lal’s fellowship program · lal’s mission and vision lal believes that technology is an...

LAL’s Fellowship Program

Handbook for New Fellows


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List of contents

WELCOME TO LAL’S FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM 2

OVERVIEW OF LAL AND THE TABSHOURA PROJECT 3

5 REASONS WHY LAL WAS CREATED 3

LAL’S MISSION AND VISION 3

LAL AND THE TABSHOURA PROJECT 3

THE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM 5

GENERAL INFORMATION 5

BENEFITS FOR FELLOWS 5

REQUIREMENTS 6

APPLICATION AND ENROLLMENT 6

RECOGNITION 6

PROFILE DESCRIPTIONS 6

NEEDS ASSESSMENT 7

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7

IT WORK 8

FIELD WORK 8

MONITORING AND EVALUATION 8

RESOURCES 9

NEW TO BEIRUT? WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW? 9

ACCOMMODATION 9

GETTING AROUND 9

INTERESTING THINGS TO DO 10

LEARNING ARABIC 11

KEEP TRACK OF YOUR PROGRESS 11

KEEP IN TOUCH AS A LALUMNI 12

GOOD PRACTICES FOR VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT 13

LAL’S COMMITMENT 13

VOLUNTEER’S COMMITMENT 13

CHECKLIST: ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR FELLOWSHIP WITH LAL? 14


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Welcome to LAL’s Fellowship Program

Ahlan w sahlan!

I’m Nayla, the co-founder of LAL.

I’m very happy that you are interested in our organization and joining

the fight to make digital an equalizing force when it comes to

education!

Our growth wouldn’t have been possible without the dedication of our

amazing team and the support of volunteers from all over the world.

You matter! You make a difference!

It is important for you to know that your contribution is what makes LAL go forward in helping

vulnerable communities.

In the next pages you will find a general presentation of LAL that will introduce you to the tasks

in which you can engage and use your skills and resources meaningfully.

I’m looking forward to meeting you soon!


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Overview of LAL and the Tabshoura Project

5 reasons why LAL was created ➢ To help children in hospitals to keep up with school.

➢ To ensure school readiness for out-of-school kindergarten children due to insufficient

kindergarten in public education.

➢ To prevent the high drop-out rates of middle school students and prepare them for the

Brevet exams.

➢ To develop students’ soft-skills and their interests in the arts, culture and society.

➢ To support refugee children in filling their language and learning gaps.

LAL’s mission and vision LAL believes that technology is an equalizing force for education and aims to give every child

access to quality education anytime anywhere through digital programs.

LAL and the Tabshoura project Tabshoura is LAL’s core project. Tabshoura is a free

multilingual e-platform which offers digital support

programs in Arabic, English and French, available online

and offline.

Tabshoura-in-a-box is LAL’s innovative solution, which

makes it possible to provide the digital content offline,

regardless of the internet connection or electricity cut-

offs. Find an explanation of how Tabshoura-in-a-box

works by Nagi Ghorra – Co-founder of LAL – in the box

below.


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“To address the problems of bad internet connections

and lack of electricity in the rural areas, we developed the

Tabshoura-in-a-box.

It is mainly an electronic board called Raspberry Pi, which

is used as a webserver.

First, we upload all our content on a box.

Then, we distribute it to community centres, schools and

other organizations.

Each Tabshoura-in-a box provides content to 30 devices whether

laptops, phones or tablets.

Our team members train the teachers

to use these boxes in their classrooms.

When we have new content and

want to update our devices all we

must do is take out the old SD card

and replace it with a new updated

one. The data from the old SD-cards is

analysed and used for the

improvement of our programs.”

Tabshoura’s content is divided in three learning programs: Tabshoura Kindergarten, Tabshoura

Middle School and Tabshoura plus, serving all school age groups.

Nagi Ghorra

Co-Founder at LAL


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The Fellowship Program

General information LAL welcomes fellows with different educational backgrounds. The fellowship takes place in our

office in Beirut.

You can work on a full time (30-35 h/week) or on a part-time (10-15 h/week) basis for a minimum

period of 4 weeks.

The working hours are flexible and digital work can be completed from home. However, you

are required to come to the office at least once a week.

Benefits for fellows ✓ You gather practical experience related to your field of study. At LAL we strongly rely on

the work of our fellows, so you’re not going to get bored.

✓ You give back to the community.

