French Ambassador Visits Tripoli to Meet Youth Rebuilding Trust Between Communities and the State

Rebuilding Trust Between the Youth and the State 

The visit centered on MARCH’s United Under One Anthem project, which brings together youth from Tripoli’s most conflict-affected neighborhoods through community service, humanitarian action, and direct engagement with state institutions.

United Under One Anthem — The Room That Day

Those youth come from Tripoli’s most marginalized and conflict-affected areas, including Jabal Mohsen, Beb El Tebbeneh, Wadi Nahle, Mankoubin, and Mallouleh, have long experienced a sense of alienation from the state due to years of state neglect and limited public services. Following the government-imposed security plan in the area in 2014, which left the city in a void and its youth with limited socioeconomic opportunities, this distance widened further, drawing many of them into cycles of violence and conflict.

However, through community service, humanitarian action, and joint initiatives, MARCH worked on bridging the gap between these youth and state institutions which they have often viewed as enemies or distant from their everyday realities. Some of the participants come from communities previously divided by conflict, including former fighters who have since taken a different path. Today, these young people work together across neighborhood and communal lines while engaging directly with institutions such as the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Tripoli Municipality. In response, it created spaces for these youth not only to learn how these institutions function, but also to build relationships based on dialogue, cooperation, and shared responsibility and become community leaders.

Hearing Directly from Tripoli’s Youth

30 young people from Tripoli’s most divided neighborhoods met Ambassador Magro face to face. They spoke about the realities of growing up in areas affected by marginalization, limited opportunities, and weak trust in the state. They also presented the Ambassador with a handmade gift they had created themselves — a gesture that reflected their creativity, involvement, and appreciation for his visit.

The Ambassador also watched a documentary highlighting the initiatives implemented by the youth across Tripoli and heard directly from them about the challenges facing their neighborhoods and the actions they have taken to respond to local needs. The discussion offered the Ambassador a direct view of how sustained engagement can help young people develop a stronger sense of agency and belonging while changing how they perceive their relationship with the state and its institutions.

For one participant, the moment carried a weight that went beyond the agenda:

“I never imagined that I would be sitting at the same table, here in Tripoli, with important people like the French Ambassador.”

Building Peace Through Partnership

The presence of 3 generals from the Lebanese Armed Forces and 1 representatives from the Tripoli Municipality gave the visit particular significance — alongside the 2 school representatives whose institutions the youth have been working with directly. All of these institutions have collaborated with MARCH throughout the project, engaging with youth and participating in activities that create direct channels of communication between communities and public institutions.

For young people who have often experienced the state mainly through absence or distance, these interactions provide an opportunity to better understand institutional roles while allowing institutions themselves to engage more closely with the realities and needs of Tripoli’s neighborhoods.

This kind of cooperation is essential to rebuilding trust. Peacebuilding is not only about reconciling communities with one another; it is also about rebuilding the relationship between citizens and the institutions meant to serve them.

Changing the Story of Tripoli

Visits like this carry significance beyond diplomatic protocol. When the French Ambassador, 5 embassy representatives, 3 military generals, 2 school leaders, and municipal officials all come to Tripoli — not to deliver a program, but to listen to 30 young people — it signals something.

It signals that locally driven peacebuilding in Tripoli’s most marginalized neighborhoods is no longer invisible. It signals that the youth doing this work are being taken seriously at the highest levels. And it signals that the story of Tripoli is being rewritten — by the people who grew up inside it.

MARCH extends its appreciation to H.E. Hervé Magro and the French Embassy in Lebanon, represented by CDCS, for supporting the project and the youth continuing to drive this process forward.

MARCH’s community center in Tripoli →