On Saturday March 23rd and in spite of the bad weather, Anjar and KfarZabad residents; and visitors from different Lebanese districts celebrated the Miracle of Life as part of the annual celebrations for the Bird Migration, and the World Water Day. The festival that was organized by SPNL in partnership with the municipalities of Anjar and KfarZabad, with the generous support of the MAVA Foundation, was a truly great success with a day full of fun, outdoor activities, and rejoicing the values of nature and the importance to preserve it.
The festival witnessed the celebration of launching two important projects: ”Restoring Hima Ecosystem functions through promoting sustainable community -based water management systems “in Hima Anjar- Kfar Zabad IBA” funded by MAVA Trust; and the launching of the project “Promoting Hima Women Empowerment for Conservation and Livelihood” funded by the UN Women Fund for Gender Equality.
In the presence of the Ambassadors of Japan Seiichi Otsuka, and the Ambassadors of Switzerland Ruth Flint and several NGOs, the festival was initiated by several speeches, and afterwards outdoor activities were launched around the Umayyad City. The activities included, Anjar’s Eagle Trail, a path along the culture of the Armenian village, Umayyad city and the spectacular nature. Hiking or Biking was also available along the water course from the Anjar spring to the Anjar Wetlands. In addition, the festival included a traditional women souk for handcrafts (needlework, knitting, accessories from different materials, antiques, and appealing decorations), food (ready to eat products), and traditional food products (mouneh). This souk is part of the main goal of the UN Women Project that is to empower women politically and economically, thus enhancing their livelihood through the revival of the Hima approach in the sustainable management of the IBAs of Lebanon. The festival also included an exhibition at Hima Anjar’s Visitor’s Center titled Teer Ya Tayr and prepared by Dar Omboz that showed the importance of birds with special focus on the globally threatened species, the Syrian Serin.
