15/9-2022Youth leaders in Lebanon create public spaces for sports through advocacy: “We aim to encourage the children”
On the International Day of Democracy, GAME is highlighting the young people on NAHNOO and GAME Lebanon’s program ‘Youth Building Dreams’, who are taking the lead and working towards developing their communities.
With its main component being advocacy, the program aims to empower young ‘Dream Builders’ to raise their voices and take action upon creating inclusive and public spaces for sports.
Accessible, safe spaces for physical movement help support, develop, and maintain children and youth’s mental and physical well-being, ultimately contributing to sustainable communities.
Creating opportunities for the new generation
One of the young people doing advocacy work in the ‘Youth Building Dreams’ program is Noor Danash, a 24-year-old girl living in Ghazieh, Lebanon. In the winter of 2021, Noor chose to volunteer with GAME, seeing it as a chance to give back to her community and to help create opportunities for local kids to play sports. Noor wants to see the new generation of children and youth in her hometown enjoy spaces to play their favorite sports – something that wasn’t accessible to her growing up.
“Being part of Lebanon’s ’Youth Building Dreams’ program served as a road toward building a public space for children and youth in our village. Our aim as Dream Builders is to keep encouraging the children, especially girls, to break the cycle of taboos surrounding them in order to minimize the barriers, that they face in their everyday lives.” Noor Danash, Dream Builder in Ghazieh.
Noor is now part of a team of four Dream Builders who lead Street Sports activities for children in Ghazieh on a weekly basis. They make sure that the courts, that they helped create, are activated as inclusive spaces for sports and fun open to all children.
The program is funded by the Danish International Development Agency, DANIDA, to strengthen social cohesion and civic engagement in Lebanon from 2021 until 2023.
Noor Danash together with active zone children in Lebanon.
