art therapy, with particular attention paid to participants experiencing overwhelming life circumstances. A group of six art therapists along three international volunteers were hosted by Kayany Foundation in September 2015 where they provided art therapy sessions to 150 students and their family members.

EXCAVATING THE SKY
August 2014

Kayany supported the “Excavating the Sky” project by Khaled Malas, Syrian architect and author. The project was presented at the Venice Biennale arts organization in Venice, Italy. Visit Link