Listening without superiority, exchanging among peers

In a Lebanon marked by a major economic and political crisis, 22 participants with varied backgrounds (journalists, artists, lawyers, activists, NGO members, people in exile…) came together in Beirut for a week of collective work. SINGA was represented by Maëlle Mezaber, Marketing Director at SINGA Global, and Pascal Dubaele, Executive Director at SINGA Lille.

Conceived as a horizontal space, this learning expedition mixed workshops, field visits, informal discussions, and experience sharing. The aim: to confront practices, narratives, and perspectives in a space of trust.

“Everyone came with their tools, their questions, their practices. This setting allowed us to see how others are inventing responses in contexts very different from our own.”— Pascal Dubaele, Executive Director SINGA Lille

Stories at the crossroads of fieldwork and practice

The discussions focused both on the situations experienced by people in exile, especially in Lebanon, and on how those experiences are told: in the media, in humanitarian projects, in institutions, in communication campaigns…How can we avoid speaking on behalf of others? How can we document without oversimplifying? How can we work with the people concerned from the very start of a project or story?

Through the exchanges, a shared intention emerged: to rethink how migration narratives are built and disseminated—not as a series of hardships or statistics, but as life journeys, sometimes complex, and full of knowledge and richness. This is also at the core of our work at SINGA: to put stories back in the hands of those concerned, and to promote a fairer and more human narrative around migration.

“In a Lebanon shaken by deep crisis, I heard courageous, clear-sighted and powerful voices. Those of people in exile without legal status, of women my age, exploited and trapped in the Kafala system, of Palestinians whose voices are silenced… Stories that remind us of one simple thing: words have power. They can make visible or erase. Connect or exclude. Dominate or emancipate.”— Maëlle Mezaber, Marketing Director SINGA Global

Complex realities and shared paths

With around 1.5 million Syrian refugees and nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees, Lebanon has one of the highest ratios of people in exile per capita in the world. Yet very few benefit from clear legal status, and work opportunities are severely restricted.

In response, many develop forms of informal entrepreneurship : micro-businesses, crafts, local services… Fragile initiatives, sometimes invisible, yet full of resilience and autonomy. Several local initiatives aim to support these journeys, such as those led by DOT Lebanon, SPARK, or the collective Switch Perspective, which uses art and education to give voice to those directly affected.

“These experiences reminded us that contexts differ, but many questions are shared: how can we recognize knowledge rooted in lived experience? How do we build lasting connections? How do we break away from top-down approaches to create together?” — Pascal Dubaele, Executive Director, SINGA Lille

“This week in Beirut also reminded us of something essential: to speak about migration is always to speak about the kind of society we want to build. Behind each story, there are choices: who we listen to, what we highlight, what we leave out… These choices shape, in the background, the kind of society we make possible.”— Maëlle Mezaber, Marketing Director SINGA Global

About the organizers

ZEP Media (Zone d’Expression Prioritaire) is a citizen media outlet that helps young people speak out on the issues that concern them. Founded in 2015, it publishes testimonies rooted in social realities and works to bring forward voices often absent from public debate.
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Switch Perspective is a Lebanese collective that works on narratives around migration, gender, and power dynamics, through artistic, educational, and activist projects. It promotes a field-based approach built with the people directly concerned.
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📩 Want to know more or keep the conversation going? Write to us, we’ll be happy to reply : maelle@singa.io