Looking Back at 2011

Five basic workshops and more than three additional workshops connected us with over 50 organizations in Lebanon and the trainings were instrumental in introducing them to the strategy of using social media. We started our work by changing the commonly views about networking, social communication and outreach strategy among local organizations.
Time was shorter than the content but we accepted the challenge because we realized that the need for this training was much larger than our challenges. Our first achievement was deleting the word “new” from the


New Media Training. We believe that social media has become an essential need for organizations and not just another option; social media is the core of any organizations mainstream communications strategy rather than an auxiliary medium.
We are glad that during the past year the E-Mediat trainings inspired many organizations to experiment with participatory communication approach and led to some impressive changes on the ground.

• SSBA Lebanon shifted from a decision of a complete online absence to a strategic online presence.
• IPW has through the use of social media strategy realized some important freedoms for local women. IPW’s efforts have been instrumental in pushing legal reforms that allow mothers to open bank accounts for their children and travel with their children without permission from the fathers.
• The new Plan of Electricity went from being a citizens’ demand to a government approved plan after Omar Lababidi created a Facebook group with more than 3,500 people in less than a week to claim the adoption of the plan.
• Today, more NGOs, activists and political figures are supporting Kafa in their campaign of protecting women against domestic violence. Kafa’s efforts have resulted in Parliament discussing drafts of laws for protecting women’s rights.
• Adyan was the first organization to show it’s commitment for social media by recruiting a full time social media officer.

My participation in The Arab Women Summit focused on “Empowering Women through ICT” was the grand finale of the year. The opportunity allowed me to share the experience of E-Mediat trainings and address the fear prevalent among Arab women about using social media.