The document summarizes the activities of two volunteers, Angelika Marzec and Joanna Dołoszycka, during their 6 month volunteer placement with YWCA Beirut from March to September 2017. The volunteers helped provide English language courses, organize extracurricular activities for youth, and document events. They represented YWCA at external events and collaborated with other organizations, such as Albert Nassar Foundation. To conclude their placement, the volunteers created final materials including a blog, video, and presentation highlighting their work.

1. EVS LEBANON
YWCA Beirut – project „Join us”
Angelika Marzec & Joanna Dołoszycka
March – September 2017

2. YWCA – Beirut
◦ YWCA was established in Beirut in the beginning of 20th century. First they engaged in
bible study meetings and other missionary activities but gradually started offering
vocational and recreational courses for women and providing them with
accommodation. They worked with Palestinian refugees and helped improve working
conditions for women and decrease child labor in Lebanon.
◦ Current profile: We are a women-led organization that achieves positive change by
providing ongoing programs, activities and services for women, youth, and
communities. Our multidimensional program strategy reaches hundreds of women and
youth every year.

3. YWCA – Technical College
◦ Over one hundred years in the field of technical education. The YWCA-Beirut Technical
College offers vocational programs with BT/TS government diplomas, as well as Special
Diplomas certified by the General Directorate of Vocational and Technical Education
◦ The students can choose between many of the following courses:
◦ Accounting & Computer, Sales & Marketing, Administrative & Office services, Hospitality
Techniques (sales & production), Pre-School Education (full time) and Hair dressing, Assistant
Chef, Make-up and Skin Care, Manicure/Pedicure, Administrative Assistant, General
Accountant (short time).

4. Project „Join us”
◦ Volunteers can take part in arranging activities in coordination with the administration
and some school teachers. Volunteers will be required to develop an action plan and
suggest or introduce innovative strategies to improve the teaching of foreign
languages. They will introduce numerous activities designed to promote foreign
language teaching and learning under the framework of intercultural practice and
non-formal education.

5. Tasks
Here are some of our tasks:
◦ Providing English courses for YWCA target groups (mainly youngsters and women)
◦ Meeting language teachers to review lesson plans
◦ Using non-formal educational methods and creativity to facilitate learning
◦ Organizing extracurricular outdoor activities for youth
◦ Participating in educational workshops and sessions
◦ Organising Youth Clubs that aim to develop students’ intrests (Sports, Cinema and
Photography, Debates)
◦ Writing reports and documenting EVS activities

6. Women’s Day 2017
◦ 8th March 2017 was a big day for
YWCA, we all celebrated Women’s
Day by awarding 20 women for their
exeptional work. During the event
many speeches were delivered and
the awards handed personally by the
minister of women affairs.

7. English classes at YWCA
Storytelling Charades

8. Post-its Chinese whispers

9. The dating game Grammar classes

10. Youth clubs
Sports class Debates

11. Rise up!
◦ Every year on April 24, YWCAs around
the world celebrate World YWCA Day.
This year, the theme was Rise Up:
Support and Invest in Young Women’s
Rights. YWCA believes that now, more
than ever, it's time for young women
and girls to RISE UP!
◦ And we did! We organized classes and
for a week we talked about women’s
situation and the work YWCA is doing
to improve it.

13. Documenting YWCA’s everyday life
Documenting many YWCA’s events and activities, among which:
◦ Taking pictures of teachers to help create a teachers portfolio
◦ Taking pictures of English classes
◦ Taking pictures of recreational clubs for members and volunteers of YWCA

14. Social media
◦ The pictures taken by Angelika were
used on YWCA’s facebook page and
helped build organization’s image

15. NGO Fair
◦ One of our tasks was to represent our
organizaion at an NGO Fair in April. We
sat at the stand for two days and
answered questions regarding the
organization’s mission, vision and
current projects.

16. Junior Chefs Competition
◦ We were invited to a cooking
competition to cheer for a team of
students from our school. It was a very
impressive contest and the whole
event was very interesting.

17. Polish Week
◦ In May we organized a Polish Week for
our students, we talked shortly about
Poland’s history, culture, and
language. But the most interesting and
fun activity was Polish cuisine class, we
showed them how to prepare easy
Polish dishes and sweets.

18. Omar and Mohammad with
the Polish flag Rami prepares faworki

19. Graduation
◦ On May 26th the school held
a graduation ceremony for their senior
year students. We all gathered in the
theatre room, the teachers, the
students, and their parents. The
students were handed their diplomas
and awards for outstanding academic
acheivments. To our genuine surprise,
we were also given awards for our
efforts, it was unexpected and we
greatly appreciate it.

20. Albert Nassar Foundation
◦ The foundation is located in a small
village Bkennaya, near Beirut. They
organize vocational courses for women
and during the summer they ran a
summer camp for children aged 7-14.
Our task there was to organize fun,
interactive English activities.

21. English activities
Art class Class about fruit and vegetables

22. English performance
◦ At the end of the summer camp the
youngest kids put up a spectacle of
song and dance, among others, they
sang an English song we had prepared
with them.
◦ The second part of our performance
was a little more complicated. We
stood on the stage to express our
gratitude (in English) and two of our
students accompanied us to interpret
our words into Arabic.

23. Tripoli
◦ In Tripoli we attended an Arabic course
in the month of August.
◦ During that time we started working
with SEED foundation, our tasks there
were devided, on of us was teaching
English and the other one was
preparing evaluation of a project
developed by the organization. Sadly,
we had to leave Tripoli due to
unforseen complications.

24. Moving back to Beirut
◦ We came back to Beirut and during
the last days of our stay in Lebanon, we
worked on final results:
◦ Adding articles to our blog
◦ Preparing a presentation
◦ Putting together a short video
◦ Writing reports

25. Results
◦ English performance at Albert Nassar Foundation
◦ Brochure with non-formal English activities
◦ Video Albert Nassar Foundation
◦ Video presentation YWCA
◦ Blog
◦ Presentation

26. ً‫شكرا‬
Shukran – Thank you - Dziękujemy