Just a few years ago, Syria Street, a main thoroughfare in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, was notorious as the demarcation line between two warring neighborhoods — a no-go zone to most. Some of its buildings still bear evidence of the conflict with their walls riddled with bullet holes.

But on a recent afternoon, a group of young men from the rival neighborhoods — some of them former combatants — were sharing an argileh pipe as they took a break from plastering the walls inside one of those damaged shops.

Now we’ve found work and we don’t want to fight. We’re all working together to fix the area.

The scene was part of a project by the Beirut-based organization March, which has been working for the past three years to mend ties between the neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen. The group has brought youth from the two communities — including former combatants — together on theater and music projects and opened a café on Syria Street that serves as a gathering place for both. Over the past year and a half, it has also employed dozens of young people from the two neighborhoods to restore businesses damaged in the fighting.

Read the full article on building a better future by Abby Sewell at GOOD Magazine