Methodology

A consultative panel composed of academics, mental health specialists, and activists was first formed to discuss the project. This panel met on 22 October, 2010, at the offices of CEMAM, USJ. 

The panel included representatives of CEMAM, USJ, and ICTJ, as well as the Director General of the Ministry of Education, a representative from the European Union, a psychiatrist, a child and youth psychologist, members of the history and sociology departments at USJ, the NGOs Al Jana, and the Committee of Families of Persons Abducted and Missing in Lebanon.

Members of the panel approved the project, and offered a number of recommendations which were taken into account as the project developed. This included setting up focus group discussions, building on resources already existing, training the teachers to accompany the students, keeping the children in a safe environment (i.e. interviews to be held privately, with close and trusted members of family).

The project involved 12 schools from greater Beirut. This included:

- School directors who were willing to engage in this project, who approved the project, and who provided feedback to the project coordinators, and appointed the teacher who liaised on the project;
- Teachers who were appointed by the school directors, who attended the one-day training of teachers, and then the two-day training of their students. They liaised between the students and the project coordinators as the students collected the testimonies to ensure that the students benefitted from a sound source of support, monitoring, and participated actively;
- Students. From each school, two students from the 2nde (or sophomore year of High School), were selected by the school director to participate in this project. They attended the two-day trainings, after which they were each responsible for conducting two audio-recorded interviews with members of their immediate environment (family, neighbors, friends) who were the same age as the students are now during the war. This took place on an entirely voluntary basis, with only the student and a trusted member of his/her environment.

Once they were received, the interviews were divided according to language to be transcribed and then developed into research resources by the research centers UMAM and CEMAM. This process means that the interviews will become a rich source of material for reseachers and activists, as well as a baseline for future efforts to collect narratives about the past. Developing the interviews also allows the memory of the people interviewed to be preserved for society as a whole.