Within its framework of collaborating with 11 universities across Lebanon, USAID’s Community Support Program (CSP) placed Lynn Naji, a graphic design student from the American University of Science and Technology (AUST), in an internship with the all-women agricultural cooperative (COOP) in Majdel Anjar (Beqaa) to assist it in creating a branding identity. This is the next phase of CSP’s support to the COOP after expanding its kitchen by providing production equipment and improving the livelihoods of around 100 underserved farmer households. CSP is also building the capacity of COOP members on business planning, food safety and processing, and marketing and sales strategies. CSP Intern Lynn designed ten potential logos for the COOP and presented them to its members on October 5, 2022. This discussion will result in a final logo that reflects the COOP’s identity while taking its members’ preferences into consideration. Lynn will then utilize the final approved logo to design the COOP’s outreach materials and product packaging which includes nutritional facts. Lynn and the COOP members exemplify the empowerment that CSP’s technical assistance provides to female interns, as well as female members of an agricultural COOP in one of the most conservative Beqaa communities. To date, CSP has placed 99 interns as part of its internship program, 54 of whom are women.
“I learned how to listen to the beneficiary needs and collect needed data to create a targeted visual identity and impactful branding,” said Lynn Naji, a CSP intern and graphic design student at AUST.