Basic HTML Version
24
SUMMER
2012
Twelve years later, Marina Kettaneh still
looks rather overwhelmed.
“I’m not sure how all this started really,”
she said laughing. “But I know that I can’t
just seem to stop.”
The mother of three IC children was at-
tending a bible study session with a group
of women in 1999 when some nuns ap-
proached them.They told them about a hill
in the Roueissat area (near Jdeideh) where
families were living in poverty stricken
slums.The nuns were part of the “Mission
Enfance” – an organization founded by a
Monacan priest in 1991 which supports
children in distress and does its best to
cater for them. But they need help. Would
the women be willing to provide some food
for the families of the ‘hill’?
Curious, Kettaneh immediately
went to visit the ‘hill’ – home to
about 35,000 residents. Until this
day, tears stream down her cheeks
when she recalls the scenes.
“It was awful,” she said. “I had
never seen such poverty.There
were kids with scurvy. In one
household, there was garbage on
the floor and excrement on the
bed. Seven children lived with an
alcoholic father. I had to stop my-
self from crying in front of them.”
Even more humbling, she stood
silently as the nuns began cleaning
up the mess.The nuns had chosen
to live on the ‘hill’ and opened
their center to residents in need.
The women’s weekly bible studies soon
turned into visits to the ‘hill’ as they
tugged bags of food with them.
A year later, Kettaneh suggested buy-
ing Christmas presents for some of the
center’s children. The women agreed.
Unbeknown to Kettaneh, she had just
launched a tradition that would stay and
expand in the years to come.
As children do, each one had a Christmas
wish and Kettaneh found herself staring
at a long list of presents.
She knew then that she had just gotten her-
self involved in a much bigger project that
she and her small group of women couldn’t
possibly handle. Quitting was out of the
question.There was only thing to do: turn to
the more affluent women in the country.
Fortunately, she is one of them. “I am
privileged,” she said. “I have been privi-
leged all my life.”
Well, she thought to herself, let’s give
these children some hope.
She soon became known as “Marina with
a list in her bag”. Luncheons and dinners
were never the same as Kettaneh ap-
proached friends with her lists. Would they
buy a present for a child? One by one she
checked the children’s names off the lists.
The bemused nuns approached her one
day and wondered if she could help them
out in setting up a summer camp for the
center’s children. Kettaneh immediately
found herself offering to provide the
food to feed several dozen children. And
friends found themselves approached
again with new lists that suddenly ap-
peared from Kettaneh’s bag: sacks of rice,
sacks of flour, gallons of cooking oil, etc.
The camp was followed with annual summer
trips to Waves resort in Mansourieh (Waves
generously waived entrance and meal fees
for the first five years), trips to the circus
(free or discounted tickets), scholarships, and
provisions of much needed vaccines.
A friend suggested a name for her efforts:
“Help and Heal”. Kettaneh liked it and
her organization – albeit unofficial – was
born (it became an official NGO in 2012).
To survive, however, Help and Heal had to
become self-sustainable. So far, Kettaneh
had been filling in all the financial gaps.
In 2005, with a few friends, she tenta-
tively organized a Christmas Bazaar and
displayed some items she had bought
from her trips around Europe. To her
surprise, she quickly sold out.
Over the next few years she expanded the
bazaar – and her group of supporters. “We
kept selling and selling,” she said.
She was finally making a noticeable profit
– extra money which immediately went
to hire the services of a psychologist, a
full-time teacher, and a speech therapist for
the now expanded center. She is currently
looking for a librarian for Help and Heal’s
newly donated library at the center. Friends
were becoming more involved. One took
over the responsibility for the Christmas
lists, another chose the books for the library,
and one raised money for vaccinations (after
a hepatitis outbreak in the ‘hill’).
Kettaneh and her partners soon
involved their own children and
had them selling Christmas
cookies for the organization.
In April 2010, Kettaneh was
diagnosed with breast cancer.
She thought of “her” children’s
faces opening their presents at
Christmas. She thought of her
own three children who had
been promised a long summer
holiday in Spain.
“Nothing is going change,” she
said determinately. “I am not
changing my life because of can-
cer. I will continue to get those
Christmas presents and my
family is going to Spain. If I can
fight cancer here, I can fight cancer there.”
Kettaneh underwent surgery to remove
the tumor and began her chemotherapy
treatment. She continued to run Help and
Heal as before and the family went on
their holiday exactly as scheduled (with
chemotherapy sessions in Spain).
Six months later, Kettaneh received a clean
bill of health. Unfazed, she continues to
run Help and Heal with her usual zest.
“We will consider ourselves successful if
we can get just ten kids out of that hor-
rible ‘hill’,” she said. “All it takes is one
person in every family to make it out of
there.The rest will follow. ”
For more info, contact: helpandheal.lebanon@
gmail.com
Help and Heal:
IC Mom reaches out to the children of ‘the hill’