News

The Arab Open University organised last week the “Annual Employment Day” at its campus in Tayyuneh with the participation of 40 local, regional and international companies working in various economic sectors.
The Director of the University, Dr. Feyrouz Sarkis, noted during her opening speech that the purpose of the event is to link students’ and graduates’ competencies with the opportunities available on the domestic and regional job market.  She also presented the various summer training courses that the university has designed for students, with the collaboration of the private and the public sectors, in order to support them in their professional lives and to upgrade their skills so as to enter the job market.  She also noted that the business entrepreneurship at the University offers advanced training programmes to various universities in Lebanon.
Source: Al-Nahar 12 May 2014

The UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States organized a high level regional consultation meeting in Amman last week to present a new initiative entitled “Promotion of effective and inclusive participation of Arab women in public life - Participation project” which is launched in collaboration of the Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organization and with the presence of the UNWomen Regional Director, Dr. Samira al-Tuwaijri, in addition to Dr. Sima Bahhouth and the assistant general secretary and the head of the media and communication unit at the Arab League of States Dr. Haifa Abu Ghazaleh. The new project will seek over the coming three years to address the gap in women’s participation in public life of Arab counties as well as gaps in women’s citizenship and to ensuring gender equality particularly in Arab countries in transition.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 9 May 2014

As Safir published a report about women in ICT related professions.  The report refers to findings of the International IT Federation according to which women’s interest in these professions is five-fold lower compared to men and despite the equal level of ICT usage amongst women and men.  The International IT Federation is an organisation working to lobby governments, the private sector and CSOs to recognize the important role that women can play in developing IT services and thus, the need to become aware of the importance of providing women with the necessary success tools and of carrying an overhaul of educational systems and infrastructure.
The report noted that although there are women who occupy important positions in large IT companies, yet, figures show another reality as men occupy most high level and high paying IT positions in both developing and developed countries.  According to various studies, women constitute 30% IT technicians and only 15% of directors and 11% of technicians involved in training and strategizing.  The report noted that mainstreaming women in the ICT sector is not only important for achieving social justice but is also a way to contribute to general economic growth as gender equality in higher position will positively affect financial performance of companies.
The head of sales at Erikson in the Middle East, engineer Najla Naim, noted during a seminar organized recently by her company at the AUST on the occasion of the international women in ICT day that the limited participation of women in IT education is due to the fact that the educational system is boring and not interesting.  
Source: Al-Safir 9 May 2014

The National Council for Lebanese Women (NCLW) organized the day before yesterday in Beirut an event to honor and commemorate the occasion of the media martyrs which falls on May 6th> .The president of the NCLW, First lady Wafa Suleiman, spoke to the media and noted that many have died during the call of duty and many have stood up to injustice and have thus turned the fourth power into a tool to monitor misuse of power and poor consideration to people’s interests and rights.  She stressed the importance of holding on to the ethos of media and journalism now more than ever in Lebanon in order to preserve diversity and conviviality.  She invited the media to continue to support women’s issues and to build a vision based on equality and rights.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Nahar 9 May 2014

Dar al Amal organized yesterday its annual fundraiser at Biel with the participation of 350 invitees.  The income from this event will be used to fund the setting up of a shelter for women and girls victims of violence and exploitation.  The event included musical interludes as well as an exhibition of handicrafts made by beneficiaries and a competition.  The president of the association, Habib Hatem, thanked all those who supported the setting up of a shelter for women and children.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 9 May 2014

The Minister of Industry, Hussein Hajj Hassan, met yesterday with the Assistant General Director and the Regional Representative of FAO, Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, as well as with FAO Resident Representative in Lebanon, Bruno Manjaw, to discuss ways of collaboration in the framework of implementing programmes that could benefit Lebanon especially its food industry sector especially that this sector is now well developed and is highly competitive in external markets.
Source: Al-Diyar 8 May 2014

The Rassemblement Democratique des Femmes Libanaise, Dar el Amal, Caritas Liban-Migrants centre and Diakonia jointly organised an exhibition of communication material on women’s prisons within the framework of their project entitled “Reinforcing policies and the practices of human rights in women prisons in Lebanon” which is funded by the European Union.  The event was held the day before yesterday at the UNESCO palace and aimed at mobilizing the media on issues related to women’s prisons as a human rights issue and for the purpose of improving their situation.
The organizing NGOs called for the formation of a higher independent national council for prisons which would include representative of relevant ministries which are entrusted with the provision of services to protect the rights of women prisoners and rehabilitate the,.  The group also called for setting up a national machinery to visit prisons in compliance with Lebanon’s commitment to the UPR (clause 5-81) notably the 16th session for human rights.
The project coordinator at the RDFL, Manar Zeiater, explained the objectives of this activity as well as the training and competition which preceded it to prepare the material.  She noted that a jury, which evaluated and selected the material, included lawyers, judges, journalists and human rights activists.  She also added that the material will be sent to the Ministry of Interior to be exhibited and will be shown in the media and via the project’s website http://www.lebanonprisons.org and social media pages.
Source: Al-Akhbar, Al-Nahar, Al-Mustaqbal 8 May 2014

