Welfare Wheat Race – Run for a good cause

Welfare Wheat Race is a yearly race organized by Al Amal NGO for the Disabled and the Needy. The funds raised in this race go to the Sweater & Wheat program, which gives persons with special needs the role of contributing in the support of the other needy.

The race is set to take place on the 29th of April, 2012. It will start from the Broummana Municipality Playground at 8 AM sharp and the participants will be first briefed for details and information at 7:30 AM.

The track is a course closed to traffic with a maximum time limit of 120 minutes for all races. The participation minimum age is 11 years and above.
Toilet Facilities will be present on the premises of the event. A Water station is available at the finish line along with a distance marker every 1Km into the race.

Free memorabilia will be given away to participants (this includes T-shirts, pins, etc.) Breakfast is not included in the participation fee. Any food you might want can be purchased from the event area.

The different races are as follows:

School Races – Males:
1000 Meters (Born in 2000-01)
1500 Meters (Born in 98-99)
2000 Meters (Born in 97-96)
3000 Meters (Born in 95-94)

School Races – Females:
800 Meters (Born in 2000-01)
1200 Meters (Born in 98-99)
1500 Meters (Born in 97-96)
2000 Meters (Born in 95-94)

5K Race: Open to professionals of 19 years of age and above.

1K Welfare March & Parade: Open to all public with no restrictions.

The Internal Forces Classical Orchestra led by the Maestro CL. Ziad Murad along with music bands from Metn schools will hold various performances alongside the race to live up the mood.

Registration Information:
You can register by e-mail on welfarewheatrace@gmail.com or by telephone on 04 963 330. Please send us via any of these both mediums the following information: name, gender, date of birth, nationality, club or name of group leader (if applicable) and a clear photocopy or scan of your ID.

Registration opens on Thursday 15th of March 2012 and the deadline for registration is on the 14th of April 2012.

Registration fees are as follows:

Race registration:
LBP 5,000 for participants up till the age of 18 years.
LBP 20,000 for participants of 19 years of age and above.

Welfare March & Parade registration:
LBP 20,000 donation fee to help support the NGO and its activities.

About Al Amal NGO:

Inspired by her own son Selim, who suffered from mental disabilities, Mounira El-Solh worked on providing a better life and on promoting the cause for persons with special needs.
In 1959, she founded Al-Amal Institute, a center providing care, residence, and rehabilitation for these persons.

Al Amal Institute for the Disabled is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that supports the cause of people with special needs. Our residential center for the mentally disabled is located in Broummana – Metn, but our programs aim to improve the integration and autonomy of these people with special needs on a nationwide level. As our programs work on integration and welfare, we try to involve the community with our cause and as well host activities that promote sports and culture.

In 1992, the Winter Sweater (كنزة الشتاء) program was started, through which residents with special needs of Al-Amal institute started participating in the production of wool sweaters in a workshop established at the center.

As of 2002, the Welfare Wheat (سنبلة الخير) program was also started, promoting and supporting the economic productivity and independence of farmers with special needs in various regions of Lebanon. This program also involves the residents of Al-Amal in packaging and production. Part of the program, the Welfare Wheat Festival takes place every July in the village of Arnoun, South of Lebanon, bringing together volunteers, farmers, residents, various schools in harvesting and packaging crops, as well as various other cultural and social events and activities.

The Sweater & Wheat (كنزة وسنبلة) program is a combined program, through which individual donations go towards sponsoring a sweater and a 15 kg of crops (estimated yearly individual consumption) containing chickpeas, lentils, bulgur, beans, wheat, are sent “from a person with special needs to a needy person” – to a list of 69 non-profit NGOs in various regions of Lebanon.

Today, the programs focus on:

promoting the productivity of persons with special needs
integrating them through participation in productive, social and cultural activities
supporting the cause of persons with special needs and raising awareness

Welfare Wheat Race 2011

For more information, you can:

Check the Facebook Page

The official launch of ABC Happy Smoke-Free Environment campaign

The panel

ABC’s Chairman, Mr. Fadel Fadel opened the discussion by mentioning the previous ABC campaigns and ABC’s commitment to give back to the community. He spoke about the recent launch of the Lebanese Designers corner and how several campaigns stressed on kids issues like autism. Mr. Fadel also announced that a breast cancer campaign will be launched soon. He also stressed on the fact that ABC was initially a place for kids and has become a place for families.

Besides announcing that ABC will be a smoke-free environment, he mentioned that for the time being there is only an exception for restaurants as per the law. But he decided to go further and announced that all restaurants would also be smoke-free on Mondays.

Minister of Public Health Mr. Ali Hassan Khalil started his speech by saying that he never touched a cigarette during his entire life and that the statistics concerning Lebanon were really sad. Smoking has become the number one cause of death claiming thousands of lives every year. He also expressed his relief that the law made progress and that bad habits will need to change gradually.

