PROMOTING THE NATIONAL HERITAGE DAY: THE NATIONAL LIBRARY

BN Façade.
 

Rehabilitation plan-Hamra.


Restoration workshop.


Kids in restoration workshop.


H.E. Mr. Tarek Mitri visiting the caravan.

H.E. Mr. Tarek Mitri, Minister of Culture paid surprise visits to the students participating in the event. He first met with the Baskinta-based Mar Semaan Covenant children who were touring the National Library in Verdun. Another time, he showed up at the Beirut Harbor where National Library restoration workshops are located and where the Caravan was stationed on the occasion of the National heritage week. There, Minister Mitri described the importance of the rehabilitation project of National
Library undertaken by the Ministry. He addressed public school youngsters present inside the caravan who were scheduled for a quiz-contest, a guided tour of the workshops and a field visit to the National Library main headquarters in Verdun.
 

Back to the top

                     PUTTING TECHNOLOGY AT THE SERVICE OF READING

Back to the top

                     PROMOTING OUR NATIONAL HERITAGE

Computers to link students to their Heritage:
  THE HISTORICAL SITE OF FAQRA (Kfardebiane) /

MAY 9-JUNE 4, 2005


Awareness and Information Workshop for the Lebanese Youth

Fondation Saradar in collaboration with The Association for Protecting Natural Sites and Old Buildings in Lebanon -A.P.S.A.D: Committee Keserwan Jbeil- and The School of Fine and Applied Arts (FBA) of the Holy Spirit University - Kaslik (USEK) organized an IT workshop involving 875 students coming from 14 schools (5 public schools and 9 private schools) at the Faqra archeological site. This pilot project aimed on the one hand at developing the awareness of young students and of their parents regarding the preservation and protection of natural heritage, as well as discovering and reviving Lebanese sites, and on the other hand, at encouraging students to use technology in all their research.

This pilot project was implemented on the site itself and addressed secondary classes of schools' that are located in the region. The aim of this activity was to mobilize the young generation and stimulate its interest regarding the protection of historical Lebanese sites, and to encourage the students to use the technology in their researches and other academic works.

The May workshop was based on a program developed by USEK’s Faculty of Fine Arts and presenting a documentary and analytic base on the site, with a historic, archaeological and architectural background. The program involved a reconstitution of the site, so as to appear exactly as during the Roman period. A projection on a giant screen was also part of this virtual visit during which students had the impression that they were moving in Roman space. Members of USEK and instructors from the Formatech training centre initiated the students to computers in the Saradar caravan (stationed near the Faqra ruins). Students then answered a questionnaire on the site prepared by Fondation Saradar and USEK’s Faculty of Fine Arts. This awareness and information itinerary ended with a guided tour of the ruins, organised by APSAD with the participation of the Faculty of Fine Arts students, an initiative made easy by the decision of the Ministry of Tourism regarding free access to the site.


Details and Figures:

Statistics were collected based on the answers to the questionnaire as elaborated by the students themselves and therefore are subject to errors due to the fact that some copies did not mention the names and/or the ages of the participating kids. Consequently, this data compilation relies on the availability of the requested information


School distribution by sector:

SCHOOL		SECTOR
		Public	Private
1	Official school of Baatouta	1
2	Official school of Ghosta	1
3	Saints-Coeurs school - Kfardebiane		1
4	Lycée Franco-Libanais - Nahr Ibrahim		1
5	Saints-Coeurs School - Kfarhbab		1
6	Official school of Hrajel	1
7	Official school of Kfardebiane	1
8	Saints-Coeurs school – Sioufi		1
9	Secondary school of Baskinta		1
10	Lycée de Ville – Adonis	1
11	The Technical school of Ajaltoun		1
12	Soeurs de la Croix school - Hrajel		1
13	Soeurs des Rosaires school - Jbeil		1
14	Saint-Joseph des Filles de la Charité school – Zouk Mikhael		1
TOTAL		5	9

Distribution by grade and gender:

SCHOOL		GRADES							SEX		Total
		6	7	8	9	10	11	12	F	M
1	Official school of Baatouta			22	8				16	14	30
2	Official school of Ghosta					31			21	10	31
3	Saints-Coeurs school - Kfardebiane				19			7	13	13	26
4	Lycée Franco-Libanais - Nahr Ibrahim	58				59			49	68	117
5	Saints-Coeurs School - Kfarhbab					96			71	25	96
6	Official school of Hrajel	20	15						15	20	35
7	Official school of Kfardebiane	12	12	8	10				20	22	42
8	Saints-Coeurs school – Sioufi					44			21	23	44
9	Secondary school of Baskinta					8	16		12	12	24
10	Lycée de Ville – Adonis	17	22	13					21	31	52
11	The Technical school of Ajaltoun							4	3	1	4
12	Soeurs de la Croix school - Hrajel					12			9	3	12
13	Soeurs des Rosaires school - Jbeil					38			20	18	38
14	Saint-Joseph des Filles de la Charité school – Zouk Mikhael			32					22	10	32
TOTAL		107	49	75	37	288	16	11	313	270	583

Distribution by age/school:

SCHOOL		AGE												Total
		10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	ID
1	Official school of Baatouta				5	5	8	6	5				1	30
2	Official school of Ghosta						10	13	5	3				31
3	Saints-Coeurs school - Kfardebiane			2		3	14	1	4	2				26
4	Lycée Franco-Libanais - Nahr Ibrahim		26	30	2		28	29	1				1	117
5	Saints-Coeurs School - Kfarhbab					1	37	56	2					96
6	Official school of Hrajel	3	14	3	9	6								35
7	Official school of Kfardebiane		2	8	15	3	2	2						32
8	Saints-Coeurs school – Sioufi						16	24	4					44
9	Secondary school of Baskinta						2	13	4	3		2		24
10	Lycée de Ville – Adonis		5	12	19	11	5							52
11	The Technical school of Ajaltoun									2	1			3
12	Soeurs de la Croix school - Hrajel						1	8	3					12
13	Soeurs des Rosaires school - Jbeil					5	3	26	2			1	1	38
14	Saint-Joseph des Filles de la Charité school – Zouk Mikhael		1		5	25	1							32
TOTAL		3	48	55	55	59	127	178	30	10	1	3	3	572
* Only one participant from the Technical school of Ajaltoun was aged 22.

