The union of the councils of friends of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association held its annual meeting at Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Mabarrat for the care of orphans in Maaroub (the south), entitled “the role of care institutions in building and strengthening values among the sons of the homeland”.
The meeting was attended by the head of the volunteer work department at the Ministry of Social Affairs Mrs Mona Nasreddine, representing the Minister of Social Affairs Rashid Derbas, and by directors and representatives of the Islamic Orphanage, the Intellectual Development Foundation, the Dr Mohammad Khaled institutions, Dar Al-Hanan for orphans (Al-Manara), the Imam Al-Sadr institutions, the Amal educational institutions, the Deir Al-Moukhalles school, the Akkar complex for care and development and the complex for developing human capacities.
In a welcoming speech by the director of Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Mabarrat Sayyed Hassan Hassan, he said: “This institution is the first ear of grain planted by the marja' of humanity His Eminence Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, and it was followed by 9 ears of grain in Jabal Amel, of schools and mabarrats in the south.”
He then praised the partnership among the care institutions that attend to those deprived of care in Lebanon.
Sayyed Jaafar Fadlallah delivered a speech centred on the importance of harmony and correspondence between society's values and the values on which we bring up our children, saying: “We cannot bring up our children on values that society does not abide by - as when a child learns honesty at his school and then, when he enters the field of work, is surprised by a society that adopts betrayal and bribery.”
Fadlallah called for strengthening human and religious values, calling for creating an environment of change: “If we cooperate as institutions we can draw up shared values and consolidate them within institutional work through the systems.”
He concluded: “In the institutions what is required is not to provide a service of food and drink, but rather to make the human being, and this is no easy matter for us.”
Afterwards a workshop was held on the role of care institutions in the field of strengthening values in society, followed by an open dialogue with Sayyed Jaafar Fadlallah, after which the participants made a tour of the institution's facilities, then an honorary lunch at the Mabarrat's restaurant in honour of the participants.
