المجلس العالمي للتسامح والسلام

“GIL”… Give Youth hope and let them lead the way

Youth are the change. All you have to do is give them the opportunities and the skills to expand their possibilities. Give them hope and let them lead the way…

Through the Generation of Innovation of Leaders Programme “GIL”, UNICEF and its partners are empowering youth to become a generation of social entrepreneurship leaders, digital leaders, and change leaders… GIL is powered by UNICEF, funded by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Lebanon and German Embassy in Lebanon and Sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. UNICEF Lebanon officially launches “GIL” on Friday March 2nd in Biel Beirut, In the presence of the Dutch Ambassador to Lebanon Jan Waltmans and the representative of the German Ambassador to Lebanon, who fully affirmed their moral and material support for this program, as it “means hope and a desire to change the lives of many young people and provide them with a bright future”.

UNICEF’s Generation of Innovation Leaders “GIL” programme was created as a solution to address the inaccessibility of the knowledge economy for a segment of the youth population, Especially as 30% of the population is marginalized from 10 to 25 years old.

Gil is a programme that distributes resources and knowledge related to innovation, technology and STEM across Lebanon, reaching even the most remote and marginalized areas.

In Partnership with local stakeholders, GIL has established aa network of youth spaces called innovation Labs. These Facilities are hubs for Lebanese and non Lebanese youth to discover latent skills, potential new opportunities, and network with like-minded individuals to develop their digital and entrepreneurial skills. Various workshops, trainings and events are offered at the lab facilities. The labs function as co-working and fablab spaces as well.

The “GIL” programme supports youth through every stage of the journey:

1- Discovery: The initial stage of Discovery is when the youth are first introduced to new topics and concepts. Youth discover and explore the presented concepts through hands-on workshops, talks by industry leaders, or short informative tutorials.

2- 21st Century Skills Development: The second stage of a youth’s journey through the GIL programme is 21st Century Skills Development. After the Discovery stage, the youth who are interested in becoming more involved, the GIL programme offers a myriad of skills development training sessions and courses.
The trainings are offered at the labs for free.
At this stage of the program, youth move beyond the theoretical and apply the skills and concepts learned to tackle real world challenges.

3- Access to market and resources: The last stage of the GIL journey is to support youth with access to market and resources needed to turn their skills into income generation activities.
This is achieved with the support of dedicated mentors.

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