The council of the union of friends of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association issued a statement appealing to the president of the republic, the speaker of parliament and the prime minister “to intervene to put an end to the humanitarian tragedy caused by the banks' refusal to pay the financial dues of individuals and institutions”, and calling on “the relevant authorities to move to stop this suffering, which threatens the fate of more than 4,500 orphan boys and girls cared for by Al-Mabarrat in its institutions across the various Lebanese regions, alongside more than 20,000 students learning in its schools, and hundreds of people with special needs and elderly people whom Al-Mabarrat embraces - added to which is the threat to the fate of 4,000 staff working in its institutions”. The statement read:
A humanitarian tragedy unfolding in silence, with repercussions continuing chapter after chapter, in escalating fashion, the cause being the practices and decisions the banks take in withholding depositors' money.
Decisions that strike at the rights of charitable social institutions, with no reckoning or oversight, and that threaten the lives of 4,000 orphans in Al-Mabarrat's institutions, which provide them with teaching, food, housing, medical care and everything they need.
They also threaten the sponsorship of 500 orphaned university students whom Al-Mabarrat has undertaken to care for, the sponsorship of more than two thousand needy students in its schools, and the deposits supporting the educational inclusion programme for 670 integrated pupils with learning difficulties in Al-Mabarrat's schools.
Decisions that also touch the lives of more than 600 children who are blind, deaf, autistic or have language and communication disorders at Al-Hadi Institution, as well as 300 elderly people whom Al-Mabarrat cares for in the autumn of their lives in homes for the elderly. They also seize the funds supporting some of Al-Mabarrat's schools outside the capital.
And again and again, decisions that threaten the salaries of 4,000 staff in institutions numbering more than thirty-five, added to which are the deposits of Bahman Hospital, which suffers, like similar hospitals, from a shortage of resources and expenses in hard currency, and the revenues of the health centres that provide consultations and medicines to patients for a symbolic fee - not to mention the revenues of the Ramadan month programme, and in particular the eid clothing programme for orphans inside and outside Al-Mabarrat's institutions.
This is apart from the daily operating expenses of the institutions spread across the various Lebanese regions - the Bekaa, the South, the mountains, the coast and the North - institutions that have become threatened with ceasing to operate as a result of the arbitrary financial policies, and that portend the eruption of a social crisis whose repercussions and reach only God knows.
What fate awaits the thousands of people whom Al-Mabarrat helps, amid this obstinacy in refusing to return the dues to those entitled to them? What will become of the orphans, the people with disabilities, the elderly and the struggling students, and what homelessness awaits them if Al-Mabarrat's institutions and similar institutions in the homeland cease to operate - institutions that stand in the place of the state in embracing everyone in need until they reach safe ground?
Is there an initiative to lift the darkness of this long night from the funds of the institutions that care for the poor and the needy, and is there a move by the authorities to stop this bleeding and return the rights to their owners?
It is a painful cry addressed to His Excellency the president of the republic, His Excellency the speaker of parliament and His Excellency the prime minister, and likewise a call to whoever is able in this plundered country, in order to save the lives of these people with their many needs and to put an end to this predation practised against institutions and citizens.. Is there anyone to answer?!
The Union of Friends of Al-Mabarrat