✓ You get to know the work at an NGO and partner humanitarian organizations.

✓ You can implement your own ideas for a project.

✓ You join a network of like-minded people dedicated to education.

✓ You get to know other fellows from all over the world and gather multicultural experience.

✓ You get a certification of your accomplishments.


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Requirements In general, we’re looking for candidates with basic computer skills, who share our passion and

commitment for helping vulnerable groups through digital education.

Depending on your chosen field of work, you may have to fulfil some more specific

requirements. Please find these described in the section “Profile descriptions”.

Application and enrollment To apply please use the application form on our website https://forms.gle/tLbkf7eB1zoUHKRL7

Enrolment is possible anytime of the year. We are always in need of extra support!

Recognition Fellows are encouraged to implement their own project ideas and do a final presentation of

their work to the team. For instance, after you finished developing content on a certain topic,

you can carry out a workshop on that topic for the children in the educational centers we work

with. In this way you can engage all your knowledge in a practical way to have a direct impact

and present your work at LAL.

At the end of the fellowship LAL would provide you with an official certificate, describing the

training you received, the tasks you have accomplished and the number of hours you have

completed.

Profile Descriptions

As a fellow, you can support us in different fields

of work, depending on your interests and skills.

You can help us with the project work on the

Tabshoura project. You can also support us with

some general management tasks, related to

strategic planning, fundraising and

communications or you can manage your own

project in contribution to our work.

In this section you will find the descriptions of

possible fields of work, related to the Tabshoura

project, examples of related sub-tasks and

specific requirements for each task. Please

contact us for more information, if you want to

engage in general management tasks or

implement your own project idea.

https://forms.gle/tLbkf7eB1zoUHKRL7


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Needs assessment We assess and identify the needs of our beneficiaries by speaking to teachers and children.

How can you support us? You can conduct surveys and interviews with children and teachers and gather important

data about their needs.

You can analyze the data and give recommendations on how to design our new learning

programs.

Specific requirements You have a passion for research.

You have analytical skills.

You have good communication skills.

Content development To deliver tailor-made learning programs we design the learning unit and develop various

activities following our own pedagogical approach.

Content development is a broad field of work, in which we strongly rely on the support of our

fellows. Because of the wide spectrum of tasks, you can choose from one of five subtasks: (1)

development of learning units, (2) audio-recording, (3) illustration, (4) editing and (5) translation.

Subtasks How can you support us? Specific requirements

Development of

learning units

You can help us complete our

learning programs and/or develop

your own digital unit on a topic you

are interested in such as arts, culture

or civic and social awareness.

You are good and

passionate about a

specific subject matter.

Audio recording You can put your voice in service of

audio-recording of stories, instructions

and animation captions.

You have a pleasant voice

and a proper accent in

either English, French or

Arabic.

Illustration and

animation design

You can use your artistic talent to

create nice illustrations, infographics,

diagrams, 2D animations and comic

strips.

You have design and/or

animation skills.

Editing You can go through our digital units

in order to review and edit them.

You pay attention to

details and have good

language skills.

Translation work You can help us translate our digital

content.

You master Arabic, English

and/ or French.


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IT work We deliver all our digital content on our online platform. That’s why an essential part of our IT

work is to develop the platform, keep it running and update it on a regular basis.

How can you support us? IT work at LAL includes different tasks related to software development, the development of

chatbots and data analytics.

Specific requirements You are enrolled in computer science related majors.

Field work Once distributed to the field, our content is ready to be used. We support teachers to integrate

our programs in their lessons in a meaningful way. We also assist children on how to use our

programs.

How can you support us? You can engage in field training, assist teachers and coach children in using our digital resources

and our offline box.

Specific requirements You have good communication skills.

You are ready to get involved with teachers and children in the field.

You speak Arabic.

Monitoring and evaluation Of course, we want to know, if we successfully achieve our goals. In order to measure our

impact, we conduct regular M&E using a mix-methods approach combining user data analysis,

surveys, narrative interviews, focus groups and class observations.

How can you support us? As monitoring and evaluation is closely related to needs assessment, your tasks here are going

to be similar. You can conduct surveys and interviews with children and teachers.

You can analyse the data and give recommendations on how to improve our new learning

programs.

Specific requirements You have a passion for research.

You have analytical skills.

You’re familiar with monitoring and evaluation process.


