This month we speak to the M&E team at Adyan Foundation – one of our newest members from Lebanon.
Welcome to JLI! Can you tell us about Adyan Foundation?
Adyan is a foundation for diversity, solidarity and human dignity. It was founded in 2006 by members from different professional and religious backgrounds. The foundation operates in Lebanon, as well as regionally and internationally.
Adyan implements its projects in cultural, educational, media, policymaking, social, and spiritual fields. Besides the support of its members and professional team, the foundation has networks of youth, volunteers, ambassadors, families, social activists.
Our main mission is to value cultural and religious diversity, and promote peaceful coexistence among individuals and communities. We envision a world where diversity is lived as an enrichment and not as an obstacle.
Our Arabic language digital platform, Taadudiya (meaning ‘pluralism’), works on fostering this culture. The What’s Your Story? media campaign promotes the stories of every day heroes – from Lebanon and the MENA region – countering extremism and serving peace and coexistence via their own initiatives.
Through our We Can Speak About Religion media campaign, we address “taboo” topics, stereotypes and misunderstandings about different religions, and show how such differences are not at the core of religions – but, in fact, at the heart of every religion are principles of peace and acceptance.
We have also been implementing the Alwan programme – an education initiative based on educating high-school students in Grades 10 and 11 on the concept and practices of living together. The programme is an inter-school, inter-club exchange, where students from different schools work together on community service activities and religious tourism, to learn more about inclusive citizenship and religious and cultural heritage. This is Adyan’s longest running project, and it has had such a proven positive impact that we have now begun a similar programme for Grades 3 and 4.
Graduates of the Alwan programme
What role do you think faith actors should play in issues of social justice, human rights and community resilience?
We believe that religious leaders represent a strong voice of moral authority in communities. Under our Community Engagement Department, we have a project called the Forum for Religious Social Responsibility, where we bring together influential religious leaders and activists from all sects and all areas of Lebanon. We aim to increase their skills in promoting messages of diversity, living together and countering hate speech, and empower them to assume their role as change-makers in their local areas by supporting community-based initiatives. In addition, Adyan supports other faith actors, including youth and social activists. We look at faith as an empowering driving force for social change and positive influence.
Participants in the Forum for Religious Social Responsibility
We also allow space for faith actors to communicate with each other about issues and challenges, as well as share what is common between them, to support a process of reconciliation and healing.
Why did you decide to join JLI as a member? How would you like us to support you in your work?
We wanted to join because Adyan is committed to monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL).
By joining the JLI, we hope to identify synergies with other organisations, and benefit from having access to a wider range of resources and knowledge. It is always a great experience to learn from other organisations, nationally and globally, and to learn about any new M&E tools that we could cascade down to our team. We know that JLI will have interesting and credible resources and events.
We also want the platform to present our work, share our knowledge, and become more visible through events and presentations. Partnerships are central to all of our work, so being able to connect and build networks with other organisations is important for reaching our goals.
Read the JLI Case Study on Adyan Foundation’s MEAL work.
Learn more about Adyan Foundation on their website.
For more information, contact Carlos Naffah, the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Manager at Adyan Foundation on [email protected]