Makse is located in the central region of the Beqaa Valley and is home to around 7,000 Lebanese residents and 1,500 refugees. Amidst the ongoing socio-economic crisis, the increased demand on public services, coupled with diminished municipal capacities to sustainably meet residents’ essential needs – including solid waste management – has fueled tensions among residents. In response, USAID’s Community Support Program (CSP) provided the municipality with 54 metal bins to facilitate the effective disposal and collection of recyclable waste so that it can be sold to buyers for processing. In parallel, the municipality rehabilitated the recyclables collection center through doing structural works, painting the walls, installing electricity cables, and constructing workers’ rest room and changing room. To sustain this activity, CSP is training community members and workers to design and implement awareness campaigns on sorting at source, as well as on how to safely collect and dispose of the waste. In addition to social media trainings and postings, CSP has already convened three awareness raising sessions that targeted 102 children between the age of 6 and 18 and 45 local women. On October 12 and November 9, 2022, seven participants from Makse Municipality attended a training on the fire evacuation plan at the newly operating collection facility. CSP plans to provide a safety and hygiene training to “Makse Recyclables Collection Center” workers on November 29, as part of a larger training that also includes trainees from Bechmezzine, Amioun, and Manara MRF workers.

“This awareness raising was very beneficial for me. I am now responsible for my village. I teach craft making at school, and I always encourage my students to benefit from the resources they have. We used to throw a lot of papers, so I started sorting and taught my students to do the same”, said Widad Said Jaafar, a 21-year-old craft teacher at Makse.