Zahi Mousalli, public educational works engineer, is one of the co-founders at the AFPI. He chose NICT in the middle of the eighties, which means by the time of their expansion. He arrived to France in 1979 and went to public works school: he was dreaming about going back to Lebanon in order to rebuild his country. But when he graduated in 1985, the Lebanese war was still on.
Finally, he chose to stay in France and opt for something else, namely the NICT. In 1991, he created the French Lebanese computer professionals association (AFPI) with about ten professionals. “The spirit of this association is to generate an apolitical action that includes people of different sides and religions”, he says, “Also on the same date, the reconstruction of Lebanon began. We said that there mustn’t only be infrastructure construction for the country, but also promotion of NICT must be made.”
Nowadays, the association includes almost two hundred members residing in France, French Lebanese supporters, as well as 20% of pure French. These professionals represent more than fifty companies today in all the occupation fields of the NICT.
The AFPI operates according to four large bases: educational assistance (trainings and seminars), help to access the labor market, network life, and communication, of course, in order to make the association famous.
Enrich the Know-how of the Lebanese in Lebanon
The association promotes an educational curriculum in Lebanon in collaboration with Cnam (with a Lebanese professor in Cnam who helped to launch a curriculum for students in Lebanon). After this curriculum, students obtain a diploma certified by Cnam in France. The AFPI has also launched a paying educational system in Lebanon concerning different themes like banking security (this time it did not include diplomas).
In other words, this curriculum consists of seminars given by AFPI professional members and organized along with partners like ABL, who calls for its own professionals to attend the seminar. The idea is to let Lebanese professionals benefit from the updated knowledge. These seminars are leading to great success.
Two years ago, AFPI established, in collaboration with the Lebanese association Koudourat (aiming at fighting unemployment), a coaching and mentoring program for the 3rd and 4th year IT students in the Lebanese University in Fanar and Hadath. The idea is to help students who finish the program to access the labor market by different means: for example, by proposing a coaching system for professionals who are well introduced to the world of companies and therefore can help students write their CVs, find useful trainings for their future, prepare a good hiring interview, etc…Almost two hundred students benefit from this coaching program at the Lebanese University.
« Nowadays, the AFPI is thinking of a way to set up platform offshore competences in Lebanon and to create and maintain employment in order to help in hindering the emigration flow”, adds Zahi Mousalli, “Because instructing the Lebanese students is dangerous, for they might not find a job that suits them on the ground. Therefore they will be forced to emigrate!”
Support the Diaspora
The association thinks of a labor market and helps the Lebanese people in France to find a job or encounter training while they are still studying and after the curriculum. “We aim at reviving our internal network to promote contacts”, explains Zahi, “this takes places by organizing reunions to expose any company and establish new connections.”
In the hard situation of the 2006 July war, AFPI was also able to go beyond its main field of action, establish a donation system in collaboration with Koudourat, and distribute the collected funds to the refugees.
