What we did in 2022

Dear friends,

This year, at last, we were able to travel to Lebanon, for first time since 2019. We have found a much-changed country, where the state has collapsed and people are left to fend for themselves. Services like electricity, sanitation, banking, etc., have essentially ceased. The government no longer subsidises bread, fuel, or medicine. The national currency is in free fall: most items have become unaffordable, including local produce, as fuel and fertiliser are imported. Traffic lights do not work, cities are dark and deserted at night, many shops have been forced to close. Millions of people have been pushed into poverty and had to cut back on essentials like food and medication.

Since banks are barely functioning and impose arbitrary and illegal limits on withdrawals, the only way to get money into the country and make sure it arrives to its recipients is to fly in with cash, which is what we did. In May and in November we brought a combined total of EUR 19260 in donations, split between FAID, the school for deaf children that we have been supporting since 2008, and Association Najdeh, working in Lebanon’s refugee camps.

FAID used the funds to

• Buy fuel for school bus, generator and heaters: EUR 6000
• Cover the food and fuel for the children’s summer camp, which took place on the school’s premises, and one outing: EUR 3600
• Replace a water pump and some smaller items: EUR 260

 Najdeh used the funds to

• Help cover the running costs of the kindergartens of the refugee camps of Shatila in Beirut and Burj el-Shemali in Tyre; this includes operational expenses such as staff salaries and children’s meals: EUR 3400
• Buy schoolbooks for the children – of all refugee kindergartens in Lebanon – whose families cannot afford them: EUR 6000

Income: donations to Lebanon Trust (Euro) (Dec 1st, 2020 – Nov 30th, 2021)

(Year close Nov 30, 2021; EUR/USD/CHF currency exchange rate: as applied by our bank in Ireland)

Expenditure: Disbursements to the supported institutions, expenses (Euro)

Schoolbooks for children

Our friends at Association Najdeh used the donations we brought to make sure that each child has schoolbooks. Many families in Lebanon, gripped by a terrible economic crisis, cannot afford the cost. Thanks to our generous supporters, this problem has been solved. The children are delighted: look at their smiles!

Creativity and strangers’ kindness in time of crisis

Shown in this picture is the culmination of a relay race through 4 countries, 2 continents, 4 people, to deliver an important medicine to someone in need in Beirut.

This medicine was bought in Toulon (France) by a friend, arrived in Zurich (Switzerland) by train and was handed to one of our volunteers; it was then mailed to Geneva (Switzerland) to a kind stranger found on Twitter, then taken by him to Ferrara (Italy) and given to another stranger, who flew to Beirut and finally gave it to its recipient.

Above: The lovely card made for us by the children of FAID.

May 2022: a visit to Lebanon after a long absence

Dear friends and supporters,

In late May two of our volunteers spent ten days in Lebanon, after an absence of more than two years. We regret to report that the situation in the country has dramatically worsened; it is difficult to describe the misery and penury people must endure.

The services traditionally provided by the government have essentially disappeared. There is nearly no electricity (less than 1 hour a day in the capital Beirut, and unpredictable), no drinkable water, no public transport. Friends said that police do not intervene when called, as they lack petrol for their cars. Traffic lights don’t work. Medicines are either not available or too expensive. The banking sector has all but collapsed; even those who have funds cannot withdraw money beyond a certain arbitrary, and fluctuating, limit. The currency has lost almost all its value and is extremely volatile. Those who can have left the country, or are trying to leave.

Until mid- to late 2019, 100’000 Lebanese Lira (about 70 dollars, or 65 euro) were a respectable sum, enough to buy meat, cheese, vegetables and so on. Now it’s worth less than 3 dollars, and won’t buy an ice-cream. Salaries, of course, have stayed the same – so people who used to have a decent, if modest, salary now earn the equivalent of 30 or 40 dollars at most. Many essentials are imported, first and foremost fuel, necessary for transport and for electricity generators – hence the skyrocketing prices for food, medicine, transport and electricity. Apartment buildings have their own private generators that work at set times, so that people who cannot climb stairs have to go out and come back according to the generator’s schedule to use the lift. Refrigerators cannot be used.

Many shops and restaurants have closed; there is much less traffic than before; the city is dark at night. Young men scavenge garbage bins looking for items to resell or for scrap metal. There are many beggars, young and old. The modern city centre near the Parliament, completely rebuilt after the civil war and once full of high-end shops and restaurants, is now cordoned off and totally deserted, guarded by underpaid soldiers.

Elections on May 15 brought some new faces – and many old ones – to the Parliament. One hopes that things will improve.

Of course, there is still a minority of wealthy people in the country, so one can see luxury cars and full restaurants in certain areas.

Our volunteers visited FAID, a school for deaf children, and two kindergartens for refugee children. We have been supporting these institutions for many years now.

• The FAID school this year has more than 80 pupils, from kindergarten to high school, and functions from Monday to Thursday to reduce costs. About 30 children – boys and girls – are boarders, sleeping at the school 3 nights a week. A nearby plot has been converted into a vegetable garden, complete with chicken, geese, rabbits and goats, by the school’s caretaker. The school survives on donations (including from large organisations such as UNICEF) of money and food, as the government has halted all financing. As the harsh conditions of life in the country impact children as well, the teachers would like to organise a “summer camp” in July to offer them some respite, where the pupils (divided into 2 groups) can spend five days & nights at the school and do fun activities.We donated EUR 3600, to cover the summer camp food and fuel for 10 days (60 children in total), and one outing. In addition, we financed a replacement water pump for the school (EUR 220) and did some light maintenance work (EUR 40 for materials).

