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Dear friends,

2017 was a very productive year for Lebanon Trust. Thanks to your generosity, not only did we help the school for deaf children we have been supporting for ten years now, and the two refugee kindergarten we always help, but also we visited and donated to an institute for street, orphaned or abused children. We also met with a school for deaf teenagers – which prepares them for university – and a Lebanese non-governmental organisation that works with Syrian refugees and poor Lebanese.

The two weeks we spent in Lebanon in November were very intense. We stayed at the deaf children’s school that we support, the Father Andeweg Institute for the Deaf (FAID).

We donated them 8000 dollars to help financing speech therapy, which teaches deaf children how to speak and lip-read. this gives them an unique opportunity to communicate with the outside world and, in time, become independent.

We had a very generous sponsor, Tiziana Virgilio from Genoa (Italy), who financed the complete renovation of FAID’s kindergarten playground. We made a new reinforced-concrete floor, covered it with 400 rubber safety tiles, installed a new perimeter fence, fixed the existing toys, bought new ones, painted and decorated gates, walls and handrails. Also, we pruned a tree and removed a large wild overgrowth that blocked the light. We also fixed and painted the adjacent “mock shop”, utilised to teach children grocery-shopping.

The children and the teachers were absolutely delighted. At the end of all this work we had an opening ceremony with ribbon-cutting, sweets and soap bubbles. Every volunteer received a beautiful present from FAID. The new playground was dedicated to the memory of a friend, Francesco Lo Torto, with a plaque on the wall.

Besides all this, a generous Irish sponsor, GK Nets of Howth, donated a marvellous net (80 metres by 4 metres!) for the new football area used by the older kids. We brought it all the way from Ireland to Lebanon for free, thanks to British Airway’s generosity!

The plaque on the playground wall, in dedication to the memory of a friend.

We work in good spirits to remove the and clean the 400 existing rubber tiles

The old fence, part of the playground, with rusting barbed wire and plenty of overgrowth

The area of the playground in now ready for renovation

The iron rods are put in place for the reinforced concrete

The cement mixer and the crane-pump came at night, and started work right away

The making of the cement floor

The new floor is ready and smooth

A reason for celebration

As soon as the cement was solid, we started working right away making the new fence, installing the the rubber tiles for the safety floors, painting the gate and the handrails, fixing the existing toys and procuring the new ones, and all the rest

A bit of decoration: arabic and western numbers being painted here

The new playground is ready

The new playground waits for the children – it will be a big surprise!

The ribbon-cutting ceremony! Children and teachers are delighted

Our chairman Christy presents FAID’s Grace with a donation of 8000 dollars for financing the speech therapist

One of the children is Amir, a deaf Syrian refugee who has no family. During the week he stays at FAID, and spends the weekends at the Home of Hope. The Home of Home provides housing, accommodation, meals, clothes, education and care to children who have no parents or have been abandoned or abused. We went to visit it on a Friday evening: Amir was absolutely delighted to see us there, and kept trying to tell the other children that we were his friends and were there to see him. We were welcomed by Rachida and Brady, who run the institution together with other staff and volunteers. We were impressed by their dedication and their work. A few days later we realised that we still had a bit of money, so we went shopping with Brady and bought 100 pairs of shoes (“crocs”-like) and much underwear for the children, for a total of 350 dollars. We also donated some footballs from a generous sponsor in Ireland. The kids were overjoyed. They have very little.

Our volunteers and Home of Hope’s Brady with one of the kids seen here next to the shoes, underwear, footballls donated on behalf of our generous supporters

Beirut’s Armenian quarter, where we went shopping for shoes

Two residents of the Armenian quarter

In Lebanon there are literally millions of refugees, both long-term ones from the wars in 1948 and 1967 (between 500’000 and 600’00 of them), and an estimated 1.5 million more recent arrivals from the war in Syria. We went to visit the kindergartens of two refugee camps, run by our partner Association Najdeh, one in Beirut and one in Tyre, in the south of Lebanon. These two kindergartens are cheerful and spotless, despite the surrounding dire conditions. The staff are fantastic, motivated and resourceful, and make the most of the little they have. The children are delightful, and – at age 3 to 5 – learn Arabic and English. We donated 2000 dollars to each kindergaten.

One evening we went to visit The Learning Center for the Deaf (LCD), founded and run by Hussein, son of the late Father Andeweg who created FAID, and his wife Nadine. LCD runs an early-intervention centre, for deaf babies and their parents, a nursery school and the preparatory three-year schooling for university. Its services are complementary to FAID. It is very well organised and superbly run. Congratulations to the two visionary founders.

Our volunteers with Hussein and Nadine, the founders of The Learning Center for the Deaf in Baadba, Beirut

One day we went to the Beqaa valley, which borders Syria, to meet with LADC-Salam, a Lebanese non-governmental organisation. Its aim is to provide flexible, effective and non-bureaucratic assistance, which fills the gaps where refugees and local communities do not receive sufficient support, in light of the overwhelming need created by the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon. They run many important project and a community centre with after-school for children and courses for adults. Many Syrian refugee children do not attend school. A bus fitted as a “mobile school” reaches children in the refugee settlements and brings them up to speed so that they can enrol in the public school system. We met the founders Joseph and Martin, and the medical coordinator Laran. They also have many young volunteers who spends weeks or months helping out the various projects – people from all over the world, driven by the same idea. Meeting them was very inspiring, and we hope that one day we can collaborate.

Thank you to all friends in Arquata Scrivia

We would like to thank all Marina’s friends in Arquata Scrivia (Italy, who contributed generously towards our charitable projects in Lebanon. Your altruism allowed us to do much good work and donate money to very worthy causes in Lebanon, all related to disadvantaged children: deaf kids, refugees, street children and orphans. All these stories and pictures are on this blog.

Thank you Arquata!

A visit and donation to the Home of Hope in Lebanon

In early 2017 we reported Amir’s story – a deaf Syrian boy with no family, who was welcomed by FAID school for the deaf. Amir is a boarder at FAID and spends the weekends at Home of Hope Lebanon.

Home of Hope welcomes ~55 street or orphaned children, feeds and clothes them, and gives them a home and an education. Raghida and Brady, director and education director respectively, explained to us how they operate and gave a us a tour of the house. We were impressed. On behalf of our donors and according to Home of Hope’s wish list, we bought 100 pairs of Crocs in many different sizes and socks and underwear. O’Neills Sportswear from Ireland donated footballs, to the delight of the children.

Thank you friends!

Shoes, underwear, footballls donated on behalf of our generous supporters

Beirut’s Armenian quarter, where we went shopping with Home of Hope’s Brady

100 pairs of shoes filled our car’s booth and the back seat