Category Archives: Events

FAID helps their students’ families

FAID, the school for deaf children we support since 2008, helps their students’ families during this unprecedented crisis

In October 2019, an unprecedented economic crisis in Lebanon caused wide unemployment and a 60% devaluation of the Lebanese currency. As Lebanon relies on imports, prices have more than doubled, and many people find it challenging to buy even basic food items. Coupled with the instability of neighbouring Syria’s 10-year war and the coronavirus crisis, this situation has pushed the country to its knees.

FAID, the school for the deaf we support, helps the most impoverished families among their students. With the help of a NGO, they prepared food parcels and distributed disinfectants to those in need.

The Three Peaks Challenge – an update

An update on Kevin’s Three Peaks Challenge

Dear friends,

not even a global pandemic can stop Kevin and his challenge (described here) – this daring  adventure has just been delayed by a few weeks. It is now going to take place on Saturday July 25th, 2020.

We hope that many of you will support Kevin’s fundraising to help our projects, especially in this difficult time: Lebanon has been hit not only by the Coronavirus pandemic, but also by a terrible economic crisis which has seen its currency lose a staggering 60% of its value. Prices have become sky-high and a large part of the population cannot afford basic goods. Of course, the poor and the refugees – the most vulnerable – have been affected disproportionally hard.

You can donate on Kevin’s  Just Giving page or directly here.

Many heartfelt thanks to Sam, Gerardine Gardezi, Andrea, Marion O’Mahony, Trevor Devereux, Peter White and the many anonymous friends who have donated generously so far! The world is wonderful because you are in it.

Thank you!

The Three Peaks Challenge

The Three Peaks Challenge – a message from Kevin

There are three mountains in beautiful Kerry (Ireland) that have crosses at the top: Cnoc na Tober, Carrauntoohil and Mt. Brandon.

As a fundraising challenge for Lebanon Trust,  our friend Kevin Boyle intends to climb to the summit of the three mountain crosses in the same day, Saturday 6th June 2020.

We all sincerely hope that this is a fundraising challenge that is worthy of your support, along with the charity that I hope to raise funds for – Lebanon Trust.

Kevin will have a small number of friends supporting him on the day, including KCC’s own Kenneth Leahy who will climb with him, and John Lynch who will provide logistical support. Kevin thanks them in advance for their time and effort, given freely.

This year Kevin will carry the Kerry flag with him to the top of the three mountains, and again when you make your donation/pledge, you will be able to nominate two names to be written on the flag, as a gesture of remembrance, spirituality and intentions for your nominated loved ones.

All the funds raised will go to Lebanon Trust’s charitable projects, to help those who can’t help themselves. We all hope you can support the effort.

Thank you in advance from Kevin and all the volunteers of Lebanon Trust.

What we did in 2019

 

What we did in 2019

(tablets and smartphones: best viewed in landscape mode)

Dear friends and supporters,

despite the volatile situation in Lebanon, due to continued protests against mismanagement of public money and corruption, in November 2019 we went to Lebanon to visit the Institutions that we support thanks to your donations. They are: the Father Andeweg Institute for the Deaf (FAID), two kindergartens for refugee children, and the Home of Home, for orphans and street children.

This was our 12th consecutive visit to FAID, School for the Deaf in Beirut, which teaches about 80 children, Christian and Muslim alike, and refugees from Syria; many receive full boarding during the week. We restored and repainted the room for vocational teaching, where the children will be taught the art of hairdressing. We also did much maintenance to the school building, fixed and installed a door for the clinic and cleaned up the garden.

Towards the end of our stay, all the pupils gathered in the school’s courtyard to celebrate (and eat sweets).

Thank to your support, we were able to

  • donate 8000 dollars towards speech therapy, so that the deaf children can learn to speak and lip-read, necessary skills to become independent and support themselves;
  • donate 2000 dollars to buy heating oil for the classrooms (winters are cold in Lebanon!)
  • buy equipment and materials for the work we did

We also visited the Home of Hope, an institution for orphaned and street children. They are now creating a vocational training programme, to make sure that the children can leave the institute equipped with professional and life skills, to become independent and build their own future.

