People of Rashiddiyyah or real stories on Facebook of Palestinians and exclusion in Lebanon

The Daily Star newspaper published a report last Saturday on “People of Rashiddiyyah,” a social media project that was launched recently by Mohammad al-As3sad, a 21-year-old Palestinian student from the Rashiddiyyah camp, located south of Tyre, in collaboration with Mary Mitchell, his former English teacher. “People of Rashiddiyyah” profiles stories focusing on women, youth and children from the camp on Facebook and Tumblr platforms, and was modeled on the widely popular “People of New York” project, which documents the stories of ordinary New Yorkers.
A3saad and Mitchell noted that they were motivated by the desire to tell the stories of Palestinians refugees who live a life of exile and exclusion in Lebanon, in an attempt to highlight the various aspects of Palestinians’ lives, and away for traditional media coverage. As3aad pointed out that the project focuses on young adults in particular, to profile the absence of choices and opportunities available to them, and the harsh realities they face.  Examples include their exclusion Lebanese law from a wide range of jobs and professions (some 70 banned jobs in total), particularly engineering and medicine domains, in which many graduates remain unemployed. As3aad concluded by saying that the project aims at brining the public closer to the reality of Palestinian in Lebanon who have been traditionally the subject of unfair discrimination and prejudice.

Source: The Daily Star 11 October 2014