Founded in May 2008, the Social Media Exchange team provides training and consulting to civil society and nonprofit organizations in Lebanon who seek to use media to advance their missions. Soon, we will expand our reach into other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Our mission is to make sure that the Internet lives up to its promise to expand each individual and every community’s agency over their own lives. We believe that to make this happen we must partner with those who are already working for positive social change and sustainable development and help them strategically integrate new, affordable media into their programs and projects as a means of self-empowerment and self-advocacy. Our strategy for achieving this mission focuses on three main areas:

• Encouraging media literacy and raising awareness about digital and social media, especially among youth and trainers, through concepts, case studies, and the translation of key materials into Arabic.
• Helping organizations develop sustainable, collaborative strategies for incorporating digital and social media into their programs.
• Increasing access to the Internet.

We set out to achieve these goals by developing curricula tailored for Lebanon and the Arab environment and partnering with media pioneers and development organizations worldwide.