We were able to donate 3000 dollars towards this programme, on behalf of our generous donors. We also brought sport equipment and clothes, thanks to O’Neills House of Sports in Dublin.

We went back to the refugee kindergartens in the camps of Shatila in Beirut and Burj el–Shemali in the ancient city of Tyre in the South of the country. Despite the poverty and squalor surrounding them, these kindergartens are oases of gaiety and serenity, painted in bright colours and spotlessly clean. The children, aged 3-5, play and learn how to read and write in Arabic and English. The staff are very resourceful and super-motivated. As always, they welcomed us with great hospitality and a veritable feast of Palestinian delicacies.

Thank to your generosity, we were able to donate 3000 dollars to each kindergarten towards teaching material for the children and maintenance of the buildings.

Finances

Income: donations to Lebanon Trust (Euro)

Fundraising events 1555.00
Private donations, collection boxes, sponsorship cards 9219.02
Corporate sponsorships 8515.92
Total 19289.94

(Year close Nov 30, 2019; EUR/USD/CHF currency exchange rate: as applied by our bank in Ireland)

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

Web hosting & domains, Paypal/banking commissions
 178.15
Hardware & materials, transport, logistics, local labour 1191.21
Donation to FAID 9243.85
Donation to the Home of Hope 2773.15
Donation to Shatila refugee kindergarten 2773.15
Donation to Burj el Shemali refugee kindergarten 2773.15
Total 18932.66
Difference 357.28

Our volunteers displayed a great imagination in devising ways to raise funds: Christmas swims, street collections, raffles, cake sales, quiz nights, office collections, etc.

Our special thanks to the friends who helped this year:

• Mick Halpin & family (Dublin & USA), for their fantastic, generous & constant support
• All colleagues at Symantec (Dublin)
• Paul’s Barber Shop, Crumlin (Dublin)
• Anna Galli (Genoa, Italy)
• Geraldine McGrath (Dublin), for her amazing cakes!
• McCormack’s Cycle Centre (Dublin)
• O’Neill’s House of Sport (Dublin)
• Paul Reid Dental Laboratories (Dublin)
• Gerard Kelly, Kelly’s Welding & Engineering Supplies Ltd (Dublin)
• Pat Stafford of Stafford Engineering (Dublin)
• A. Bertolotto & MC Ferraro (Genoa, Italy)
• Martina Merkle (Zurich, Switzerland)
• Big Mick & all the lads at Farleng Engineering (Dublin)
• Ole Vossnack (Zurich, Switzerland)
• Fam. Liverini-Swanström (Zurich, CH)
• Fam. Delfante-Cocurullo (Genoa, Italy)
• Anna Dal Negro & fam. (Zurich, CH)
• Giovanni Zappavigna & fam. (Massa, I)
• Elena Prola-Smith & fam. (London, UK)
• Fam. Bertolotto-DellaPenna (Genoa, Italy)
• Milda Cocurullo & fam. (Genoa, Italy)
• Enrico & Lilli Bertolotto (Genoa, Italy)
• Fam. Parodi (Genoa, Italy)
• Fam. Devia (Genoa, Italy)		 • The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (USA)
• The Symantec Foundation (USA)
• St Peregrines GAA Club (Dublin), for their ongoing support over the years
• Patricia Meade (USA), for her generosity
• Kelly’s Welding & Engineering (Dublin)
• The Terence Welding Company (Dublin)
• ProWeld (Dublin)
• Brenden & staff di Lilliput Stores (Dublin)
• Dolphin Furniture Sales (Dublin)
• Lufthansa Airlines
• ChAir Airlines
• Advanced Car Rental (Beirut)
• All the generous Walkinstown friends in St Peter’s Crescent and St Peter’s Drive for their constant support
• Carla & Natale Ferraro (Genoa, Italy)
• G. Margotti & S. Falaschini (Livorno, Italy)
• Fam. Fasciolo (Arquata Scrivia, Italy)
• Fam. Pellegrini (Genoa, Italy)
• Fam. Aquini (Arquata Scrivia, Italy)
• Fam. Ricci (Arquata Scrivia, Italy)
• Fam. Vigna-Mori (Savona, Italy)
• Fabio Minotti (Lentate sul Seveso, Italy)
• Catherine e Adrian Ruf (Zurich, CH)
• Chaithra Vishnu (India)
• Community Foundation of Collier County, Florida (USA)