Minister of Tourism Mr. Fadi Abboud said that changing bad habits should start with politicians and has to be applied through out the bodies of the states including the soldiers on our streets. He also reminded people how they believed it would not be possible to implement a non-smoking law in the airport and they were proven wrong. Mr. Abboud refused the clichés saying that an increase in the price of the pack of cigarettes would allow the black market to take off and that Lebanon is just a country for wealthy tourists. According to him, smokers are costing the Ministry of Health a great deal; therefore an increase in price is totally justified.

Minister of Environment Mr. Nazim El Khoury encouraged smokers to reconsider their choices and hoped their number will decrease.

Official Lauch of the Smoke Free campaign in ABC Ashrafieh The official launch of ABC Happy Smoke Free Environment campaign

Official Launch of the Smoke-Free campaign in ABC Ashrafieh

The official launch was nice: A tube with the colors of a cigarette would be cut in half releasing balloons. The event was followed by an non-smoking oath taken by students and a performance by rapper Ghost.

Students taking oath The official launch of ABC Happy Smoke Free Environment campaign

Students taking non-smoking oath

Rapper Ghost The official launch of ABC Happy Smoke Free Environment campaign

Rapper Ghost and the dancing crew

So now, practically, whenever you spot someone smoking where they are not supposed to, you can report it to the security staff who will be responsible of handling the situation.

ABC’s initiative is great but it will definitely need to be heavily reinforced.

The press release goes as follows:

ABC, the leading retailer in Lebanon, launched today its ‘Smoke Free Environment’ campaign becoming the first shopping mall in Lebanon to implement the tobacco control law. The campaign, headed by ABC Chairman Mr. Robert Fadel, was launched in ABC Achrafieh and attended by the Minister of Public Health Mr.a Ali Hassan Khalil, the Minister of Tourism Mr. Fadi Abboud, and the Minister of Environment Mr. Nazim el Khoury and supported by ‘Tobacco Free Initiative’ (TFI), celebrities, VIPs and members of the press.

Starting the first of March, ABC will implement the tobacco control legislation number 174 to become a non-smoking mall, except restaurants and cafes as stated in the regulation. However, ABC is launching ‘Happy Smoke Free Monday’, extending its non-smoking initiative to the restaurants and cafes every Monday, as a preparation phase to implementing the law, in an effort to raising health awareness and creating a health-oriented culture amongst the Lebanese society.

“ABC has been part of the Lebanese community for 75 years and we believe in giving back to this community” said Robert Fadel, Chairman of ABC. “ABC is the ultimate family meeting destination, thus, helping our customers, especially the teenagers, quit smoking is our responsibility and we hope to set the good example for other corporations to follow our lead in order to contribute in making Lebanon a healthier country”, he explained.

Implemented to make ABC experience more enjoyable for more people, the ‘Smoke Free Environment’ campaign will play a major role in supporting the implementation of the anti-smoking law. Professional trainers from TFI conducted an anti-smoke educational session for all ABC and tenants employees to educate about the benefice of this campaign so they will in return educate the mall visitors.

Taking leading steps by implementing the law, ABC is also implementing an educational program by setting focal points in its store to educate its customers about the danger of smoking while also developing a digital campaign on all of ABC’s social media channels to target the young generation.

Go skate!

Go skate is an image I took during an event hosted by the Lebanese Skating Association. Someone shared it on Tumblr and it has been re-shared and liked 1,208 times!

Many thanks to @iJoeation for the notification!

More skating photos can be found here.

Check Lebanese Skateboarding Association:

Racist 4-year-old kids!

Lebanon has institutionalized racism in a such a way that people no longer realize the impact of certain actions and words on others. Some just pepper their racism in such a humiliating way and consider it something normal.

Racism is the “belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination.” Tourists from Asia/Africa, Lebanese mixed with other nationalities, Arabs etc… and migrant workers.

Migrant workers are part of our society. We live together and we work together. Work against salary. Nothing new under the sun.

Some of them has been living in Lebanon for more than 10 years. Naturally, they get married and/or have kids. Some of them are single moms; in some cultures, being a single mom is not the end of the world; it is what it is, and the child gets registered under his mother’s name.

Kids grow fast. Parent(s) will want to register their kids in school; give them an education; something many of them were denied access to in their home countries for various reasons (poverty, living in a remote area etc…).

I was playing with Jalal* a few days ago; he is bright, smart and speaks better Lebanese than I do! Jalal stopped playing for a second. His face became very sad and serious. When I asked him what was wrong, he looked at me and said: “Today, my friends in school came to tell me not to play with Kasun* because he is black and his parents are Sri Lakan… My mom is from Africa, my dad is Egyptian but I’m Lebanese!” He then went running to his mother and asked her: “Why is your skin color darker than mine?”

