Sustainability: The Dimension of Human Feeling

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something”.  Edward Everett Hale.

After 15 years of civil war and uninterrupted inter-confessional conflicts, Lebanon was transformed from a battlefield to a laboratory where diverse political formulas have been tested for a well-functioning society. While talking about taking action is something that our government has done for decades, taking these words and actually putting them into practice has been a challenge that civil society has proudly taken on over the years.

Reality on the ground shows that civil society chose to act by bringing development into the equation using a collaborative approach. The latter consisted of creating a bridge between the private sector, the public sector, and civil society. A bridge that from the beginning, was seen as transparent and started overcoming opacity even more as soon as change in the community was being achieved. Companies willing to play the social responsibility card are seeking to partner with NGOs to improve community understanding. Partnering with the civil society gives both the public and the private sector a sense of community linkage Therefore, the bottom of the pyramid is evolving into an opportunity for sustainable change, rather than being seen as an obstacle.

This positive change led to public acknowledgement of NGOs as key development actors in the country. This change has been introduced through a bottom-up bottom-down negotiation, reducing the communication gap between citizens and their government. Volunteerism and engagement were seen through a different light. Citizens, empowered by the successes of these organisations, felt the urge to embody the role of change maker.

Usually when we talk about sustainability we see it as a result we are aspiring to attain. Therefore we build strategies, researches and statistics in order to make our project productive over time. I, however, would like to link sustainability to something more personal, giving it a humane dimension by telling the stories of two Lebanese citizens that founded their respective NGOs as a translation of their personal experience.

Lena Gebrane, is a mother who truly believes that feelings shouldn’t be property-owned, and that once shared, can become incentives for change in society. She felt devastated when her son Hadi was taken away from her due to a car accident that ended his life when he was only 19 years old. By choosing to act she founded an NGO by the name of “KUNHADI” to raise youth awareness on road safety through a new driving culture and keep youth safe on Lebanese roads, where around 520 people die every year due to speed and drunk driving.

“Donner Sang Compter” (DSC) (Give blood without expecting anything in return) is an NGO founded by Yorgui Teyrouz, a 20 year old student who decided to transform tragedy into opportunity after a personal incident made him think about the importance of giving back to his community. Due to a blood donation shortage in Lebanon, this organization conducts blood drives in collaboration with hospitals. By bringing innovative communication tools to the table, DSC was answering a vital need in society with more than 10.000 donors fulfilling more than 450 demands per month.

What can we say about these individuals that, in response to a painful feeling, made a difference that matured into solutions to national issues? How do we make this instinctive feeling sustainable in order to achieve a sustainable change in the world? The approach they both unconsciously used is people-oriented. The most honest feeling is the suffering of a human being. By listening to their broken heart they saw the bigger picture, the picture of positive change. Their NGOs started without a strategy or an advanced study, just an urgent response to a community need. However, working in the field brought in a more strategic approach, that consisted of placing the people at the heart of the project as a guarantee for its sustainability.

We always come across aspirational words and phrases filled with hope, beauty and promises. Words, that in the moment, create this sudden urge in us to become the best version of ourselves, wanting to change the way we are, the way we feel about the world, the people, our future, our children’s future…But is it enough? Do powerful quotes, and words that look good on paper have the same power when it comes to real life’s challenges? Do we still have the same urge once we become aware of the obstacles?

We choose to live what we’re feeling the way it suits us, we can either be the receiver by doing nothing, or the giver by using this destroying feeling and giving it back to others in the form of positive change.

Sources:

• www.dsclebanon.org
• www.information-international.com
• http://www.kunhadi.org/en/In-Numbers
• www.kunhadi.org

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