Abjad Centre - Improving Human Security Through Community-Led Neighbourhood Upgrading and Economic Empowerment of Vulnerable Refugee and Host Communities

Overview

Abjad Centre, once known as “Cinema Al Andalos,” is a welcoming and functional community centre accessed by thousands of residents of the Jabal Mohsen and Tebbaneh neighbourhoods: both from the refugee and host communities. The Centre provides those who access it with a multitude of opportunities for personal growth through life skills workshops and vocational training, self-expression through art, theatre and intercultural dialogue and access to an array of income generating activities especially for women and youth and much more.

Highlights

Abjad Centre member during a registration session.

Children participate in an obstacle course event organizaed by the Abjad Centre.

Children participate in an obstacle course event organized by the Abjad Centre.

local NGOs, INGOs and private actors are using the Centre on a regular basis to implement activities benefiting men, women, youth and children

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persons from Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen have benefited directly from activities implemented in Abjad Centre

local NGOs have created a referral system through SHANKAL group and Abjad Centre

Videos

Enhancing community safety and security through the services provided by “Abjad” centre.

Abjad Centre is a space for refugee and local communities to come together and share their common interests in and its importance to the neighbourhoods of Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

Abjad: A socio-cultural centre in Bab el Tabbeneh, Tripoli, Lebanon.

Once a war shelter, the building that houses the Abjad Centre is now the first community centre in Tabbeneh, Tripoli that provides psychosocial support, life skills workshops and vocational trainings and promotes self-expression through art, theatre and intercultural dialogue. Beneficiaries also access cash assistance and income generating activities especially for women and youth.

Related Sustainable Development Goals

Donors and partners

UN-Habitat along with Al Fayhaa Regional Technical Office mapped out all stakeholders in Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighbourhoods through the neighbourhood profiles and assessed their needs to set up the framework of the Centre. In addition, UN-Habitat collaborated with the Municipality of Tripoli and the Ministry of Social Affairs to define the community members’ needs to be addressed through the Centre’s activities and main objectives. Throughout the project, UNICEF was the main link to local NGOs focused on supporting youth and children while UN-Women coordinated with NGOs focused on women. All of this was done through a coordination group formed by the project, called “SHANKAL,” that brought together all local and international NGOs working in the area. The Centre is now managed by, UTOPIA, an NGO based in Lebanon.

Partners

UNICEF

UN-WOMEN

UTOPIA

Our Experts

Lady Habchy

Urban Governance

UN-Habitat Lebanon

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