Jouhouzia
Lebanon's first cultural-heritage emergency response program
Created by Biladi, after the Beirut Blast in 2020 Jouhouzia trains multidisciplinary teams, from soldiers to civil defense officers, museum staff, archaeology students and more. Their role is to safeguard heritage assets when conflict or natural disaster strikes. It is not general survival training; it is about making sure history doesn't get lost in the chaos.
Around 150 hours of lectures, simulations, and field visits cover emergency response, artifact documentation for international databases like the Art Loss Register, and risk mapping using the Blue Shield emblem, the global symbol for cultural property protection under the 1954 Hague Convention. It is today a program connected and in partnership with Blue Shield International, the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, and the United Nations.
SARAA
Safeguarding and Rescuing Archaeological and Architectural Assets
A university course program strengthening Lebanon's emergency response capacity for cultural heritage. Originally developed at Koç University in Turkey with the British Institute at Ankara, Biladi adapted it with professors from the Lebanese University to reflect Lebanon's own history.
Five parts, each with 3–5 courses, combine lectures, expert interviews, and case studies ; including the 1955 Abu Ali River flood and the 2020 Beirut blast in order to bridge international safeguarding theory with lived Lebanese experience.
Beirut operation
Securing cultural heritage after the port blast
Funded by Prince Claus, ALIPH, the British Council, and Gerda Henkel Stiftung, Biladi and Blue Shield International secured and protected Beirut's historic houses after the port explosion of August 4, 2020.
These buildings carry irreplaceable cultural, artistic, and symbolic value as part of the architectural landscape of the Lebanese capital. The Blue Shield Emergency Response was implemented across 15 damaged historic houses in Medawar, Rmeil, Achrafieh, and Saifi.
Sursock operation
Rescuing paintings damaged by the Beirut blast
The Prince Claus Fund's Cultural Emergency Response programme granted Biladi €10,000 to safeguard paintings in historic houses damaged by the explosion, implemented by Blue Shield Lebanon with support from the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative.
The project inventoried, removed, and stabilized 165 paintings from the Sursock Palace and 25 from the Feghali collection, storing them in secured, climate-controlled rooms while training students, military officers, and volunteers in the process.
Final report submitted to Prince Claus Fund, March 2021
National Museum reinforcement
Protecting Lebanon's collections during wartime
During the 2024 war, Biladi reinforced the depots of the National Museum of Beirut and the Directorate General of Antiquities to protect fragile collections and build resilience during active crisis.
An emergency room was built inside the museum with around 80 protective wooden walls and four tool boxes of emergency-covering materials. In Room 10, fragile items like the plaque de verre and rare books were secured; at the DGA, three depot storages were reinforced with protective mats and covers.
Blue Shield emblem
Marking sites under international law
In partnership with the Directorate General of Antiquities, Biladi installed the Blue Shield emblem on 20 cultural heritage sites following Jouhouzia training. The emblem, designed under the 1954 Hague Convention for Cultural Property Protection, is the global symbol marking sites for protection during armed conflict.
Press coverage: L'Orient-Le Jour on the Blue Shields protecting millennia-old heritage in Tyre.
UNIFIL CPP training
Cultural property protection for peacekeepers
Held at UNIFIL headquarters and the World Heritage Sites in Naqoura and Tyre, this training. Funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Lebanon and run with Blue Shield International, brought together 30 participants from UNIFIL, the Lebanese Armed Forces, the DGA, and the municipality of Tyre.
Participants learned how to protect cultural properties and ensure their own safety while doing so, and helped draft a cultural protection action plan for emergency situations.
Esterdad
Disrupting the trafficking of cultural property
Launched in 2017 with Blue Shield International and funding from the Norwegian Embassy, Esterdad builds specialized professional networks in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq to investigate and disrupt antiquities trafficking, working closely with law enforcement and judicial authorities to repatriate stolen objects.
Training covers the organization and operation of the antiquities market, plus the national, bilateral, and international laws available to control it. More than 100 archeologists and lawyers from the three countries have been trained across the program's three years.
Jouhouzia — Syria
Assessing earthquake damage to historic sites
After the devastating February 6, 2023 earthquake damaged historic monuments across Syria, Biladi hosted a two-day training in Chtaura, Lebanon for 13 participants from Syria's Direction générale des antiquités, musées et sites.
The team learned to use Biladi's digital assessment platform for cultural heritage emergencies and received the tablets and equipment needed to carry out damage assessments in the field.
Melkite project
Turning a sacred art collection into a museum
From August to December 2022, Biladi transformed the sacred art exhibition at the Greek Melkite Catholic Archdiocese of Zahle into a structured museum — documenting, photographing, and bilingually cataloguing a two-floor collection of icons, vestures, liturgical objects, documents, and medals.
The project introduced the museum's first professional inventory and interpretive panels, turning a static exhibition into a genuine educational experience for visitors and the community.