Four years ago, the Happiness Heroes helped students from schools all across Lebanon to become socially aware at a younger age and encouraged principals to become more socially responsible and environment-friendly. This year, Picon’s Machrou3 el Jil el Jadeed initiative was launched to empower young Lebanese students, encourage them to serve their community by presenting their creative ideas and showing what they are capable of.
As you all know, our country has no electricity, no proper internet, a bad water-management policy, no proper infrastructure or means of transportation, lousy roads and no urban planning. Since our government is unable to fix any of these things, why don’t we give kids a chance to present their ideas to fix the country and maybe implement some of them?
Of course students wouldn’t know how to come up with project plans and that’s why a workshop was organized where students took part in discussions and listened to motivational speeches, and worked on developing their innovative ideas with the help of professionals. After going through all submissions, five great ideas will be selected for every region and the public will be able to vote for the best idea through Facebook and Picon website. At the end of the voting period, there will be one winning idea, which will be implemented in all five regions in coordination with municipalities and trained professionals.
This initiative reminded me a bit of the movie Pay It Forward where a young boy tries to make the world a better chance and launches a good-will movement all because of an assignment given in class. Who knows? Maybe one of the ideas proposed will be a brilliant one and make an impact on our society.
Check out this fun video done with George Khabbaz and you can read more about this initiative [here].
