Founders
The People
Behind Vivara
Meet the people behind Vivara's network of leadership, expertise, and long-term support.
Vivara Foundation works at the intersection of education, leadership, and civic transformation giving Lebanon's generations the voice, access, and opportunity to shape what comes next.
Generations in Lebanon face a broken system — saturated decision-making spaces, a lack of real opportunities, and structural inequality that blocks the next generation from contributing their full potential.
Vivara exists to respond to this gap. Not with charity, but with systems. Not with sympathy, but with structured action.
A foundation built to give Lebanese generations the voice, access, and opportunity they deserve to shape a more inclusive society.
Civic engagement, decision-making, and structured dialogue platforms that strengthen participation across generations.
Pathways to work, mentorship, and career development for fresh graduates.
Lebanon's generations face structural barriers that prevent them from participating, contributing, and thriving.
Systemic inequality blocks generations from accessing positions and spaces they are qualified and ready for.
Fresh graduates face closed doors, limited networks, and a job market that undervalues their potential.
Decision-making remains saturated by the same voices. Generations are excluded from spaces that shape their future.
Three interconnected pillars that address the root causes of generational exclusion — and build practical pathways toward an equal society.
Generational engagement in decision-making and civic life — including leadership development and structured dialogue platforms where people shape positive community outcomes.
Civic EngagementAccess to work, education, and leadership pathways — from fresh graduate support and career mentorship to cross-sector partnerships that open real doors for Lebanon's generations.
Career AccessReducing inequality across all sectors — from politics and employment to peacebuilding, sports-based cohesion, and diaspora return initiatives that bring talent back home.
Equal SocietyCultivating ethical, adaptive leadership across generations — from university students to professionals contributing to public and institutional life.
Structured platforms for participation, exchange, and public discourse — creating the trust infrastructure Lebanon's civic renewal depends on.
Mentorship, networking, and employability support connecting fresh graduates with companies, internships, and career pathways they genuinely deserve.
Using sports as a structured tool for discipline, unity, and resilience — building social connection across communities and breaking barriers to inclusion.
Future-facing programs encouraging Lebanese expats to return, mentor, invest, and create opportunities locally — turning brain drain into national renewal.
Vivara Foundation is built on the belief that societies evolve through coordinated action — across generations, institutions, and sectors. Through education, leadership, and civic engagement, we are creating the infrastructure for a more equal, more inclusive Lebanon.
Partner With Vivara →Meet the people behind Vivara's network of leadership, expertise, and long-term support.
Vivara does not operate as a project-based organization. We design ecosystems of transformation.
Connecting sectors and generations — public, private, civil society, and academic — into coordinated systems of action.
Building frameworks that endure beyond programs — creating structural change, not temporary interventions.
Designing models that can be replicated across contexts — from Beirut to the Lebanese diaspora and beyond.
Vivara's impact is defined not only by participation, but by transformation — measured in leadership capacity, civic engagement, dialogue activated, and inclusion reinforced.
Six interconnected action areas designed as scalable models for systemic impact across Lebanon.
Building leadership capacity, dialogue platforms, cross-sector partnerships — measured by transformation, not just participation.
Sustainable impact emerges through shared ownership, not isolated action.
Academic institutions supporting generational development and graduate access programs.
Organizations aligned with civic engagement and generational empowerment missions.
Companies creating real employment pathways for graduates and emerging generations.
Lebanese expats committed to mentoring, investing, and returning home.
Vivara's founder, Gistelle Semaan, actively engages with embassies, international organizations, and humanitarian partners – building the relationships that turn vision into systemic, cross-border impact.
Diplomatic engagement focused on policy collaboration, youth access, and civic inclusion pathways.
Program planning and institutional coordination designed to scale equal opportunity initiatives.
Humanitarian collaboration grounded in practical delivery, trust-building, and local impact systems.
We invite partners, institutions, and changemakers to engage in building systems that are more inclusive, more resilient, and more collaborative.