Jalal’s mother is concerned. What will happen to her son and his friends at the public school when they realize he’s not Lebanese? Will they stop talking to him and marginalize him?

I hear this “children are our future” line during almost any occasion… looks like our future is bleak… What exactly are we teaching our kids?

Note: Names* have been changed to protect the kids’ identities.

Who are Jalal* and Kasun*?

Jalal* is a 4-year-old boy Born in Lebanon to an Ethiopian mother and an Egyptian father. The couple was in love. When the mother broke the news of the pregnancy to the father, he beat her up, ordered her to have an abortion and left her. The mother decided to have the baby no matter what. She registered him and raised him alone. She enrolled him in a Lebanese public school. Growing up, the boy started inquiring about his father. His mother explained in words he could understand and took him to meet his father. Jalal’s father decided to move back with his family.

Kasun* is a 4-year-old boy. Born in Lebanon to Sri Lankan parents who came to this part of the world with hope to get a better a life for them and the families they send money to every month.

Sources:

Women are human beings and an integral part of the Lebanese society

When I wrote about rape a few months ago, a myriad of mixed reactions and even all sorts of threats fell upon me.

Some guys accused me of lies and “black marketing”; saying that I was scaring tourists off Lebanon (R.I.P. freedom of speech) and that people who wrote like this deserved raping.

They showed exactly what I was talking about. These guys are the same one who embrace violence and pretend they care… schizophrenia at its best! This is a personal non-political blog. Thank you.

Rape, domestic violence, verbal and sexual harassment are still considered as “sensitive” subjects. Parents throw the responsibility for sexual education on schools…some schools either don’t have enough budget or the right personnel to do something about it. So what happens is that students only get 2-3 hours of sexual education during 12-15 years of schooling. Some parents even raise their girls in the “Whatever happens to you is your mistake.”, “If you get raped, I will kill you.” and “It’s your husband; deal with it.”

When a rape happens, a heavy weighted silence is imposed on the girl because the family has a reputation to maintain and can’t “deal with the shame”. The girl is either given away for a quick marriage or taken to “reconstructive surgery”. In the event where a girl does report the rape to the police it is treated in an ill manner: They make her repeat the story a million times, tell her things like “you must have wanted/looked for this to happen”, give her personal contact to the family’s rapist, attempt to make her give up the case in exchange of money, leave her with no assistance nor protection etc..

In the workplace, it is sometimes worse: Some managers in some companies should be placed in mental institutions. Their criteria for hiring women are questionable, they give less to a woman than a man doing the same job, verbally and sexually harass women employees who have no one to turn to and family to support… Some sick managers even base their promotions on sexual favors.

We consider ourselves a “modern” society? Reminder: Women are HUMAN BEINGS and an INTEGRAL part of the Lebanese society. It took a man AND a WOMAN to make you.

Abuse happens when there are no CLEAR laws and penalties that are written to protect citizens. This has to STOP!

Everyone needs to be aware and trained on how to tackle these issues including company staff, police etc…

On Saturday, 14 January 2012, at 12 pm, Nasawiya is calling for a march from the Ministry of Interior in Sanayeh to the Parliament in Downtown Beirut.

“We, the women who reside in Lebanon, excuse ourselves from playing the decorative role that has been imposed on us.

We take to the streets today to say that we are aware and knowledgeable about the methodical war that state and society have waged on our bodies and our safety through their political parties and leaders.

From now on, we will not accept empty promises that are heaped upon us every time we call for our rights.

We will not give in to patience. We will not bite our wounds and postpone the battles of today to tomorrow.

Our voices will be louder than the bickering between your parties and your sporadic yet connected wars.

We call on Parliament to:

Pass the draft law for Protection from Domestic Violence as it has been written and with no delay.
Intensify punitive measures against rapists and those who attempt rape, amending the respective law.
Treat verbal harassment as physical harassment, especially in the work place, making it a crime subject to judicial penalties.
Deal with complaints related to sexual violence with rigor and consistency. We call on the Interior Ministry and the Municipalities to also apply those measures. The three bodies should work to make our streets and neighborhoods safe, especially during the night-time, by ensuring proper street-lighting, and permitting us to carry tools of self-defense, like taser guns and pepper spray.

We extend this invitation to all women and girls who have been exposed to rape or attempted rape or harassment in all its forms, to all so-called “housewives” that have been subjected to beating and verbal abuse, to all those employees, teachers, activists, workers and union leaders who experience sexual abuse time and time again, and to all those who feel the injustice and lack of equality. [...]

We women no longer possess anything but solidarity with one another. We must stand shoulder to shoulder and unite. What lies before us is the last of our battles: the defense of our rights, bodies and security.

We have nothing to lose but our chains. The time is now.”