Can children’s television unite a country?

The international conflict transformation organization Search for Common Ground has, in cooperation with the Rockwool Foundation, created the television series Kilna Bil Hayy with the aim of promoting conflict transformation and tolerance in the divided Lebanese society.

“Al Dahiya is for Shiites, Tarik Al Jadide for Sunnis, East Beirut for Christians, Al Jabal for the Druze and the Palestinians are spread in the camps.” These are the words of Leila, a 14- year old girl from Beirut, Lebanon, listing the main parts of her city and the different population groups residing in each. With 18 officially recognized religious sects living together on only 10,452 km2, Lebanon is a land of great diversity and pluralism as well as very complex political, social and sectarian divisions. During the past decades, these divisions in the population have produced regular sectarian tensions, a 15-year-long civil war and the label “a state without a nation”.

 Twenty years after the end of the civil war, the people of Lebanon are still very fragmented, but there are signs that Lebanese youth are fed up with unrest and divisions: “Life in Lebanon is full of clashes and fights between the different religions. This is very tiring”, says Ali, another 14-year old teenager from Beirut, demanding national dialogue in order to secure peaceful coexistence.

Child actors. The basic storyline focuses on a Beirut apartment building, in which families who reflect the religious and sectarian diversity of Lebanon live together and deal with conflicts that arise in day-to-day interactions.

Media responsibility

The Lebanese media reflect the country’s political and religious divisions. Sects, political parties and powerful individuals all have their own TV channels, something which, according to many, contributes to intensifying the conflicts. The Lebanese media have played a major role in creating tension, and the National Media Council president, Abdel-Hadi Mahfouz, blames the media for adding fuel to sectarianism: “Media institutions are strongly encouraged to ease tensions,” he points out. Understanding the power of the media, the international organization Search for Common Ground (SFCG), in cooperation with the Rockwool Foundation, has launched the television series Kilna Bil Hayy – which is Arabic for “All of us in the Neighbourhood” – as a way of introducing concepts of social responsibility to Lebanese children. The SFCG Programme Coordinator, Sarah Bou Ajram, is convinced that there is a need for this: “In Lebanon, people don’t listen to one another. This creates frustration and anger. People need to start listening and this process needs to begin with children.” Kilna Bil Hayy is a television series in 13 episodes, aimed at children between 10 and 15 years old – as well as their parents and teachers.

Boy actors

Girl actors 

The episodes take place in and around the apartment building in which six children from different sectarian and ethnic backgrounds live, together with their families. The spirit of the magic apartment building is personified in the character Lina, who can be seen and heard only by the children. Lina helps the six children to overcome stereotypes and to break away from the sectarian patterns of their parents, learning instead to live together in peace and tolerance.

Kilna Bil Hayy was first broadcasted in May-August 2009 on LBC (Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation), which is one of the most widely watched entertainment channels in Lebanon. Moreover, LBC broadcasts worldwide (LBC Sat), which allows some of the 15 million of Lebanese living outside Lebanon to watch Kilna Bil Hayy. The people of the diaspora have an indirect influence on the peace process in Lebanon as well. The Kilna Bil Hayy series is an adaptation of another 41 part television series called Nashe Maalo produced in Macedonia by SFCG, where it was very successful. SFCG intends, based on other funding, to extend the reach of the programme through spin-off activities which will include in-school activity kits and teacher guides. These will encourage children and young people to reflect on and put into practice the themes of each episode as part of SFCG’s “listening and problem-solving” initiative targeting 8- to 14-year-olds in schools across the country.

The character Lina in a shooting session

Children as role models

The children in the television series are role models for the rest of the Lebanese society, and they can teach the adults, and especially the politicians, that it is possible to live side by side without any problems. One of the characters in the TV series is Nader Noueiri; like the other young actors, he uses his real name in Kilna Bil Hayy. Nader is a 15-year-old high school student, and this is his first time acting. He is convinced that he, together with other young Lebanese, will be able to change society for the better and contribute to creating a Lebanon without war and strife. The first step toward this goal is Kilna Bil Hayy, Nader says. “Everybody in the country should see this show. It is very important – both for children and adults.”

TV can educate

The six children in the TV series represent some of the biggest population groups in Lebanon, including Palestinians. The Palestinian issue in Lebanon is very controversial and some Lebanese blame the Palestinians not only for the civil war, but for the general crisis in Lebanon. This motivated the lead script-writer of Kilna Bil Hayy, Jean Kassis, to make an entire episode in a Palestinian refugee camp: “The Palestinian children are suffering and we, the Lebanese, don’t do anything about it.” To enter a Palestinian camp and meet Palestinian children was a big experience for the Lebanese actors. It was the first time Nader Noueiri had set foot in a camp, and he was a bit afraid in the beginning, but his fear quickly changed to sympathy: “After Kilna Bil Hayy they are not strangers to me any more – hopefully the viewers think that as well, because the Palestinians are a part of society, whether we like it or not.” According to Chantal el-Hajj Younes, a researcher at the Pan Arab Research Center which is conducting the evaluation, the Palestinian issue was the topic most frequently mentioned by viewers of the programme. Several children said that before watching the TV show they did not trust Palestinians, or did not know anything about them. But after watching the 13 episodes of the show, their views changed.

The character Lina - representing the conscience of the apartment building in the TV show

Children are easy to influence and they often do what their parents do. In Lebanon, ideological differences and sectarian conflicts are passed on from parents to children. Therefore, it is not enough to educate children – parents need to be educated too. Nader Noueiri agrees with this, and says that change has to come from the children, not the adults: “Our parents don’t listen to Lina”, he says, referring to the character representing the conscience of the apartment building in the TV show. “They are influenced by the politicians and old hatred.” The young actor wants to change this, and he has one big dream after finishing the Kilna Bil Hayy project: “I would actually love to become a politician myself. Recently I was invited to meet Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. I told him: ‘I want to be a politician, but not like you. I want to be a politician who loves his country and who creates peace between religions and sects!’”