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Dear friends and supporters,

Because of the coronavirus, this year we have not been able to travel to Lebanon, for the first time since 2008.

The year 2020 has been difficult for everyone, but really bad for Lebanon.

A severe economic crisis – coupled with the Syrian war – has destabilised the economy. The currency has lost 80% of its value; prices have skyrocketed. Middle-class people have become poor, and the poor have become destitute. Currently, more than half of the population of the country is below the poverty line. Of the Syrian refugees, 90% live in “extreme poverty”.

The coronavirus has of course taken its toll in Lebanon, too, with the added tragedy of very scarce economic means.

Then, on August 4^th, a terrible explosion killed more than 200 people, injured thousands, and inflicted billions in damage. No-one has taken responsibility for the 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that had been left in the port of Beirut, without safety measures, for nearly 7 years.

In this scenario, what we can do is really a drop in the ocean. But still more than zero.

In total, we sent 25’000 dollars, part to FAID, the school for deaf children that we have been supporting since 2008, and part to our partner Association Najdeh, working in Lebanon’s refugee camps.

FAID used the funds to

• create 76 individual education packs (covering 8 weeks of schooling) to support students to study at home, with tailor-made speech therapy exercises for the kids. It was a big piece of work by 13 teachers, the social worker and the psychologist, who follow those families where problems exist.
• finance a speech therapist, who teaches the deaf children to speak and lip-read, giving them the chance to communicate with the world and build an independent life for themselves.

Najdeh was able to

• prepare & distribute 256 food parcels for the neediest refugee families in the camps of Shatila and Burj El Barajneh, especially those headed by single mothers or with children with special needs (for a total of 1156 people)
• buy educational materials and books for the refugee children of the kindergartens we support

Teaching the deaf children at FAID:

Distribution of food packages in the refugee camps, funded by us and executed by Association Najdeh:

This year, given the special situation, we thought we really had a big mountain to climb in terms of raising funds. One of our friends, in fact, climbed three of them all in the same day – and raised 4’000 euro for Lebanon Trust in the process! We also had Bingo nights, street collections, an artist selling cat portraits, a friend donating in memory of a loved one, another donating part of her severance pay, another getting us into Amazon’s charity donation scheme, and many just quietly donating. To all, a huge heartfelt THANK YOU.

The “3 Peaks 3 Crosses” Challenge by Kevin Boyle:

Cat portraits, proceedings donated to Lebanon Trust:

A rainy Bingo night in Dublin, for intrepid supporters of Lebanon Trust:

Street collection in Tralee:

Financial Report

Income: donations to Lebanon Trust (Euro) (Dec 1st, 2019 – Nov 30th, 2020)

(Year close Nov 30, 2020; EUR/USD/CHF currency exchange rate: as applied by our bank in Ireland)

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

(*) Permanent TSB Forex, PayPal, JustGiving, Benevity

A donation of USD 5000 from Amazon has been arranged for next year (many thanks Mick!).

Our gratitude to the friends who helped this year (Dec 1^st, 2019 – Nov 30^th, 2020):