Blue Mission is a community development organization based in Saida, Lebanon. Sana El Bizri founded the organization in 2002 based on her continuing belief in peace on three levels. The first was her personal experience working with international non-governmental organizations during the waves of violence that rocked Lebanon and that, even after facing huge personal loss, never dampened her belief in peace. The second was her belief in the necessity of psychosocial education to break the cycle of violence and help people deal with their experiences. Lebanon lacked the structure, programs, or human capacity to deal with this crisis and the only intervention was coming in the form of emergency aid for the outside that did little to improve the long-term situation of the people. This led to the conviction that in order for intervention and development to be effective, it must engage the entire community and give them the resources to work to rebuild their own country. The third was that after the war, there were gaps in the coordination between government, international organizations, and national organizations that prevented them from effectively implementing programs that would materially improve the situation of the people most affected by the violence. She founded Blue Mission to fill in these gaps and specifically to give children, families, and communities the resources to help themselves and then work for peace with others.