Kafa Violence and Exploitation issued a statement yesterday in which it deplores the President's endorsement of the law to protect women from family violence and which was endorsed by Parliament on April 1st.
The statement notes that the Coalition called on the President not to sign this law as it does not provide effective protection of women from violence.  The President nevertheless signed the law despite his promise to discuss the presented comments and criticisms.  According to Kafa, this is a sign that no due consideration is given to the plight of women and their daily ordeal which often lead to murder.  According to Kafa priority was given to giving a false image to the local and international community by pretending that this was a major achievement through the passing of a mutilated law.
To be reminded that the Director of Kafa, Zoya Ru7hana, had sent a letter to the President detailing the non-constitutionality of the law and its violation of the autonomy of the state.  She added that the present law defeats its purpose which was essentially to protect women from violence.  In her letter, Ru7hana also spoke of Lebanon's violation of its international commitments.  Ru7hana had also invited the President to correct the mistakes and gaps which were brought into the law.
Source: Al-Safir, http://www.almustaqbal.com/v4/Article.aspx?Type=NP&ArticleID=616163">Al-Mustaqbal 8 May 2014

As Safir newspaper published a report about the glass blowing factory in Sarafand, the only remaining such factory in Lebanon which refuses to give up despite the absence of markets and the high production costs including the cost of fuel and labor.  All other similar workshops closed and the last was located in Beddawi which closed some ten years ago.

According to the report, the Cedar Environmental organisation who is interested in waste recycling, has lately taken the initiative to provide the factory with a quantity of glass suitable for recycling with a request to turn these into glass chandeliers.  The association will then sell these at reasonable prices so that they can encourage the Sarafand factory to remain open on the one hand and contribute to recycling waste on the other.  Hussein Khalifeh, the owner of the Sarafand factory, goes around glass producers in the area including Tyre, Saida and Ghazieh where he collects damaged glass, for which he pays around USD100 for a ton of clear and transparent glass in addition to collecting used bottles and broken glass from car wrecks.  Although clear glass is better for production, glass collected for dumps is the most profitable.

With the help of Cedar Environmental group, Khalifeh can now keep his oven on.  He notes that the oven cannot be turned off as one hour off will delay production by 6 hours which increases the production costs.  He noted that they pay from USD 250 to USD 300 for fuel and electricity every 24 hour and that is why they produce glass all day long as they cannot afford to rest at night.  This means that 6 workers, all related, take over the shifts and are flexible in receiving their wages which amount to USD1000 per month for each.

Khalifeh deplored the absence of the state.  If, according to Khalifeh, the state took more interest in preserving the environment and recycling waste, it would have been the first to support such factories all over Lebanon. He added that all that is needed is help in marketing and in subsidizing the cost of fuel and electricity.  He pointed out that the MOSA showroom for Lebanese handicrafts has given up on its pioneer role to support Lebanese artists and crafts.  When asked, he added that this may be due to the lack of funds and markets.  He concluded by saying that some citizens do gather their used glass and bring it to the factory.  However, he deplored the role of municipalities in South Lebanon in dealing with solid wastes as they do not have any current plans for sorting and recycling.

Source: Al-Safir 7 May 2014

Al Akhbar newspaper published an interview with the Microsoft regional director, Sayyed Hashish, in which he presented an overview of the company’s investment vision for Lebanon which focuses on small and medium enterprises as well as on universities and youth.  Hashish added that Microsoft collaborates with some 15000 small and medium enterprises in Lebanon through providing them with strategic tools to develop their businesses.  He also added that around 200,000 students benefited from the Office 365 programme which is distributed free of charge.  In addition, Microsoft partners in Lebanon have trained more than 5000 teachers.

Hashish noted that small and medium enterprises are a key pillar of the Lebanese economy as they create employment opportunity for the youth and contribute to economic growth.  As such, Microsoft helped more than 50 Lebanese companies in developing their technical capacities through its BizSpark programme which especially targets small and emerging businesses.  This programme provided beneficiary companies with new Microsoft software and platforms for free in addition to receiving technical support from Microsoft and were able to contact investors, business incubators and emerging companies worldwide and receive technical training and resources and other tools for business development.

The second project which is of key importance to Hashish is the Microsoft IT academy which provides education solutions to 20 universities in Lebanon, in addition to providing IT training for student and merges class lectures with e-learning in order to develop scientific skills in what concerns the preparation and maintenance of IT infrastructure.  Teachers are thus able to prepare their students to enter the job market armed with IT skills required by employers.

Source: Al-Akhbar 7 May 2014