Refugees, the banking and political crisis have aggravated the social unrest of the population. An association founded in 1986 thanks to the intuition of a widow and a priest responds to growing needs. Today it helps more than 600 families in the northern area of the capital. Nohad Azzi: “Only faith continues to keep Lebanon standing.”
Beirut () – The influx of refugees, the banking crisis and the political unrest (which blocks the election of the president) have exacerbated beyond belief one of the great problems affecting Lebanon today: unrest and a general feeling of unrest at a social level. In complete silence, an immense – and widespread – situation of poverty devastates the country of cedars: children who go to bed without eating; sandwiches with dry bread or tomato puree as the only meal; patients who die at the hospital door; unhealthy housing; students condemned to drop out of school and premature work, not to mention domestic violence and sexual abuse committed against minors.
Founded during the war years and located in two superimposed floors in the working-class neighborhood of Sin el-Fil, “Libami” [que significa libanés-asiático] It is at the service of the pockets of misery that have formed in the northern periphery of Beirut, where Lebanese, Kurds, Armenians, Egyptians, Iraqis, Asian emigrants and a growing number of Syrians are crowded. The need for an association became clear in 1986, after the cry of alarm launched by Nohad Azzi, a widow from Damour, to Father Francis Leduc, of the White Missionary Fathers of Africa. A religious man, but above all a true man of listening, who died in December 2022, who had taught moral theology for 20 years at the Higher Institute of Religious Studies of Saint Joseph University.
It is the tenacity, faith and selflessness of the founders that has allowed the institution, working behind the scenes, to survive. The 2019 banking crisis wiped out Lebanese donors,” explains Nohad Azzi to . ‘Today we resist,’ he continues, ‘thanks to a sister community founded in Cholet, France, as well as sponsorships and some important benefactors outside Lebanon. But We don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”
The Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs does not guarantee any resources and the state coffers, emptied by an amoral and short-sighted ruling class, are now empty.
However, Libami continues its work thanks to the contribution of about 20 permanent members, including eight educators and four social workers. It works mainly by bringing together and supporting families without medical or social coverage, especially the largest ones, with five, six or up to nine people crammed into a single room with what looks like a kitchen, rolled mattresses and a television. Usually, the mother is a cleaner, the father a day laborer at best, if not, sick, unemployed or… in jail. Some of the children may suffer different types of trauma, such as autism, Down syndrome or mental retardation, to name just the most common cases.
“With these families,” explains the activist, “Libami draws up an action plan that can take different forms: emergency help (mainly medical), regular support in the form of school sponsorship (currently 150 beneficiaries) or transportation, integration of family members in activities organized by the association”. In this way, about 600 families receive basic aid or other programs.
Libami also has a seasonal chocolate workshop in which it produces a quality product with raw materials from Belgium. It is activated on the eve of the holidays, which allows, among other things, 27 mothers to supplement their income. “Every year 600 kilos of chocolate are sent to Cholet,” Azzi notes with satisfaction.
Save street children
Libami also offers educational support to 70 young people who live in overcrowded homes where there is not enough space to work or study. The association makes its premises available to you every afternoon, Monday to Friday. They are also provided with a hot meal.
Libami’s real concern is first and foremost the street children who do not go to school or who start working at a young age as vegetable sellers, mechanics and other small workshops. “We do everything we can,” says Nadine, one of the educators, “to get children off the street, which is an open door to all kinds of dangers: begging, crime, prostitution, pornography, drugs and even the drug trade. organs. What a child wouldn’t do for a hundred dollars,” he adds.
In the neighborhood there is a lot of talk about a pedophile network that has just been dismantled, whose members went to public schools to attract boys and girls. The country is sinking,” concludes Nohad Azzi, sensitive to the climate of impunity and the decay of the institutions of the moment, “that is why only faith continues to sustain Lebanon.”
Add Comment