Lebanon
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Within this rather refined nation lives more than half a million refugees from Palestine, Iraq, Sudan, and dozens of other countries. These refugees face challenges and discrimination that makes their lives a constant struggle. For example:
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Kids Alive provides care to more than 150 children in Lebanon every year. As well as Lebanese orphans, we provide critical support to children from TWELVE other nationalities.
Kids Alive began our ministry in Lebanon over sixty years ago. Today many of the over 100 children in our care have been referred to us because of abandonment, neglect and abuse, or the loss of both parents. In addition to the children in our residential homes, Kids Alive serves vulnerable children in the community through a school and care center, meeting not only physical needs, but also providing education to help children break the cycle of poverty.
Kids Alive Lebanon 2009 Review downloadable pdf
Support Dar El Awlad Children's Home
Dar El Awlad Children's Home
The Dar El Awlad Children’s Home provides a home for up to 40 boys, ages three to twenty, who have been orphaned or are from very poor families who are unable to care for them. The boys come from Christian, Muslim and Druze backgrounds, though our staff members are Christians and our main goal is to teach the children the Christian faith and disciple those who make commitments. Kids Alive gives the boys shelter, food, clothing, medical care, education, a ‘mother’ to love them and care for their day-to-day needs, and a living example of Christ’s love. Each child lives in one of five family apartments and is cared for by a houseparent. The apartments have bedrooms, sitting room, bathroom, and kitchen, while the Home also has a central kitchen, chapel, multi-purpose hall, and outdoor play facilities.
Our older boys, aged 16-plus years, live in one apartment on campus called the ‘Bell House,’ which provides them with more freedom and responsibility while still receiving the love and support of a family as they transition to independence.
We consider it vital that we provide the boys with educational and technical training skills to equip them for future employment. Unfortunately, many of the boys arrive several years behind in education, while some have learning difficulties that made them unable to cope with the stress of studying in a ‘mainstream’ government school – which is one reason Dar El Awlad School was started.
Support Dar El Awlad School
Dar El Awlad School
Dar El Awlad school has classes for kindergarten through sixth grade, both for our residential children and for many poor children in the local community. These children come from a range of different nationalities, such as Sudanese, Sri Lankan, Filipino, Iraqi and Palestinian backgrounds.
The school has eight classrooms, a library, and an outdoor playground area. Each class has a maximum of ten students so they each receive plenty of help, care, and attention, while children with learning disabilities are provided one-on-one instruction. The walls of Dar El Awlad School are painted bright colors, which is most unusual for a Lebanese school. The school is closely linked to our technology center where children are taught a range of practical skills such as woodworking and mechanics.
Support Moses' Basket Care Center
Moses' Basket Care Center
The center is open during working hours on weekdays to care for preschool children from very poor families, reaching out to them with practical Christian care and support. Many of these poor families are not Lebanese, and the program provides care for children who are Filipino, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, and Syrian. The Center has two brightly colored playrooms, a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and outdoor covered play area. Activities include playing with water and sand, cooking, painting, and ball games. Children also learn some basic Arabic and English, and every day the children are taught Bible stories and songs. A maximum of twelve children are in the program at one time, and some children transfer to Dar El Awlad School when they reach the age of four years.
Support The Bread of Life Bakery
The Bread of Life Bakery
The bakery was started in 2007 by a Kids Alive missionary on the main campus at Dar El Awlad. The main aims of the bakery are:
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To provide 220 loaves of free bread each week to other Christian organizations working with children at risk;
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To provide training and work experience opportunities to some of the older children in Kids Alive’s programs in Lebanon;
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To provide part-time employment for several visually impaired young people;
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To generate income for vocational training programs through the sale of bread and pastries in the local community.
Two visually-impaired young ladies and an older boy from Dar El Awlad work in the bakery under the supervision of a Kids Alive missionary. The program currently operates four days a week. The bakery develops a range of work experience and training opportunities, while sale of bread and other produce generates income which can be used for vocational training programs at Dar El Awlad.
Support Home of Serenity for Girls
Home of Serenity for Girls
After the Dar El Awlad Boys Home was founded in Beirut in 1948, Kids Alive supporters often asked, “But what about the girls?” This need finally led, in 1996, to the opening of the Home of Serenity for Girls in the Shouf Mountains outside Beirut. The buildings of Serenity Home are on a beautiful campus which houses bedrooms, meeting rooms and a large dining room. Girls in the Home range from four years old up through high school age, with some girls being sisters of boys in Dar El Awlad. All the needs of the girls are met — housing, food, clothing, and medical care, while they attend a nearby local school for their education. Most importantly, they are introduced to Jesus and shown what day-to-day Christian life means.
