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Present Programs And Projects |
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Al Mahabbeh School – Saadnayel
With only twenty-five percent of the Bedouin and Turkmen population being literate,
making schools, teachers and educational materials available to the residents of the Bekaa Valley has been a long term goal.
The Al Mahabbeh School is serving nearly 100 children from pre-school through 6th grade.
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Al Bassel School – Baalbek |
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Located in Baalbek, the Al Bassel School serves approximately 615 students from preschool through the
end of 9th grade or the Brevet government exams. Without its presence, children as young as three and four years of age would be
working in the fields alongside their parents. Parents barely have the means to feed and clothe their children much less take time
from their labor and means to educate them. For this reason, the Al Bassel School has been an asset to the community by
equipping graduates to obtain jobs that provide food, heat and medical care for their families as never before.Back
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Medical
The Bedouin people are some of the most vulnerable to poor health care because most have little access to government run healthcare services no matter how basic. Services by local, private doctors are financially unaffordable. Volunteer, foreign medical workers offer high quality care but are hampered by working in less than ideal situations with limited equipment and having to rely on an interpreter who for the most part will have no professional knowledge other than from personal use.
Bridges of Love is helping to meet the healthcare needs of the valley by working in partnership with another local non-profit organization. This teamwork is now making available a well equipped Mobile Clinic. Supplies and medicines have been graciously and generously donated by I.M.C. here in Lebanon.
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Only thirty percent of Bedouin children have been vaccinated. New awareness of this figure has made it possible to begin an immunization program in the Saadnayel area. More than 500 children under the age of five received their childhood vaccinations in a single month.
In addition, BOL has been able to help many individuals with specific medical and hospitalization needs. Assistance with costs for delivering of babies, multiple eye surgeries, orthopedic surgeries to correct problems in several young children, and attention to more complicated internal medicine concerns have all been taken on and treated.
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Food Distribution
Most people living in the Bekaa Valley depend on agriculture for their daily living. The events of the last war in Lebanon crippled livelihoods for many as they were unable to get to the fields to harvest the crops or it became impossible to travel to the markets to sell them. Not only were those season’s crops destroyed but the next season’s crop went unplanted. With the support of many, food distribution began during the war and was able to continue through the 2007 growing season.
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Water and Sewer Project
Bedouin villages have been found to have no sewage systems. Housing structures are surrounded by open ditches of contaminated sewage and there is no clean, running water. In addition, the water table is only 10 meters below surface level. Over time, the contaminated sewage has leached through the soil and into the clean water below the surface.
For quite some time, the Al Bassel School has faced a huge problem with minimal bathroom facilities and an inadequate sewer system. Although there are 10 inside toilet stalls at the school, none of them are connected to the sewer system. The only working toilets for the 615 students are the two ‘hammam arabi’ or Arabic toilets. |
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Before the inside toilets can be hooked up to the sewer system, the system itself needs to be replaced as the current one is damaged and leaks effluent into the soil, contaminating the ground water. This contamination was confirmed by tests done on the drinking water from the school well. Harmful levels of several bacteria as well as elevated levels of calcium found in the water are coming from the inadequate sewer system.
A Heart for Children has come forward with a helping hand to assist in the repair of this problem at the school and Bridges of Love is looking forward to taking on this upcoming project in the next few months.
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Entertainment
It is rare to have a diversion from life’s every day challenges for the poor. In the Spring of 2007, an illusionist, spent time in the valley working wonders and bringing smiles to hundreds of eager hearts.
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The Story |
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With funds donated by special CA friends, it has been possible to produce and distribute 7,500 cassettes throughout the Bekaa Valley and in the southern areas of the country. These tapes as well as 200 copies of the New Testament have been warmly received and even sought after by many individuals.
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Summer Camps
The Summer Camp season covers three weeks during the months of July and August. Under the sponsorship of Bridges of Love, a team of approximately twenty well trained and loving staff members provided by Grain de Blé host camps for 120 children from Saadnayel, Baalbek and Hermel. The programs, for children ranging in age from 8-12, are designed to help them grow and blossom physically and emotionally and are fun filled weeks of learning and activities.
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Reconstruction |
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During the summer of 2006, in the Bekaa Valley alone well over 300 homes were demolished from the effects of the war. Many more were damaged. Bridges of Love’s small teams was able to come in and help reconstruct seven homes for teachers whose houses were destroyed during bombings.
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Micro-Business |
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There is a Chinese proverb which says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. Several micro-businesses have begun and grown in the Bekaa Valley. Many families have been helped by their own hard work and with loans and assistance from BOL. These new businesses vary from raising bees to making aluminum frames for doors and windows to starting and running a car wash.
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