The past three years were not normal for the Lebanese citizens. The “normal” criterion in Lebanon changed to mean: living with the least losses, as the minimum rights are now memories that we repeat with the slogan: “do you remember the days of 1,500 Lebanese Pounds?” Experiencing these rights again needs an airline ticket or any foreign currency, in addition to the currency depreciation, whether for immigration or to spend few days in “normal countries.”
The largest group of the Lebanese citizens or the holders of the lira not the foreign currency have only the solution of adapting and coexisting with the reality. Sociologically, people can adapt to any circumstances despite big differences among communities and individual differences among the members of the same community.
Almost every day, reports highlight that in Lebanon, we live to survive, that’s all. “The Lebanese people is one of the most depressed people worldwide”, inflation is reaching very high rates, and poor people are suffering from more poverty every month”… are a sample of what we are following, and are even normal news that turn into jokes: “hopefully, we will be in the first place ahead of Afghanistan.”
People solidarity… as the only solution
The Lebanese people concluded that solidarity was their only solution. Solidarity was translated through the protests of October 17 before that the political power won and undermined most demands. This solidarity or struggle, as an expression tickling feelings, turned into individual initiatives that played a key role in facing the repercussions of the explosion of August fourth, and reducing the impacts of the economic collapse.
Individual initiatives are so far from the role of the associations that most of them rely on the financing provided by international bodies and organizations. Individual initiatives are driven by the efforts of a group of “motivated people”, who hope that their efforts will mitigate the impacts of the crisis experienced by people close to them.
Such initiatives increase in the vulnerable areas, which suffer from a marginalization that has doubled since the beginning of the crisis at the end of 2019. This matter does not mean that individual initiatives are absent in Beirut and the large cities, but exist in addition to the role of some associations, institutions and families unlike the peripheries. According to the people in charge of these efforts, the partisan allowances didn’t exist in most areas after the parliamentary elections (May 2022), which led people to look for individual solutions.
These initiatives are launched in every village in Chouf and Aley, despite their scarcity in the pre-crisis period as they were limited to some entertainment activities and the organization of trips and exhibitions. Today, the role of these initiatives turned into looking for medicine, helping the poorest groups, and covering the minimum costs of education of the students of official schools, such as the transport allowances… up to making some surgeries for the village’s residents.
“Mecherfeh Youth Club”: priority is for residents
Among the significant initiatives in the district of Aley is the Mecherfeh Youth Club, which targets all age groups of the village’s residents. The club was established in 2017 by a group of young girls who sought to breathe some life into their quiet village that lacked any kind of activities. Mecherfeh is a mountain village in the district of Aley and is around 30 kilometers away from the capital Beirut.
The club consists now of 40 young boy and girls. Its main goal is to raise awareness by encouraging members to social participation. In 2020, the club deployed efforts to help the residents during the time of quarantine by distributing medical assistance and raising awareness on the risks of Corona virus. Ramona Sarrieddine (25 years old), Founder of the club, said that the quarantine period was a paradigm shift in their role on the village level.
The club was aware of the crisis of medication shortages in Lebanon. The club’s members worked on securing drugs from Turkish and American associations to the residents under the supervision of doctors. The club is supporting now the farmers by offering the necessary seeds and pesticides to the crop. According to Ramona, “the club is always seeking to empower the village’s women by engaging them in the industrial field.”
The club is relying on expatriates and some residents in terms of financing, in addition to some entertainment activities held under symbolic prices to support the fund. Among the main trainings organized by the club recently is first aid for youth groups, in cooperation with the Lebanese Red Cross, in parallel with raising awareness on the risks of bullying and harassment for the younger age groups.
Ramona says that the club’s foundations are to stay away from politics, especially that political trends are different among the residents of Mecherfeh. Finally, she said: “the residents of the village trust the club’s members and this is obvious through their openness towards collecting their information during some activities.”
“Beit Al Khair” initiative: a solidarity among youth to face the medication crisis
The crisis of medication may be the most important crisis since the beginning of the Lebanese crisis. Patients lived a challenging period that extended for months. The situation reached a stage where some patients died as a result of the lack of medication and failure of the official authorities to find solutions. The reality of the crisis aggravated in the vulnerable areas, which already lacked a minimum of health and medical services.
Among these areas is the village of Aghmid in the district of Aley (around 36 kilometers away from Beirut), which lacks pharmacies and dispensaries… and even doctors and the health sector workers. The village’s residents suffered from “high stress” during the crisis of medication shortages. The partisan assistance wasn’t enough due to the high need of different kinds of drugs for chronic and incurable diseases.
For this reason, the initiative of “Beit Al Khair” was launched in 2020 by the young boys and girls of the village, who found a solution for the crisis only through their solidarity. First, the people in charge worked on filling the applications to determine the necessary drugs and the people who needed them the most. Communication took place with the municipality that facilitated their work by harnessing its limited capacities to secure the main drugs for residents.
The initiative was not limited to providing drugs during the period of their shortage, but also worked on distributing gifts for children in time of holidays. The initiative also organized an entertainment event for the children and one day for the village’s women on the occasion of mother’s day.
Sarah Bou Ghader (29 years old), an active member in the initiative, talks about the great welcoming of the initiative first by the expatriates and whom she names the “beneficent hands”. However, with the current high prices of medication as a result of removing support, enthusiasm for assistance is lower for many factors, mainly the long term of the crisis. According to Sarah, the number of beneficiaries from the initiative is now lower compared to more than 40 individuals in the beginning.
Sarah says that “the members of the initiative work now on advertisements, as they hope they can help secure some of the financing required to cover the main drugs needed by residents.” Moreover, the initiative organized some activities, which aim at financing the fund of “Beit Al Khair”, such as the sale of clothes and the annual calendar during the New Year’s Eve.
Independence of women as a target for an initiative in Chouf
“We didn’t determine any name for our initiative and we didn’t publish any assistance photos on social media, after we realized that our only solution was to help the residents of Bekaata and the neighboring area,” said Rima Zebian (50 years old), a social activist. Rima established with a certain number of friends and relatives an initiative to support women in the district of Chouf in 2022. The most important feature of this initiative is helping women in their work instead of being satisfied with financial allowances.
The initiative relies mainly on expatriate remittances and targets the women working in homemade food, such as the production of pomegranate molasses and rose water among others by providing them with the raw materials. According to Rima, “many women couldn’t secure raw materials due to high prices, which led us to support them so that they don’t lose their living income source.”
Around 35 ladies are benefiting from the initiative. The persons in charge of the initiative make sure that the ladies lack any income source or any other kind of allowances. Rima says that the ladies feel independence as a result of their work, and they would have missed this feeling if they were satisfied with the financial allowances only.
Furthermore, the initiative worked on securing food packages including vegetables, fruits, meat and grains for the ladies who suffered from difficult health conditions and had no breadwinner. During last Adha holiday, the persons in charge of the initiative helped the ladies working in the production of sweets by securing raw materials and purchasing their sweets.
These initiatives will not compensate the absence of the State and will not rescue the Lebanese citizens from the repercussions of the economic tragedy that is took so long and is expected to last longer. However, although most of these initiatives are limited, they are able to create solidarity based on the rule “the crisis brings people together.” Initiatives increase with the aggravation of the crisis in a way that with every crisis there is an initiative that reduces its impacts… except the initiatives fully confidential which are limited to help the most vulnerable people “silently.”