Fadaii is a multifunctional center built on a plot of land donated by the Maronite Archibishop of Tiro in Qlayaa, in Marjayoun plain, south Lebanon. It was designed to give AVSI a physical dimension in the area, a place where the community can "experience AVSI" 365 days a year and not just for a specific project.
Thanks to a few private donors’ involvement, a cooperation with the internationally renowned architect Mario Botta was established. He planned the structure free of charge: a three-storeys center (of 350 square meters each) inaugurated on 5th July 2023.
The purpose of this center is to be a reference point for over 100,000 people offering answers to the practical needs of the community: a “friendly space” that can be shaped and changed according to the needs.
What we do at Fadaii
Psychosocial services for the children and their families (thanks to a professional team that includes social workers, psychologists, speech therapists, psychomotor therapists and teachers).
Recreational activities, art therapy and sport activities for the psychosocial well-being of the children and their families.
Remedial and after-school courses for children
A meeting space for young people
Psychosocial group activities for adolescents, parents and caregivers
Literacy courses for women
Food production and processing courses
Professional training for farmers
In Arabic Fadaii means “my universe”, a space where each of us likes to imagine himself or where he would like to be but which often remains just a wish. The attempt to make this dream a reality is the basis of this project.
Marco Perini, AVSI Regional Manager
Fadaii, a story of courage
2019 : The start of the works and the support of the Tents campaign
The construction starts in June and proceeds at a good pace. The supporting structure is completed by the end of the year. Meanwhile, hundreds of people in Italy supports the project by contributing to the "Get in the game with us" . Tents campaign
2020 - 2023: work continues between pandemic and economic crisis
The works have gone through a pandemic, an unprecedented economic crisis, the explosion of the port of Beirut. While slowing down, we have never stopped moving forward and building. The construction of the Fadaii center represents a story of courage, passion, endurance.
"Seeing the work continue, now that the future appears even more uncertain, is a sign of hope" the inhabitants of the Marjayoun plain (south Lebanon) told us in 2020, the year of the pandemic.
June 2023: Fadaii center is ready
July 5 2023: the inauguration
More than 130 people attended the inauguration of the center (about the event). At the ribbon-cutting ceremony there were present founding members, private donors and partners who have made concrete contributions to the completion of the work over the years, and a number of families of children supported through the distance support program representing the community.
Among the institutional guests: numerous civil, religious and military authorities, UNIFIL Sector Commander in Marjayoun, Nicoletta Bombardiere, Italian Ambassador to Lebanon, Monsignor Charbel Abdallah, Archbishop of Tyre, Wissam Jamil El Hayek, Prefect of Marjayoun.
Fadaii has a special value for all AVSI. It represents the way we work, reflects it and nurtures it at the same time. Because it was born from an intuition of the people who work here, it picks up on people's genuine need and -- by networking different actors: cooperation workers, local institutions, civil society, religious communities, refugee communities, donors, professionals -- tries to find new but effective ways to respond to that need. Fadaii was made only with private resources and that meant asking for money from all our donors: people, companies and those who did the tent campaign events; only in Italy we recorded 952 donations. Then we did it by involving our founding members-specifically those who help us by intercepting resources-Support International, AVSI Sudtirol, AVSI USA, Avaid.
Giampaolo Silvestri, AVSI general secretary during the inauguration speech of the Fadaii center
More about our activities in Lebanon
