Dum Spiro Spero is an ongoing project founded by me, Aya Catherina Elias, a second-year psychology student at the Lebanese American University in Byblos, Lebanon. The ongoing goal is to develop it into an NGO in Lebanon. In a hopeless world, this project focused on SDG 3: Good Health & Wellbeing as well as Principle #6 Human Rights. Dum Spiro Spero, or “While I breathe, I hope,” because in Lebanon, after all the social, economic, and political turmoil, you cannot survive without hope and faith.
My ultimate dream has always been to become a psychologist and make a change in my community. However, I have realized, because of all the training that I have gained from the fellowship, that I can make a change as a Fellow too. By raising awareness on my social media accounts, I was able to equip my followers with the necessary skills and advice to handle emotional instability and distress. I included several leadership development skills in order to inspire them to take life into their own hands. On a daily basis, social media interaction was reaching a minimum of 200 people in my community. They were able to break through restrictions imposed on them by society’s stigmas and able to feel more comfortable to be themselves in public and voice their concerns.