السفيرة شيا :تفتتح برنامج Pop-Up Spaces في صيدا

العرب نيوز ( صيدا – لبنان) في 22 تشرين الأول، حضرت السفيرة دوروثي ك. شيا افتتاح برنامج Pop-Up Spaces في صيدا. على مدى سنة، سيقوم هذا البرنامج الذي تنفذه جمعية تطوير بلدنا على تمكين شباب ومهنيين شباب في جنوب لبنان والشمال والبقاع من خلال التدريب على التربية المدنية وريادة الأعمال الاجتماعية والأنشطة العملية.
خلال الحفل، قالت السفيرة شيا: “إنّ تجربة الـ Pop-Up American spaces خيرُ برهانٍ نقدّمه لأصدقائنا اللبنانيين على أنّنا لن نترك الشعب اللبناني وحده، خصوصاً في هذه الفترة الاقتصادية العصيبة، بل لن نتردّد في ملاقاته أينما كان”.
واضافت: “نعتبر هذا الحدث اليوم خطوةً إضافية نتخّذها على درب المسيرة الطويلة التي التزمنا بها لكم ولشراكتنا معاً”.
“وأشكر هنا الشباب الذين سيشاركون في البرامج التدريبية والنشاطات التي ستحصل في كنف الـPop-Up الذي نطلقه اليوم، ولا يسعني إلا أن أثني على اندفاع الشباب والتزامهم، واترقّب بشوقٍ الى ما سيفعله هؤلاء بالمهارات التي سيطوّرونها بفضل هذا البرنامج”.

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Ambassador Shea inaugurates Pop Up Space Training Program in Saida

Note: Please find a video of the remarks on https://youtu.be/sXHDHv2YHG8. End Note

Arab News – saida – Lebanon On October 22, Ambassador Dorothy C. Shea attended the inauguration of the Pop-Up Spaces program in Saida. This one year-long program, which is implemented by Tatweer Baladna, will empower youth and young professionals in South Lebanon, North Lebanon, and the Bekaa through civic education and social entrepreneurship training and hands-on activities.

During the event, Ambassador Shea remarked: “Pop-Up American spaces demonstrate to our friends, the Lebanese people, that wherever you are in this time of great economic difficulty, we’re not going to let that stop us from popping up and meeting you where you are.”

She continued saying, “Let’s look at this as one step in the long continuum of our engagement and our partnership with you.”
And “To the youth who will be participating in the training programs and the activities that we will foster through this Pop-Up, I thank you for your commitment and for your engagement, and I’m excited to see what you guys are going to do with the skills that you further develop through this program.”

#العرب_نيوز ” أخبار العرب كل العرب “

Ambassador Shea :Good morning, sabah el kheir, I hope it’s OK if I take my mask off for the speech, but I did
proudly wear my stars and stripes mask today because I’m so honored to be with you all to
celebrate this Pop-Up American space.

I’d like to thank the municipal representatives and to especially acknowledge Her
Excellency, Member of Parliament Bahia Hariri, for joining today’s event.

It is wonderful to be here and to have such an inspiring group of young people and
educators to gather this morning to launch this innovative Pop-Up US spaces program. I’d
like to give a special shout out to Mr. Haitham Saab and also Fidaa (Where’s Fidaa?
You’re right here taking pictures, and I’m looking for you out in the audience) and all of the
teams behind you for making this happen.

So Pop-Ups… What’s up with the Pop-Up space? Well, we thought you have Pop-Up
restaurants. Sometimes you have Pop-Up clinics. I’ve seen Pop-Up vaccination clinics,
right? Krisi here, my colleague from the embassy, she’s going to be giving a Pop-Up yoga
class later today, which I hope to join her in. So we thought, why not have Pop-Up
American spaces and just demonstrate to our friends, the Lebanese people, wherever you
are in this time of great economic difficulty, we’re not going to let that stop us from popping
up and meeting you where you are. So we’re here in Saida, happy to Pop-Up and be with
you and so excited just looking at these signs here, whether it’s for the youth side of this
Pop-Up, really focusing on how to plant the seeds of civic engagement in our youth and
becoming contributing members of your communities, or for the slightly older crowd who
are really focused on developing their entrepreneurship skills and their cultural
entrepreneurship skills at that. There’s so much that we can do when we join together.

So this is just one maybe little aspect of our engagement here in Saida. And I want to just
recall, as I was earlier with Mrs. Hariri, the first time I visited here, it was pouring down rain
and we didn’t let that stop us from going out and visiting your beautiful sea castle, which
the United States government is pleased to have been a key partner in helping you to
restore.

We also visited a village where we had helped with the water infrastructure,
bringing safe drinking water to the homes of the villagers just outside. So let’s look at this
as one step in the long continuum of our engagement and our partnership with you.

To the youth who will be participating in the training programs and the activities that we
hope to be fostering through this Pop-Up, I thank you for your commitment and for your
engagement, and I’ excited to see what you guys are going to do with the skills that you
further develop through this program.

I was also telling Her Excellency one of my favorite meetings that I have had here in
Lebanon during my 18 plus months here was with a group of young people that she
brought together through the Hariri Foundation that we had supported with some training,
and they made very sophisticated, detailed presentations about their aspirations for what
they thought the government should be working on, as if they were the government
ministers themselves. It was kind of a role playing exercise. So I know that the youth in this
part of the country have great potential, and I’m thrilled that we can be a part of helping
them develop their skills.

So thank you again. And remember, as I always like to say, we are in this together.
Thank you.