Support Brent Hamoud
Brent Hamoud
Brent joined Kids Alive in the fall of 2007 and serves as supervisor of the Bread of Life Bakery. Brent is sent out by the Waite Park Church in Minneapolis.
Brent’s history with Kids Alive goes back over 50 years ago when his grandparents, Leonard and Lois Swenson, began their 35-year ministry at Dar El Awlad. Brent’s father, Gedeon, is also a Dar El Awlad alumnus having spent 13 years in the home.
In addition to being a part of Kids Alive, Brent enjoys western novels, country music, and spending time with Bedouins.
Support Kahlil Pfaff
Kahlil Pfaff
Kahlil comes to Dar El Awlad from Lynchburg, Va, where he’s worked with at-risk teenagers for almost 10 years. In his free time, he spends time in the outdoors (rock climbing, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking, and photography) as well as inside, cooking. He will serve with Kids Alive for two years, but as the Lord allows and leads, he hopes that this will develop into a lifetime of service in Lebanon.
“Since my first trip to Lebanon in 2004 I've wanted to serve the people of this wonderfully diverse country. After much prayer and travel to Beirut, five trips over four years, I have been blessed by being welcomed into the Kids Alive family as a social worker. It is with much gratitude and honor that I am able to be a participant in the discipleship of these amazing children as well as to help them work through their psychological and emotional scars.” Kahlil Pfaff
Support Jessica Culp
Jessica Culp
Jessica Culp joined Kids Alive International in the spring of 2009 and will serve in the Dar El Awlad School in Lebanon as the Special Educational Needs Coordinator. She has been sent out from Bethany Community Church located in Laurel, MD.
Jessica first had the desire to serve in Lebanon with Kids Alive shortly after she accepted Christ in 2003. She was discipled by Ruth Thompson who had grown up in Lebanon as a missionary’s daughter to Leonard and Lois Swenson, who had 35 years of service as the directors of the boy’s home.
During her four years of college at High Point University in North Carolina, and a year internship with a college campus ministry she continued to feel the call to Lebanon.
“The Lord has placed this desire, to serve the kids in Lebanon, on my heart and has been faithful to see it through. I am excited for the opportunity to help children who have social, emotional, and physical needs; more than that I am excited to have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with them.”
Support Nicole Abel
Nicole Abel
Nicole joined Kids Alive Lebanon in September 2008, having learned of Kids Alive International on a short-term mission trip to the Dominican Republic. She is sent by her home church, Cape Bible Chapel in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Nicole graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English Secondary Education from Culver-Stockton College. She taught for two years at Cape Girardeau High School before coming to Lebanon. For Nicole, teaching is about more than just the transfer of knowledge – it is about awakening in children optimism for their futures.
In Lebanon, Nicole lives and works in the Dar El Awlad School and Children's Home. She is primarily a sixth grade teacher, but also teaches a few fourth grade classes. She is also an “Aunty” in the Children’s Home, allowing the house parents to have time off. She also loves to cook for and with the kids and spend quality time with them.
Support Alistair Dickey
Alistair Dickey
Alistair is Assistant Residential Manager at Dar El Awlad, responsible for the Kids Alive Lebanon Leadership Team, the spiritual program for children, and oversight of the Older Boys Apartment and Bread of Life Bakery. He has been in Lebanon since 2006, having been sent out from his home church in Northern Ireland. In his free time Alistair enjoys playing the piano and bass guitar. Other interests include Leeds United football team and the world of archaeology.
Support Mat and Suzanne Gregory
Mat and Suzanne Gregory
Mat and Suzanne Gregory joined Kids Alive International in 2003 and serve in Lebanon. Their home church is St John's the Evangelist located in Birmingham, England where they lived and worked prior to coming to Lebanon.
Both primary school teachers, Mat and Suzanne worked at Dar El Awlad School for four years, Mat in the role of Head Teacher of the school and Suzanne coordinating the special needs programme and the English curriculum. In the summer of 2008 Mat and Suzanne took on on the role of Field Directors at Kids Alive Lebanon.
Talking about their service with Kids Alive, Mat says: “We believe that we have been called into this ministry to offer our love and care to the children in Lebanon. We feel that every child should have the opportunity to reach their potential and to know that they are special and valued.”
Support Gavin Wright
Gavin Wright
Gavin comes from Harold Wood in north-east London, UK. He has a long history with Kids Alive Lebanon, having first worked at Dar El Awlad School for a short period of time eight years ago! Since then he has trained as a teacher and is now back in Lebanon serving as a Class Teacher. Gavin has also studied at Bible College and loves sharing the Bible with others. He also has great musical skills and these have been a huge blessing to the children at Dar El Awlad.
