TILKA Screening in Parliament
On 3rd December 2024, Helen Hayes MP hosted a screening of our documentary TILKA in the UK Parliament.
It was a particularly poignant moment to be creating a space for stories from Lebanon to be heard, a few days after the announcement of the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon.
Hiba Hussein – Seenaryo’s Country Manager in Lebanon – dialled in from Beirut to join the post-screening discussion. She said that this rare and raw opportunity to be direct and honest with those in power, was one of the proudest moments of her life. As violence continues to devastate communities across the region, Hiba insisted that “the world must choose to invest in life — not war”.
Seenaryo called on parliamentarians and stakeholders to support a strong, cohesive civil society in Lebanon, specifically asking that they:
- Support civil society to recover by consulting local counterparts, especially refugee and women leaders, and by funding grassroots social cohesion and education projects.
- Call for ceasefire violations to be addressed in Lebanon and the ceasefire extended to Gaza, as the region’s conflicts are intrinsically linked.
In her closing remarks, Helen Hayes spoke of “psychosocial support, the arts and creativity as powerful tools for recovery and restoration.” Her comments really resonated, as Lebanon faces the enormous task of slowly stitching communities back together as they deal with the aftermath of suffering, loss and displacement. It is crucial that these communities have the support of the international community in order to build a lasting peace and a brighter future for the next generation.
The screening was in partnership with the Council for Arab British Understanding (Caabu) and we were joined by a panel of inspiring speakers, who spoke powerfully about the situation in Lebanon and their hopes for a brighter future for the region. Alongside Hiba Hussein, we were joined on the panel by Maha Shuayb (Director at the Centre for Lebanese Studies at the University of Cambridge), Joseph Willits (Head of Parliamentary Affairs at Caabu), and Victoria Lupton (Seenaryo’s Founder & CEO).