Lebanese NGO Provides Helping Hand to The Poor Elderly

Beit El Baraka, which means “house of blessings” in Arabic, is a nonprofit organization in Beirut that is living up to its name in a time of crisis.

It was launched by Maya Chams Ibrahimchah last year to offer a helping hand to elderly and retired people abandoned by the state. More recently, it has been providing a lifeline to cash-strapped families struggling to survive amid Lebanon’s economic collapse.

Beit El Baraka chiefly operates through its free supermarket in the capital’s Karm El-Zeitoun neighborhood. The store provides a friendly and accessible environment for the 1,012 people it serves each day. The August 4 explosions in Beirut, while causing temporary disruptions, having not dimmed the spirit of altruism of the NGO’s founder.

“Two factors are important to us: dignity and security,” said Ibrahimchah, a graduate of the American University of Beirut. “When someone visits us, it’s like entering a person’s home. Usually, a home is a place where you feel safe. Your family is supposed to treat you with kindness, respect you as a citizen with rights, and support you.”

A communications expert and heritage-preservation activist, Ibrahimchah said the decision to set up a charitable organization was sparked by distressing daily encounters with poverty resulting from failing, bankrupt government institutions caught in a perfect storm of crises.

She recalled the day she decided to do something. She met a women who had worked as a French teacher for 40 years, who had lost her home and was sitting in the street surrounded by her few remaining possessions: some suitcases and boxes of books.

“How can someone so educated just end up on the streets?” asked Ibrahimchah. After finding shelter for the woman, she and the teacher spent time together and began to research Lebanese retirement laws and pension plans. They were dismayed to discover how little retirees receive as end-of-service benefits after many years of hard work.

An International Monetary Fund report published in 2016 found Lebanon to be the only country in the Middle East and North Africa region that lacks a social security system for retirees from the private sector, who lose their benefits and health coverage when their service ends.

The country also has the highest percentage of people still working past the age of 65 to pay their bills as the cost of living keeps rising.

Another incident that left its mark on Ibrahimchah was a visit to an apartment where a couple lived by candlelight in the evenings because they had been without electricity for eight years.

“These are things that you’re not supposed to see in the 21st century,” she said. “It’s not just shameful, it shows a lack of dignity from our leaders.

“The Lebanese people are educated, cultured and known for their resilience — they fall and rise again. We have 5,000 years of history in Lebanon and we’re one of the oldest countries in the world. How can a country that has endured so much and become all that it’s become be reduced to this level of misery?”

A woman on a mission, Ibrahimchah opened Beit El Baraka’s free supermarket in February 2019. It works on a system based on points rather than money: younger retirees are encouraged to work with Beit El Baraka, interacting with others and gaining points by cooking, delivering food to the older beneficiaries, and offering assistance in their homes.

This article has been adapted from its original source.