TRIPOLI, Lebanon — Near Sainte Famille, a French Catholic school, a wall stands covered with bubbly bright graffiti painted by a group of young high school girls trying to bring awareness to and make a difference in their community by expressing themselves through a positive outlet. The girls are taking part in a program called Cross Arts, which promotes street art through musical expression and graffiti. The program helps students develop their own projects and works with local schools in Tripoli to provide workshops to help young people develop skills based on their personal interests.

Al-Monitor visited the girls at Sainte Famille and asked them to talk about their projects. Tala Haffar, the girls’ group leader, said, “An art teacher came to me, and she said that since I had the best drawing, I would be participating in a project to cover the wall.” The project began May 15, during the Iberoamerica Festival, which featured activities promoting cultural education about the Americas in addition to beautifying the city's streets.

“We went out really early in the morning, and we started drawing on the walls. The people from Cross Arts came and helped us. They instructed us and fixed our mistakes. They taught us how to color it in with spray paint,” Haffar said.

Cross Arts began in 2010 as a way to reach out to youth caught up in drug activity and street violence, but it has since expanded to give more kids an outlet. Program co-founder Kamal Abbas told Al-Monitor, “We initiated this project not expecting it to become a foundation. It was just a collective effort by a small number of people. Then we had to make it legal by registering with the municipality.”