From the Ashes of Conflict, Hope Blooms
In the aftermath of war, helping people find safety from the physical threats of conflict is always a top priority for humanitarian agencies. But peace is not only the absence of war, and recovery is not only the resumption of prewar life. Understanding that concept, Catholic Relief Services and partner agency the Development of People and Nature Association set out to help the people of southern Lebanon find peace again after the conflict of 2006.
The Zwaytini park was designed to provide a place for children and adults to congregate in the densely packed communities of Saida.
The Zwaytini park, located just outside of Saida’s impoverished Old Town, is the result of that effort. A park of green grass and blossoming flowers, Zwaytini is now an oasis in an area of the city where 13,000 Lebanese and Palestinians crowd 1 square kilometer.
Though located just yards from the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the area had become a dumping ground for trash, and a hangout for gangs and other unwelcome visitors. When the idea for the park was formed — the first such park in southern Lebanon — volunteers recruited by DPNA began approaching local residents in Saida (Sidon) to see if such a park would be welcome there, and to incorporate their ideas into the final design of the park.
"We got a lot of positive feedback," says Thouraya Bouz, a field officer for DPNA in Saida.
Over the course of three months, workers and volunteers helped to remove tons of trash from the rundown site. Flowers soon bloomed where trash and broken concrete had once been piled. A playground was installed for children, and two CRS-supported small businesses also opened on the site, providing refreshments to community members. The result, Bouz says of the finished park, exceeded all expectations.
"This is a safe place for children to go to, for youth to sit with each other," Bouz says. "It's so beautiful."
The park is part of a CRS effort, funded by the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, to help provide a range of recovery and rehabilitation opportunities for the people of Lebanon. Through Caritas Lebanon and DPNA, CRS is providing everything from roadway repair and livelihood rehabilitation to agricultural assistance for farmers who lost their crops during the war. In addition, the Caritas Migrants Center is reaching out to 600 extremely vulnerable Iraqi refugees, providing food, blankets, support for medical expenses and rent assistance.
A Sense of Community
The Zwaytini park is part of an effort to provide community-level psychosocial support to those traumatized by conflict. In Saida's Old Town, the effects of the war were amplified by both poverty and overcrowding, causing stress and tension among the people living there. After decades of such stress, Bouz explains, the park — and the sense of community it helps to engender — have been a real boost for the community.
The official opening of Zwaytini park, which provides a place for community members to meet, children to play and two small businesses to operate.
"Old Saida is an area of poverty, where many problems exist," Bouz says. "We were the first to do psychosocial activities there. It was something special."
To compound the impact of the park, DPNA is also working to directly support local youth through a center that will offer literacy and computer training as well as other skills to the area's disadvantaged young people. Having grown up in Saida herself, Bouz knows firsthand the impact this project will have on her community, where children are often too poor to attend school, and where drugs and gang activity add to the hardships faced by many.
"They were exposed to smoking, drugs and violence from a young age," Bouz says of Saida's youth. "I think, for the children of Saida who have been deprived of a normal childhood, this is a great thing for them."
