Role of Lebanon’s third sector as an anchor for hope

Throughout history, Lebanon has gone through so much war and conflict that resulted in trauma due to several factors — namely sectarian differences, large gaps in social and economic inequalities, combined with other factors, such as power and greed stretching the cycle of intergenerational trauma.
Back in 1997, an inspiring lady named Alexandra Asseily designed a public area for healing, calling it “The Garden of Forgiveness” or “Hadiqat-Al-Samah,” which is still standing in Beirut to this day. Since its construction, the area rewrote the traumatic stories that happened there and turned them into a beautiful sanctuary in the busy city of Beirut. The founder’s intention was for it to be used by individuals from various diverse backgrounds to reflect on their shared collective memory of traumas in an outdoor natural setting. Asseily made sure that the landscape design of the garden was set in downtown Beirut, the same place where battles took place for many years, as it is surrounded by multiple religious houses of worship.
In connection with the unprecedented challenges that faced our beloved brothers and sisters in Lebanon last August after one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history, and despite the traumatic experience that Lebanese civilians went through, the reaction of Lebanese citizens is inspiring. It is reflected in the solidarity and altruistic commitment to collective wellness through acts of community service, volunteerism and other aspects like cleaning public areas, waste management and hosting vulnerable people in their own homes, all of which are great examples of efficacy practices. Lebanon may have experienced many traumas in one lifetime, but we should disagree with the pseudoinefficacy communications rhetoric of Beirut being an afflicted city; it is a city that has a tenacity, timelessness and dry sense of humor — but most importantly embodies the epitome of sophistication paired with equanimity.
As a consequence, civilians in Lebanon in this case had two options, either to regulate their emotions and use the fallacious logic of pseudoinefficacy, which would lead them to a state of rumination, dwelling and inaction, or use unconditional solidarity as a fuel for efficacy to take action. In an inspirational way, the Lebanese people astonished the world with their impressive experience in the third sector, including NGOs, academic institutions and acts of genuine individuals wearing the hat of humanitarian actors despite being non-experts, yet excelling in their endeavors.

In an inspirational way, the Lebanese people astonished the world with their impressive experience in the third sector.

Abeer S. Al-Saud

On Oct. 13, Saudi Arabia, which held the 2020 G20 presidency, virtually hosted the Interfaith 20 (I20) group, where more than 500 religious leaders and leading organizations took part, including UN agencies, the King Abdullah Center for Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the European Commission. The meetings involved a diverse set of religions, sects and backgrounds, and featured talks over a five-day period. The group discussed three key themes that explore modern topics from a religious perspective. Revisiting what I mentioned earlier regarding “The Garden of Forgiveness,” we must rationalize building cycles of reconciliation, especially in our region, and mostly in areas that promote harmony among sectarian diversity. In an I20 session dedicated to disaster risk reduction in fragile states, the discourse on religious views of equanimity, altruism and compassion within this context were highlighted.
Furthermore, the international body leading on disaster risk reduction is the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). UNDRR is using the Sendai Framework 2015-2030 as the main road map for managing disaster risk reduction. The framework was proposed by Japan based on their experiences in the field, while the Kingdom is of one of the member states that endorses the implementation of the framework. We are a third of the way through its implementation period. So far, there are positive signs of progress in the way people’s mindset has shifted from seeing disasters as natural consequences to realizing that they may sometimes be consequences of people’s own choices and actions.
However, the Sendai Framework has limitations. It fails to capture all of the fundamental aspects related to disaster risk reduction from a cultural perspective of subjective geographic factors. Five years later, I hope that the UNDRR will revisit the framework to alter these limitations by involving all member states with voluntary reports and recommendations.

• Abeer S. Al-Saud is an op-ed writer for Arab News exploring development, peace and cultural topics. The views expressed in this piece are personal. Twitter: @asmalsaud