Cooperation – Partnership – Development
This slogan is the starting point for the direction and the work of the NGOs Platform in Saida, since we believe that the basics are in completing each other and helping each other instead of competing, and we tested during our common field work the importance and the effectiveness of this direction.
The NGOs Platform in Saida is a civil, voluntary and coordination platform consists from Non-governmental Organizations working in different fields such as social, health, protection, education and development. They all make sure to work together and be committed to the needs of the civil society, regardless the religion or the mentalities.
The NGOs Platform make sure to succeed the joint work without any discrimination between individuals and groups, it stems from the needs and reality of the local environment and respect the privacy and the energies of individuals and groups. Then comes the work on permanent alert for the rights and respect for differences and diversities, and in assessing a sustainable practice to apply to the need.
The NGOs platform started since its inception in the field work in the mid-eighties during the “clinics coordinating body ” and then developed in the early nineties through the work coordinating the joint in the face of repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory and the South in particular in the context of a contingency plan field work is always “on the review and development of building “needs.
The NGOs Platform developed its activities by implementing joint programs and projects. The most important program was combat child labor in the city, where the NGOs Platform was able, within a short period, to develop this project through the launch of support programs which significantly contribute to the success of key objectives, we mean the advanced vocational training program, and the remedial school for children at risk of school dropout program. There are other joint program by the NGOs Platform, which contribute to deepen the partnership and cooperation among its members such as literacy programs and adult education, health education, participating in national immunization campaigns, program to combat AIDS, a draft anti-drug cooperation with the National Council to combat drug addiction in Sidon (SAIL), the work to create community learning centers in marginalized areas. Allowing young volunteers to take their role and express their aspirations in creating a space and the area of work for them. The NGOs Platform is also involved with the Higher Council for Childhood action committees and activities and preparing the national report on the status of children in Lebanon.
NGOs Platform emerged convincing of the importance and the need for networking at the national and Arab relations and coordination levels with a rally by voluntary bodies in Lebanon and the forum of NGOs in Lebanon with the Arab Development forum for NGOs, with in turn allowed the NGOs Platform in Saida to appear at the international and regional level through the participation in international and regional conferences and meetings related to issues of social and economic working papers on globalization and Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and issues of development and democracy, which was held in Beirut, Johannesburg and Mumbai and Cairo. As well as with the international foundation for management and training that allowed the NGOs platform to be as a partner through the « program structure » and through their own training programs, by continuous participation in the regulatory frameworks and participation in seminars and workshops held in Beirut and Amman on democracy, good governance, transparency, financial regulation, and contributed to the version of the user in measuring the state of civil society, and participation in the International Forum for NGOs in Glasgow. The NGOS platform participated in the Forum for Parliamentary Dialogue in Lebanon.
The NGOs platform in Saida works in the field of awareness of the risk and the spread of HIV/AIDS and undertook a study that has been completed recently. This study was a field study on the most vulnerable groups and most affected by HIV/Aids in the region of Saida and its surroundings. In addition to the cooperation with the National Program to combat HIV/AIDS in Lebanon, the NGOs Platform is a member of the Arab Network for NGOS working on HIV/AIDS (RANNA), and a member in the regional network to reduce the risk of drug use (MENAHRA), and the Arab Federation of NGOs for the prevention of addiction.
At the level of promoting literacy programs, the platform is part of the global campaign for education for all through its membership in the Arab Network for Popular Education.
The NGOs platform Contributed tothe developmentofa unified Arab strategyto combatchild laborin cooperationwiththe Arab Council forChildhoodand Development,with supportfrom the Arab Leaguein Cairo, alsocontributed tothe launch ofa networkof ArabStatestochildrenin difficult circumstancesin Amman.
Besides it participates in the campaigns and support and advocacy to both the Palestinian and Iraqi peoples.
This integral role of the gathering had been given credibility to the community as well as on Arab and international levels to the level of the target groups such as the beneficiaries of the services of assembly in the different areas involved, such as vocational training program accelerated (the children of beneficiaries, employers, parents) or in the empowerment programs that is geared for those working in associations and organizations of the platform. As well as in the case of local partners, led by the mayor of Saida, this was the experience of partnership in the face of Israeli aggression in July 2006 as a model “to follow. He engaged platform and developed a relationship with the municipality on issues of life for the city and its environs and in campaigns of national environmental and local communities.
We have crossed the United Nations organizations expressed interest in programs of assembly and work through involvement in meetings, seminars and conferences convened by the issues of children (UNICEF), as in the meetings with ESCWA about economic and social issues, and the UNDP in the meetings of development, partnership and UNESCO at the coastal cities and cultural and scientific conferences.
All this work has not been possible “without the commitment of the members of the assembly to work seriously and engage its members in joint programs with full respect for their privacy, and to maintain their principles and goals that led to the departure or its sustainability.
