Racha Ghanem
Feminist Facilitator, Community Organizer, and Co-op Administrator
she, her, hers
“Collective work creates intricate webs. What we give in time, energy, effort, and initiative comes back to us as friendships, mutual support, and small but incremental changes in society. The world needs more people willing to do the unglamorous, day-to-day work of community-building.”
Racha Ghanem is a facilitator and community organizer who uses a feminist lens to work with numerous advocacy collectives in Lebanon. She develops programs and initiatives that support women, refugees, migrants, service industry workers, and social justice leaders; in recent years, she has coordinated groups responding to a number of emergent crises in the country through aid, arts, and social activism.
Racha is working currently to develop a performing arts cooperative, a cooperatively-run hostel that functions as a meeting and support space, and a coordinated network for social justice leaders across the country. The performing arts cooperative focuses on reducing competition between artists and making theater and creative workshops widely accessible. The hostel provides a space for building community organizing connections and staging cultural activities. The network of collectives aims to facilitate connections and share resources between more than 20 social justice groups that operate in Lebanon.
Racha believes that collective action and mutual aid can be an effective and positive force to augment public institutions and services. Through building community networks that are inclusive and respectful of differences, it is possible to make inroads against existing economic, social, cultural, and institutional challenges in Lebanon and the greater Middle East.