• We also donated EUR 1700 to the kindergarten of the refugee camp of Chatila in Beirut, and EUR 1700 to that of the Burj el-Shemali camp in Tyre in southern Lebanon, run by the Association Najdeh, for their operational expenses and purchase of educational material for the children. Thanks to solar panels and batteries, they have electricity all day. The teachers at these two institutions are exceptionally active, motivated and resourceful, really making the most of the scarce and ever-decreasing resources they have. In Burj el-Shemali they also prepared a wonderful Palestinian lunch for us!

We would like to thank our generous donors from the bottom of our hearts for their continued support.

Summary: Disbursements to the supported institutions, expenses (Euro)

below: with the FAID pupils and teachers

At the refugee kindergartens: classrooms, the teachers and a very happy volunteer about to enjoy a yummy lunch, and the ever-successful soap bubbles

FAID’s vegetable garden:

A bit of light maintenance work by the volunteers:

A donation to the refugee kindergartens

We are proud and delighted to report that we were able to send USD 12550 to our friends of the Association Najdeh, in support of their kindergartens, for educational material, food, running costs. These kindergartens are for children of refugee families. The money arrived this past week. A huge THANK YOU to all our donors.

August 2021: A letter from FAID, school for the deaf

Dear friends,

as you all know, this are exceptionally hard times for Lebanon, struggling with a severe financial crisis, a 90% devaluation of its currency, soaring prices, shortages of fuel, electricity, water, medicine, food.

Lebanon Trust keeps raising funds for FAID, the school for deaf children that we help since 2008, as well as two kindergartens for refugees.

Recently FAID sent an update for all its supporters:

“Greetings from the FAID family!

Thank you on behalf of the FAID family for all the support we have received from you over the years, especially during the last two years. Running our school in an economic crisis in the middle of a pandemic has been highly challenging.
A school cannot be run without staff. Through your help and support, we have held onto our team and continued paying wages. However, the hyperinflation in Lebanon has reduced the buying power of the wages by a lot. One Lebanese pound is now worth less than one-tenth of what it was two years ago. Your support also enabled us to provide food parcels on three occasions for all families – students’ families and staff – connected to the school.

A blessing came out of Covid 19. Several lockdowns reduced our face to face teaching time severely. So we needed to find another way to help our children and their parents develop their educational skills. Our staff made several videos each week. Each video had a particular topic. The video “OPPOSITES,” for example, explained all about up and down, in and out, high and low, etc. These videos, made for WhatsApp, were easy to use by parents.
Covid’s blessing helped parents in Lebanon to become teachers of their deaf children. Parents being involved more in the education of their children enhanced building family bonds, which stimulated the children’s development even more, and most of all, reduced the emotional trauma that exists in families having children with special needs.

Providing audiology support, hearing aid maintenance and batteries during Covid is very challenging. Again because of your help, we could put in the safeguards and precautions to make it possible.
We would heartily appreciate your keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.
Our political and economic situation is extremely worrying.
There is a shortage of medicine, fuel, electricity and sometimes food and the prices are going up on a regular daily basis. We know we can depend on your continued support, and for that, we are tremendously grateful.“

Dear friends and supporters,

this is an unprecedented time for Lebanon and for FAID, School for the Deaf. We at Lebanon Trust keep trying to suppport them. Recently FAID sent a letter to its friends:

Lebanon is still without a government (since August 2020), the economy is under severe pressure, and our currency has devalued by 85%. There are fuel and medicine shortages, and daily blackouts.

The staff of FAID have been busy providing online educational support to our students and parents during the times that we can’t meet.  Most of this is done through Whatsapp.  We are sending educational videos that help parents to work with their hearing-impaired children.

We are delighted to see how parents are rising to the task of becoming their children’s educators. It is also great to see how this homeschooling strengthens the bonds between the children and their parents. It is a silver lining to see the relationships flourishing between parents and their deaf children.  However, it isn’t all smooth sailing: the shortage of mobile phones with our families and lack of data packages is a problem.  And it is something that we are trying to solve.

Based on the success of rolling out this educational support system for our regular students, we started to use a similar approach to supporting our outreach to Syrian refugee families. Our supports are tailor-made to suit the formal education level of the parent & the age and educational level of the child.  At present, more than 80% of parents are engaging with our program, and we hope to increase this number as time goes on.

We also hope to continue to support parents this way even when the pandemic ends.

None of this vital work is possible without your continuous support.  We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for that.

Tailor-made education packs for deaf children financed by Lebanon Trust

We feel terrible that we cannot go to Lebanon this year, but still we help our friends of course! This year we sent 25 thousand dollars; 5000 were use in Summer to prepare 76 individual education packs (covering 8 weeks of schooling) and tailor-made speech therapy exercises for the kids at FAID, the school for deaf children that we support since 2008. It was a big piece of work by 13 teachers, the social worker and the psychologist, who follow those families where problems exist.

The parents were grateful for this initiative that helped them continue & follow closely their children’s education. The customized education packs gave the teachers a chance to offer each individual child an education specifically focused on his or her needs.

We are happy that we were able to help these families and lessen their burden in these difficult times in Lebanon, thanks to our generous supporters and donors.

Lebanon Trust finances a speech therapist for FAID’s deaf children

We can’t go to Lebanon this year – unfortunately – but we finance a speech therapist to teach FAID‘s children how to speak & lip-read. These are essential skills to communicate with the world and build an independent life.

FAID is a school for deaf children in Beirut that we help since 2008. The financing of the speech therapist for them is part of the 25 thousand dollards that we sent to Lebanon this year, thank to our generous friends and supporters.