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Resources

To develop interactive

content, which makes

learning an interesting

activity, we use the H5P-

plugin with Moodle.

Working with H5P is very

user-friendly and

intuitive. If you want to

prepare before the start

for your volunteering,

you can explore the

Tutorials for authors on

the H5P Website:

https://h5p.org/documentation/for-authors/tutorials.

New to Beirut? What do you need to know?

Accommodation Finding a room in Beirut is relatively easy. You can check one of the Facebook groups for suitable

offers or post a search with your own criteria. In the group “Apartments in Beirut” you will find a

lot of offers, updated every day: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beirutapartments/.

If you want a room, located near the office, look for apartments in Achrafieh, Badaro, or near

Monot Street and Sodeco Square.

Prices for rent in these areas vary between 300$ and 500$ per month including all amenities for

cleaning, waste management, water delivery, electricity and internet. You can find cheaper

accommodation in one of the more distant parts of the city.

You can always ask LAL’s team for help, if you don’t find anything suitable online. We are happy

to help you!

Getting around There is no public transportation in Lebanon, so getting around depends on your preferred way

of travel.

https://h5p.org/documentation/for-authors/tutorials

https://h5p.org/documentation/for-authors/tutorials

https://www.facebook.com/groups/beirutapartments/


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Walking

Walking is a great way to discover your surroundings and explore different neighborhoods. Get

sure that you have a bottle of water, sunglasses and/or a hat and solid shoes with you.

Service

Service is how shared taxis in Lebanon are called. You can recognize them by the red license

plate and relatively old looking appearance of the cars. When you take a service, you first must

name your destination and negotiate the price with the driver. Usually service taxis charge 2000

LBP (around 1,5$) for nearby destinations or 4000 LBP for more distant ones. If you don’t want to

share the taxi, the charge is usually 10000 LBP.

Uber

In Beirut there are Uber taxis available, so that you can use the Uber app and be sure that your

going to arrive at the exact destination without any problems. The prices are a bit higher than

for a service taxi (ranging between 3$ to 6$), but you get a ride in a comfortable, climatized car

and don’t have to share the taxi and travel around.

Van

There is a system of vans, which basically replaces public busses. The vans usually have fixed

routes like buses. As there are no bus stops, you must know, which way a van is going and wait

on the sidewalk to wave them to stop. Once inside, it’s useful to follow the route on Google

Maps in order to be sure where you want to go out. Vans cost 1000 LBP per ride (less than 1$).

On this webpage you can see the route of vans travelling inside and outside of Beirut:

http://busmap.me/.

Interesting things to do In Beirut you can find all kinds of activities to spend your free time. With its rich history the city is

also interesting for sightseeing. Below you will find some useful information for planning your free

time in Beirut.

Getting to know the city

If you want to meet new people and learn about the city’s history by walking around with an

experienced guide, there are different walking tours offered in Beirut. The free walking tours are

offered every Tuesday and Thursday from 5 pm and require an online registration on

http://www.freewalkingtoursbeirut.com/. During the tour you will discover the central

Downtown area of Beirut and learn about the different stages of the city’s history.

There are also alternative walking tours which will guide you through some of Beirut’s less known

neighborhoods and introduce you to the local alternative culture (i.e. graffiti art). The alternative

tours are offered every Wednesday and Saturday at 10.30 am. You can find more information

on http://www.alternative-beirut.com/.

You can also attend some of the city’s museums like the National Museum, where you will find

artefacts from whole Lebanon.

http://busmap.me/

http://www.freewalkingtoursbeirut.com/

http://www.alternative-beirut.com/


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Events

There are different websites, where you can find events sorted by category in Beirut. The website

https://www.beirut.com/ gives a good overview of restaurants, hidden gems and guides to

Beirut. You can also find a daily suggestions list of things to do in the city.

https://www.lebtivity.com/ is another very detailed website where you can look for events in

categories like arts & culture, food & drinks, music, nightlife, sports & outdoor.

Summer festivals

In summer a lot of festivals and music events take place all over

the country. You can attend the famous Fête de la Musique

also known as World Music Day, in Beirut and Byblos at the 21st

June each year and enjoy the music of some local and

international bands. The festivals of Baalbeck and Beiteddine

are also worth a visit, as they take place in the amazing

historical sites of the Baalbeck Roman ruins and the Beiteddine

castle.

