Lebanon Trust’s 2016 results |
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Dear friends and supporters,
we would like to tell you what we did this year with your donations.
We went to Lebanon in October, and stayed at the deaf children’s school that we support, the Father Andeweg Institute for the Deaf (FAID). There, we built a brand-new playground for the kids and donated towards the school’s operational expenses. About 25% of FAID’s pupils are refugees from the Syria war.
The representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Beirut visited us at FAID. This resulted in a very nice video and story, also published here on our own website, Facebook and Twitter.
Watch the video: (© UNHCR)
We also published a beautiful story about two deaf children who used to live in poverty in a Syrian refugee camp, and who are now attending school at FAID thanks to internet crowdfunding, organised by a clever American volunteer.
Like every year, we also visited two refugee camps and donated to their kindergartens, run by our local partner Association Najdeh. Lebanon hosts more than 1 million registered refugees from Syria, on a local population of 4 million (and 450 thousand Palestinian refugees). It’s like Ireland had 1.2 million refugees – the real number is 11 thousand – or the UK had 16.3 million – real number 169 thousand (source: UN).
The total amount donated in 2016 slightly exceeded last year’s.
Our 2016 activity in eight pictures |
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What we did at the Father Andeweg Institute for the Deaf (FAID) in Beirut:
- Donation of one year’s worth of funding for the school bus, the electricity generator and the classrooms’ heating. Total: USD 8000
- Maintenance and improvement of FAID’s premises. Tools, material and equipment have been purchased by Lebanon Trust, and the work carried out by the volunteers themselves: total USD 2534
- Creation of a new playground on a vacant plot outside the girls’ dormitory: complete clearance of the area and of its access pathways; complete re-paving; restoration and re-painting of the perimeter fence; purchase, installation of 4 large wooden boards along the perimeter fence to be painted and decorated by the children; construction and installation of a safety door to the generator housing; sourcing, purchase and installation of child safety surface and of high-quality metal playground equipment (slide, swings, merry-go-round, see-saw, etc.; 5 pieces in total); restoration, re-painting and installation of six wooden benches in the area.
- Creation of a garden with plants and flower beds (purchased & planted for the purpose) outside the girls’ dormitory, to provide the children with a pleasant and safe recreational area.
- Purchase and installation of high-quality metal merry-go-round and see-saw for the kindergarten’s existing playground.
- Installation of a net around the external perimeter of the school’s courtyard, to allow the pupils to play football.
- Organisation of a visit by a delegation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon, headed by Senior Communication and Public Information Officer Matthew Saltmarsh. The visit included interviews with Lebanon Trust’s officers and school staff; visit of the classrooms during school time; visit of the Audiology Department with live demonstrations; illustration of the school academic programme and of the challenges faced by FAID; visit of the playground area being built by us; filming of school activities, speech therapy and interviews.
- Organisation of a visit by a delegation from the Symantec Corporation’s Beirut office, headed by the Commercial Manager for Egypt and the Levant Region Marcel Nasser. Symantec’s Ireland HQ have been supporting us for many years now.
- Evaluation of the work done by FAID and discussion of their plans and needs; meetings with their management (Director and Board), with the staff and pupils.
What we did at the refugee kindergartens:
- Kindergarten of the Chatila refugee camp in Beirut: on-going financial support for books and educational material, USD 2000; field visit with inspection of classrooms, roof playground and educational material financed by Lebanon Trust, meeting with the teachers, the children and the schoolmaster
- Kindergarten of the Burj el Shemali refugee camp in Tyre: on-going financial support for books and educational material, USD 2000; field visit with inspection of new and refurbished classrooms and playground; meetings with pupils, teachers and head teacher; detailed discussion about their needs and plans.
Finances
Income: Donations to Lebanon Trust (Euro)
Fundraising events | 3171.94 |
Private donations, collection boxes, sponsorship cards, proceeds from MC Ferraro’s latest book | 7878.08 |
Corporate sponsorships | 2484.47 |
Total | 13534.49 |
(Year close Nov 30, 2016; EUR/USD/CHF currency exchange rate: 2016 average)
Expenditure: Donations to the supported institutions, expenses (Euro)
Web hosting & domains | 180.00 |
Hardware & materials, transport, logistics, etc. | 2533.30 |
Contribution to FAID | 7520.00 |
Contribution to Chatila refugee kindergarten | 1880.00 |
Contribution to Burj el Shemali refugee kindergarten | 1880.00 |
Total | 13993.30 |
Loss | –458.81 |
Accommodation was kindly provided by FAID for free. Flights and local transport have been paid for privately. The volunteers took unpaid leave from their employers.
Fundraising events organised by the volunteers over the year: Christmas swim, street collections, weekly raffles, cake sales, quiz night, virtual flea market, bucket collections.
Our special thanks to these friends, who helped us this year:
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