Projects

The Community-Based Education Initiative launched a five-month computer literacy and programming program for 26 female students from public schools. Delivered at AUB and guided by computer science mentors, the program covered Microsoft Office, Python fundamentals, and practical web development using HTML and CSS. Through hands-on labs and personalized feedback, participants built foundational digital skills and got a sneak peek into life on campus.

The Community-Based Education Initiative facilitated structured dialogues with educators that led to piloting the community school model in selected public schools. This approach emphasizes partnerships with families, enriched learning tools, community engagement, integrated health and social support, and strengthened school leadership. Guided by global best practices, the initiative supported practitioners in shaping a shared vision to enhance the school environment and improve student outcomes.

The Community Health Initiative at SAIL connects AUB students and residents, including those in nursing, medicine, and family medicine, to the Primary Healthcare Center in the Coastal Chouf Area. This connection offers the students a valuable training site and strengthens their skills by grounding their education in community practice.

During a recent wave of internal displacement in Lebanon, the Primary Healthcare Center in the Coastal Chouf Area, transformed into a community kitchen, where local women prepared three meals daily for 300 displaced individuals. Ingredients were stocked and bought using scientific approaches to reduce waste. This initiative reflects SAIL for Change’s vision of community-led solutions in moments of hardship.

The Community Health Initiative at SAIL for Change, in collaboration with Damouras, AUBMC, and DT Care, launched a primary healthcare center serving the Coastal Chouf Area. The project followed a needs assessment that highlighted a significant gap in medical access, especially among elderly residents who had gone years without clinical visits. The team is engaging medical residents, social workers, and nursing students to adopt a Home Health Care model, aiming to equip the center and create a supportive environment for community members.

The Community Health Initiative worked with the Ministry of Public Health to strengthen operations at the Karantina Primary Health Care Center. Support included replacing lost medical equipment, establishing partnerships with local institutions, and integrating trainees and professional healthcare workers to enhance service capacity at the center.

The Community Health Initiative supported the national response to COVID-19 by creating a framework for local Task Force units and developing a management guidebook. Training programs were delivered to nurses and doctors to strengthen the local workforce. The team also contributed to public health communication, partnered with the ministerial COVID-19 committee, collaborated with NGOs on vaccine awareness, and supported vaccine accessibility through a registration initiative.

The Environmental Health Initiative developed practical safety guidelines to support households during periods of prolonged power outages. The recommendations focused on food safety practices such as maintaining refrigerator and freezer temperatures, managing time-temperature control for perishable foods, organizing storage by cooking temperature, and applying the first-in, first-out method to reduce waste and prevent foodborne risks.

The Environmental Health Initiative conducted post-explosion assessments to evaluate air quality and identify contaminants present in soil and other environmental samples in affected communities. The findings contributed to documenting environmental impact and informing public health and safety measures.

The Gaming Academy Initiative hosted the “Towards a Free Palestine” game jam, held from November 24 to December 10, 2023. The event brought together 64 participants who collaboratively developed nine games. The initiative aimed to encourage creativity and inclusive digital expression, particularly among creators from Palestine and the SWANA region, while exploring themes related to imagining pathways toward a free Palestine.

Urban Analyica at SAIL examined the spread of online sectarian narratives in Lebanon during periods of political and social crisis. Using a mixed qualitative and quantitative framework, the initiative explored the potential and limitations of agentic AI, content analytics, data visualization, and hate speech detection to understand and measure moral panic discourse on social media, contributing to research on security and insecurity dynamics.

Urban Analytica at SAIL developed a community-driven, evidence-based framework to examine barriers to anti-corruption and accountability mechanisms in Lebanon. In collaboration with community experts and academics, the initiative applied computational analysis and artificial intelligence tools to generate actionable recommendations aimed at strengthening transparency, accountability, and institutional reform.