The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Beirut joined hands with Public Matters NGO to launch an awareness campaign and hair donation drive through a video entitled “I feel your pain.” The initiative was in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Ministry of Information and Ministry of Public Health.
The video was launched through local media outlets and social media platforms, accompanied with the hashtag #ShareYour Hair. After only a couple of days on UNIC Beirut’s Facebook page, the video reached around 3,145 people and received 581 views.
The purpose of the campaign is twofold: One, to raise awareness and encourage empathy with the other, reducing discrimination and stigma; and the second is to encourage hair donations to people suffering from hair loss for different reasons.
Acting Director of UNIC Beirut Margo Helou stressed the importance of addressing youth in awareness campaigns and developing a sense of social solidarity from a young age, which is achieved through similar campaigns. She highlighted that public service campaigns like this are at the heart of the work of the United Nations in Lebanon which aims to foster social inclusion and civic values. She finally commended Public Matters on their wide-span public service campaigns, including previous campaign #Pave_way_for_the_ambulance, which reminds and urges drivers to give ambulances priority of way.
Julie Kahwaji, president of Public Matters Lebanon said that one of the strongest human emotions that elevates humanity and makes people grow on a social scale is empathy, “the ability to put oneself in someone else’s shoes and to be able to experience their trials and tribulations is one of the purest traits in mankind,” she said. Hence the choice of topics at Public Matters: this year the campaign targeted hair donation to achieve two goals: accumulating as much hair as possible to turn them into beautiful wigs for little girls battling with hair loss, and to help youth develop their love and sympathy to others.
Public Matters is a non-profit organization that works to involve citizens, especially youth, in real socio-economic matters to help them develop communal empathy and responsibility to help them be effective citizens in Lebanon. Future projects they are working on with UNIC Beirut’s support include environmental issues (pollution and marine life...), financial responsibility for children and teens that will affect their economic behavior and contribution to Lebanon, health topics, loving Lebanon by actions, road safety matters, etc. They emphasizes work with kids and teens including those with special needs.
Watch the video here: https://bit.ly/2KZY6vL