Lebanon Trust’s volunteers’ work at FAID

Our volunteers’ work at FAID (November 2019)

 

    

 

This was our volunteer’s 12th consecutive visit to FAID, School for the Deaf, in Beirut.

We painted and renovated the Vocational Training room, where FAID’s children will be trained to become hairdressers; did many maintenance tasks at the school; cleaned up the garden and fixed and re-installed the clinic door.

At the end of our stay, we all shared chocolates & cheers with the all the children.

Thanks to our donors, we were able to help the school with

– USD 8000 for the speech therapy,
– USD 2000 for heating fuel
– and we financed the renovation work that we carried out

We look forward to next year’s visit!

Volunteers in Lebanon, 2019

Despite the volatile situation, our volunteers went to Lebanon last month (Nov 2019)

     

Widespread, non-sectarian protests have been taking place in Lebanon without interruption since October 17, 2019. The protests are motivated by the government’s failure to provide basic services (such as electricity, drinking water, garbage collection) and find solutions to an economic crisis that has been looming for quite some time, because of corruption and waste of public money. These protests cause some disruptions – such as blocked roads – and the banks, when they are open, limit withdrawals.

Despite the possible volatility of the situation, our volunteers travelled to Lebanon for their annual working visit.

(pictures: from Wikipedia)

Lebanon Trust volunteers on their 2019 mission

Lebanon Trust volunteers on their 2019 mission

Once again, Lebanon Trust’s volunteers are heading to Lebanon. For two weeks in November, they will visit FAID School for the Deaf, the Association Najdeh‘s refugee kindergartens, and the institute for orphaned and street children Home of Hope Lebanon, doing practical work and delivering financial support, thanks to our friends and donors!

A huge THANK YOU to all the generous people who helped us this year!

A fantastic cake sale at Symantec

A fantastic cake sale at Symantec

Our wonderful friends at Symantec in Dublin organised a galactic cake sale – and raised more than EUR 1000 for our projects!

We are speechless and cannot thank them enough for such a wonderful generosity. This is amazing. Your generosity, dear friends, will go a long way to help vulnerable children, refugees and orphans. Thank you, Mick Halpin, Stephanie Derwojed, Fabio Fantino, Tina, Alexandra, and all who participated, from the bottom of our hearts.

 

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To Hell And Back, for a good cause: our bravest friends

To Hell And Back, for a good cause: our bravest friends

A great team of Lebanon Trust’s friends took up the famous – and strenuos -“To Hell And Back”, Ireland’s toughest physical and mental endurance challenge, to raise funds for our charitable projects. Above, team leader Andy Walsh hands over more than EUR 400 to Christy, Lebanon Trust’s chairman.

We thank them deeply & sincerely for the pain and suffering endured for the cause! Thank you brave friends!

cake sale 27 june 2019

Thursday, June 27th, 2019: great cake sale at Symantec in Dublin, in favour of Lebanon Trust’s projects

On the last Thursday of June our friends at Symantec Dublin will hold a great cake sale, to raise funds in favour on Lebanon Trust’s projects. Yummy sweets, raffles and spot prizes for all – and a huge THANK YOU to all, organisers, bakers and supporters!

 

fundraising event June 2019

Thank you champions!

A huge THANK YOU and all our gratitude to Lebanon Trust’s friends Andy Walsh, Stephen O’Toole, Anthony Smith and Stephen Malone, who put their time and energy to raise funds for our projects.

Lebanon Trust couldn’t help anybody without friends like you!!!