Distribution by age/sex:

AGE	FEMALE	MALE	TOTAL
10	2	1	3
11	20	28	48
12	20	35	55
13	26	29	55
14	29	32	61
15	77	55	132
16	107	74	181
17	12	18	30
18	7	3	10
19	1	-	1
20	-	3	3
22	-	1	1
UD	1	2	3
TOTAL	302	281	583

The Closing Ceremony
A closing ceremony and a joint press conference were organised on the USEK campus on July 6, 2005. This event marked the end of the activities organised by the three partners on the archaeological site of Faqra during a whole month.

Over 80 people were present at this press conference whose agenda announced four speeches and simultaneous projections broadcasting information on the three partners and on the project:
Mr. Assem Salam (President of APSAD), Mrs. Maritta Frem (Head of the APSAD committee for the regions of Kesrouan and Jbeil), and Mrs. Tania Helou (General Manager of Fondation Saradar).
As for Dr. Alexis Moukarzel (Dean of the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts), he completed his speech by a projection of the Strabon software (program of research and development of Lebanon’s archaeological sites, aiming at providing the Mediterranean region with a multilingual and multimedia information system on cultural tourism, financed by the European Commission and executed in Lebanon in partnership with USEK and the Faculty of Fine Arts). The audience – which included Mr. Jean-Noel Baléo, representative of the French Embassy in Lebanon, Dr. Frédéric Husseini, Director General of the General Directorate of Antiquities, representing the Ministry of Culture, Reverend Father Karam Risk, Vicar-General of the OLM, Dr. Omar Halablab, Director General of the Ministry of Culture, Dr. Gédéon Mohasseb, Dean of USEK’s Faculty of Medicine, as well as representatives of the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, members of the Faraya, Kfardebiane and Jounieh municipal councils, press representatives, principals of the participating schools, the students and their parents, and APSAD members – attended a 3D presentation dedicated to the archaeological site of Faqra.


The prize winning ceremony
Followed a prize remittance ceremony during which eight participants (seven girls and a boy), among whom 5 from public schools and 3 from private schools, were declared winners, out of 583 who had taken part in the contest. They were offered valuable prizes by Inconet-Data Management (IDM), Virgin Megastore, Gulbenk Corporation, Mrs. Nina Jidejian and APSAD. A reception finally concluded this cultural event.

The Winners:

1. Official school of Kfardebiane
a. Dalal Zoghaib, 11½ years old
b. Randa Zoghaib, 11 years old
c. Sarah Makhlouf, 12 years old
d. Zakhia el Beaïnou, 14 years old

2. Official school of Hrajel
a. Charbel Zoghaib, 12 years old

3. Saints-Cœurs Kfarhbab school
a. Hala el Amm, 15 years old
b. Raya Frem, 15 years old

4. Saints-Cœurs Sioufi
a. Aziza Mantash, 16 years old

This activity organized by 3 partners specialized in different fields generated a dynamic project that sensitize the young people on several levels, the enriching collaboration allowed the organizers and the participants to create new horizons. This experience could lead to the establishment of a genuine operational network that will extend the cultural, social and architectural heritage safeguard field to other Lebanese geographical sectors.



APSAD - http://www.apsad.org : 
Was founded in 1960 by Lady Yvonne Sursock Cochrane, Mr. Assem Salam and Mr. Camille Aboussouan, with a group of active social, academic and professional figures bent on protecting the country's natural and cultural heritage. A pioneer in its field APSAD is a non-profit organization, which was officially, recognized as a non-profit public interest organization by Presidential Decree #765, APSAD is dedicated to promote the protection and restoration of ancient buildings with historic and artistic characteristics and the conservation of natural sites, act upon laws protecting the architectural heritage, raise public awareness concerning urban and environmental problems, encourage an architecture and a town planning of high quality, strengthen the fabric of society by a general mobilization regarding the national heritage, stimulate public interest and encourage a sense of civic responsibility. 
APSAD provides all necessary support and seeks to implement new concepts for the preservation of the natural and architectural heritage that represents Lebanon's identity, the expression of its memory and one of its most important resources. Also APSAD executes development projects in the Lebanese villages because it is evident that the heritage and the methods of its preservation constitute powerful issues in the economical, social and cultural life of the population.



STRABON - http://www.usek.edu.lb/strabon/
This research and enhancement work of archeological sites in Lebanon was made possible thanks to the STRABON program which objective is to equip the Mediterranean space with a multilingual and multi-media information system on cultural tourism. This cooperative project falls in the line of the EUMEDIS initiative, and was financed by the European Commission within the framework of the MEDA program. The collection is composed of 3 sites in the upper mountain of Mount Lebanon. The aim of this new view on ignored and mainly little documented places is obviously the promotion of the archaeological and architectural cultural heritage of rural areas in a context which respects natural resources. It takes the visitor on an initiatory path, leading him from the Lebanese coast across the snow-covered passes of Mount Lebanon, towards the majestic and monumental city of Baalbeck, the relevant pelgrimage of antiquity. This program is being implemented in Lebanon with the partnership of the Holy Spirit University - Kaslik