nafda April 2024 Newsletter

From Aley to Wadi Khaled - STEAM Scaling

Bahia El Hariri high school, an all girls public school in Akkar, was trained by AUB’s InSpace team and the students from Maroun Abboud Official Secondary School in Aley. They will now be mentoring and sharing their learnings with three other schools in the North: College National Orthodoxe, Waleed Eido High School, and Al Waer High School. It’s an exciting time for the NAFDA movement as it reaches a turning point in organic growth, with school principals taking the lead. These schools heard of the opportunities the two schools, Bahia El Hariri and Maroun Abboud, are creating for their students to think independently and brainstorm solutions to challenges in their community, so they opted to learn and adapt the initiative to their own school contexts.

Al Seha (عالسّاحة) Citizenship Tool in NAFDA Schools and more!

Click to watch Wadiaa explaining the game and hear impressions about it
from Lyna Comaty Abou Adal representing HOLDAL!

Welcome to the world of Al Seha! An enducational game created to address a gap in citizenship education in Lebanon. It was developed in partnership with Wadiaa Khoury, initiator of Teachers as Agents of Social Change (TASC), the renowned historian Charles Al Hayek, and generously sponsored by HOLDAL group. It serves as a braintraining tool to instill NAFDA’s three core values among players: active citizenship, good governance, and social justice.

The game encourages participants to engage in critical conversations about their roles in society, promoting critical thinking, discourse, teamwork, and problem solving.

The goal is to empower the youth to think critically and speak up about their opinions, fostering a commitment to a more fair and just society through a collaborative gaming experience.

The tool is also being administered in other schools through our partnerships with Beit Al Baraka and Comité Aide Scolaire de Zahlé.

International College (IC)’s Ali Ghandour Center x NAFDA

Thirteen NAFDA schools have enthusiastically joined the IC AGC initiative, aiming to enrich their understanding of diverse community service, service learning, and volunteering models.

By networking with teachers and students, they were inspired by AGC’s “empathy to impact” model, which integrates design thinking and project-based learning methodologies into community service. Committed to practical application, all 13 schools are internalizing these learnings and attending three Zoom coaching sessions, culminating in a celebratory event in June.

Winners at ICRES 2023 for Best Research Paper!

The research paper submitted by NAFDA’s very own Dr. Jinan Shayya, Dr. Sanaa Chehayeb (Principal of Maroun Abboud Official Secondary School) and their colleague Dr. Eman Shaaban, titled “Factors Promoting Student Agency and Community Engagement”, received the Best Paper award at the International Conference on Research in Education and Science (ICRES) 2023 in Cappadocia, Turkey! The paper stood out among 186 submissions thanks to its innovation, methodology, and impact.

NAFDA Representative at the ICSEI 2024 Conference in Dublin

Naji, NAFDA’s Program Director, engaged in a transformative session at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) 2024 conference in Dublin, facilitated by the University of British Columbia. This session connected teacher education with ongoing professional development, emphasizing research, policy, collaboration, and educational equity.

Naji and his peers explored concepts like networked learning, fostering an environment ripe for innovative educational practices. Additionally, the 100-day method pioneered by RE!NSTITUTE and used by NAFDA schools is inspiring organizations internationally, with the Welsh organization, Action for Children, adopting the model. This showcases the method’s potential to reshape community-driven transformation globally.

How Can You Help?

For Donations in Lebanon

Bank: Banque BEMO Sal
Bank Address: Elias Sarkis Avenue, BEMO building
Beneficiary: NAFDA
Account number: 3506161
SWIFT: EUMOLBBE
IBAN USD: LB43 0093 0000 0035 0616 1366 1USD
IBAN EURO: LB93 0093 0000 0035 0616 1366 1EUR

For their respective routing information, please click here

For Donations in the United States

Bank name and Address:

PNC Bank, NA

Dupont Circle Branch

1913 Massachusetts Ave, NW

Washington , DC 20036

Account name:  NAFDA US

Account #: 5307342606

Routing Number:   054000030

For Donations in France

We are in proud partnership with Fonds de Dotation France-Liban.

Please click here for more information.