In partnership with the Education Center for Resource and Development and Visual and Performing Arts Association, UNFPA Lebanon launched the theater based peer education approach (TBPE) in the public sector for the 2011-2012 academic year. Two cities were involved in this project being Saida in the South and Zahle in the Bekaa region and a total of six public schools participated. The project included training school teachers and health educators on the TBPE approach, conducting workshops with the students, and developing theatrical shows.

The training for school teachers and health educators allowed participants to experience the TBPE approach with all its different elements from selecting health messages to assisting the students in developing their various scenes. The topics focused on those enlisted in theGender-Sensitive Life Skills Reproductive Health Education Curriculum that the participants were also briefed on. At the level of the schools, workshops took place between the months of March and April where 75 students between 15 and 18 got excited about creating their own plays and showing then to their peers. In three days students were able to select the health messages they wanted to share with their peers, they developed the appropriate scenes, and practices on communicating these messages during the scenes and after the show in a facilitated discussion through the school teacher or health educator. A total of seven shows were staged and great peer-to-peer dialogue came up on topics such as access to information, decision making, sexual abuse, gender equality, and domestic violence.