FireMaker in Lebanon

Monday, 30 June 2008 00:00

In May/June 2008, Zakheni ran a four-day residential workshop outside of Beirut. The ‘FireMaker Lebanon’ project was adapted and extended from Zakheni’s original FireMaker Project. The FireMaker Lebanon Project was developed on the understanding that, wherever we live, ongoing political and social instability impacts on all communities and social groups on many levels, whether these communities are directly affected by war(s), or affected in less direct or explicit ways.

Any of these erode people’s quality of life and capacity to function optimally as members of society. The impact of ongoing instability and conflict on a nation’s social fabric is indisputable, as is the emotional and psychological toll on individuals and communities.

The FireMaker Lebanon Project worked with ‘care’ professionals, mostly clinical psychologists, in the distinctive social fabric of the Lebanon; the project ethos being that Creative Arts processes provide self-care as well as skills to enhance participants’ own professional work through the Creative Arts in various communities in that country.

This project was a valuable experience for the participants, and the adapted version of FireMaker Project can be applied in response to other unstable parts of the world.

Mercedes Pavlicevic, Music Therapist