Keep track of your progress

To help fellows keep track of their progress and reflect on their

experiences at LAL, we created LAL’s Fellow Blog.

The blog serves as a tool, which will help you recognize your

accomplishments and think about the highlights of your

internship. It is designed as a closed platform for the internal use of LAL’s staff and fellows only.

In order to keep track of your progress and reflect on your experiences as a fellow you can share

a post once a week and write something on each of the following categories: “One person I

have met this week”, “One thing I have accomplished this week”, “One thing I have failed to

accomplish this week” and “One thing I have learned this week”.

If you’re interested in

learning Arabic

during your stay in

Lebanon, you can

choose from different

reputable institutes

like the Saifi Institute

for Arabic Language

or the Lebanese

Arabic Institute. They

offer courses in small

groups for different

levels of studies from

complete beginner to

more advanced

students. The course

duration varies, so it’s

worth to check the

next starting dates

prior your arrival in

Beirut.

Learning Arabic • • •

https://www.beirut.com/

https://www.lebtivity.com/


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You can also share a non-categorized post about something that impressed you or a thought

you want to share with LAL’s team. Fellows don’t have to post something new every week, but

they could personally benefit from posting a short reflection on a regular basis, which they can

use for example as a starting point for their university reports.

Keep in touch as a LALumni

We at LAL are grateful for the great job our fellows are doing. That’s why we consider you as a

part of LAL's family and we want to stay in touch even after the end of your fellowship. For this

reason we created LAL’s Alumni Group on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LALsAlumni/.

Through the group we want to keep alumni fellows informed about LAL's new projects,

achievements and events.

Fellows are also very welcomed to share their current (project) ideas and thoughts, in order to

stay connected to us and the bigger fellow community.

Through this exchange we can altogether support LAL's vision – to give every child in Lebanon

access to quality education through digital programs – even beyond the country's borders.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/LALsAlumni/


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Good practices for volunteer management

LAL’s commitment • We declare a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination or harassment of any kind in our

programs, activities or employment. Questions or concerns related to affirmative action,

nondiscrimination or equal opportunity should be directed to the volunteer supervisor.

• We ensure that all volunteers are treated as equal co-workers.

• We provide a written task description for volunteers before they begin their volunteer

assignment. This description includes the purpose and duties of the volunteer position as

well as the requirements for the position.

• We provide detailed induction on the work of LAL, its staff and your volunteering role

• We provide the training necessary to assist you in meeting the responsibilities of your

volunteering role.

• We provide volunteers with a personal supervisor or a buddy from the team members

who will meet with them regularly to discuss their volunteering and any associated

problems.

• We do our best to help you develop your volunteering role with us and to be flexible in

how we use your volunteering.

• We give you the opportunity to take part in organized field trips to our beneficiaries on

our costs and get familiarized with our work in the field.

• We make every effort to safeguard volunteers from hazards to their health and safety by

maintaining a safe work environment.

• We endeavor to resolve in a fair and just manner any problems or difficulties which may

be encountered while you volunteer with us.

Volunteer’s commitment We expect from our volunteers to:

• Help LAL fulfil its goal to give every child access to quality education through digital

programs.

• Perform their volunteering role to the best of their ability.

• To accept the guidance and direction of the volunteer supervisor and cooperate with

the staff.

• To maintain the confidential information of LAL and of its beneficiaries.

• To meet the time commitments, other than in exceptional circumstances, and provide

reasonable notice so that alternative arrangement can be made.

• To notify their support person of absences as much in advance as possible.


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Checklist: Are you ready for your fellowship

with LAL?

Below you will find a list of questions, which will help you check if you feel prepared and have

all information you need to start your fellowship at LAL. If you can answer all questions with a

“yes” you are ready to start working with us and we’re looking forward to meeting you soon!

Do you have all relevant information about LAL?

Do you understand the mission of LAL and the purpose of the Tabshoura project?

Do you know what different tasks volunteers can perform at LAL?

Did you find a task, that fits your skills and interests and which you would like to perform

at LAL?

Did you check the online resources to prepare better before the start of the fellowship?

Did you organize your stay in Beirut?

Do you know who you can ask, if anything is unclear or you need more information?


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Registered office

Monot Street, Beyrouti Building, Beirut, Lebanon

T +961 142 6769

E [email protected]

I http://lal.ngo/

2019

mailto:[email protected]

http://lal.ngo/

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