Home Last Word Lighting up Beirut with the power of solidarity


Lighting up Beirut with the power of solidarity

Electrifying experiences of a community-based initiative

by Gabriel Ferneine

Have you been surprised recently by a street in your neighborhood being lit up for more than an hour at a time? Perhaps you have felt a little safer when walking on a street which had been shrouded in darkness for the past 15 months? The story of this tiny but noticeable change in our capital’s nightly cityscape is the story of Rebirth Beirut. This story is worth your interest because it tells of a concrete improvement in our urban quality of living.

Nowadays, it is a must for a self-respecting, sustainability-focused organization in Lebanon to be non-profit, completely independent, non-political and non-confessional. Once a civil society organization or non-governmental organization (NGO) – or a socially active organization by any other name – begins to acquire credibility through its actions, being transparent becomes a precondition for further success. 

In today’s social and economic environment of overwhelming needs on every level, local initiatives connecting the community and the private sector can create a strong impact. If they activate the power of community solidarity with the private sector to provide a tangible good, alongside a concerned public agency, such as municipal authorities, it can help rebuild sustainable economic activity. 

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Applying these principles has allowed Rebirth Beirut to succeed beyond our hopes. Within record time, we were able to organize the return of street lights to parts of Beirut. Just a month after we celebrated “Throwing the switch back on” for Gouraud (Gemmayze), Pasteur, and Mar Mikhael streets on May 22, 2022, the initiative was in action on a total of 16 streets. We are a step closer towards the ambitious goal of reinstalling safety to pedestrians and motorists through lit streets during the night, across the Beirut municipal area.

Founded in 2020, Rebirth Beirut began as a relief NGO after the Beirut blast. In September 2021, we decided to take the initiative forward to a city-scale NGO with the aim to bring back the lights of the city. As soon as we launched our initiative, in which we connected local generators to Gemmayze’s LED-equipped poles (previously installed through a USAID grant), people noticed and began to realize that we can all make a difference by lighting up our communities. 

Some of the streets on our project roster include around Rizk Hospital and Sassine Square, as well as the thoroughfares of Alfred Naccache Street, Charles Malek Avenue, and Independence Avenue in Achrafieh. We intend to extend this coverage soon to some of the main streets in Koraytem, as well as Bliss Street, neighborhoods full of commerce and student life, and the Ain el Mreisseh Corniche, from St. Georges Bay to the lighthouse.  

Our mid-term ambition for this fast-growing initiative is to cover the entire territory under the authority of the Municipality of Beirut, where Rebirth Beirut has been authorized by the city’s governor to feed electricity into lamp posts. We also have special plans for illuminating and landscaping the entrances to the city, in partnership with young architects. It is a dream to achieve all this within a six-month time frame.

But even if it takes more time, it will be worth every effort invested by community members and private sector companies, including diesel cost incentives to generator operators, who donate power to enable the lighting of the streets. 

As proven by the experience of shops and restaurants in the Gemmayze pilot project, the return of streetlights means small stores stay open longer, restaurants enjoy better business, and touristic hotspots are brought back to life. It displays how there is not just an improvement to safety when there is light, but also an improvement to economic life. 

We are aware that this lighting solution, though it is made possible by the amazing solidarity of community members, only covers surface wounds. It cannot substitute for solutions such as large-scale public-private partnerships with long contractual horizons. Our overriding goal is Beirut’s economic revival, which incorporates many more potential initiatives, in areas such as waste removal and recycling. Yet, the lesson of our recent project is how partnerships between the community and the private sector can quickly bring back light, bring back hope, and bring back activity. 

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Gabriel Ferneine

Founder and president of NGO Rebirth Beirut
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