Lebanon

Overview

There is a little-known secret hiding between the tall buildings and shopping centers in Lebanon.  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. 

Facts

  • Palestinians are banned from working more than 72 different jobs in Lebanon, leaving them unable to provide for their families.
  • Violence in refugee camps is ever-increasing, displacing thousands of these refugees each year.
  • Almost eleven percent of children will be forced to marry before they are ready—many before they reach puberty.
  • Children of refugees are often denied access to schools, leaving them illiterate and unable to provide for their own families when they become adults.
  • With violence constantly berating these refugee villages and slums, it is increasingly difficult and dangerous to deliver aid to these people.
Lebanon Need Picture

Featured Staff
Mat and Suzanne Gregory
Support Me!

Featured Program
Dar El Awlad School Sponsorship
Sponsor Me!

Helping the Children

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 12 other nationalities, many of them refugees! One of our goals is to develop our work with refugees and other vulnerable children over the coming year.

Currently, Kids Alive provides an education, nutritious meals, medical care and the love of Christ to more than 145 children in Lebanon.  This year, we hope to add 35 children to our Homes and Care Centers. That’s the largest number we’ve ever undertaken in one year.  But we’ve prayerfully decided to step out in faith and take up that challenge.

Ministry Sites

Dar El Awlad Children's Home
Dar El Awlad School
Moses' Basket Care Center
The Bread of Life Bakery
Home of Serenity for Girls
Advanced Education Fund, Lebanon
New Horizons Care Center

Missionaries

Brent Hamoud
Kahlil and Maria Pfaff
Mat and Suzanne Gregory
Matt Voss
Jeremy and Sara Boucher



Support Dar El Awlad Children's Home
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


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
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


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
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


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
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


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:

  • To provide 220 loaves of free bread each week to other Christian organizations working with children at risk;

  • To provide training and work experience opportunities to some of the older children in Kids Alive’s programs in Lebanon;

  • To provide part-time employment for several visually impaired young people;

  • 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
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


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
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


Brent Hamoud

Brent joined Kids Alive in 2007 and leads the Independent Living Program at Dar El Awlad by supervising the teenage residential boys in the Bell House. He is sent out by the Waite Park Church in Minneapolis Minnesota.

Brent’s history with Kids Alive goes back over 55 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 gardening, country music, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea and spending time with Bedouins.



Support Kahlil and Maria Pfaff
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


Kahlil and Maria Pfaff

Kahlil and Maria Pfaff managed to conquer distance, language, and culture to begin their service together at Dar el Awlad during the Spring of 2012. Prior to getting married, Maria was a school teacher in Magdel Aanjar (near the Lebanese-Syrian border) and Kahlil was serving with Kids Alive as a social worker at Dar el Awlad (since April 2009). Kahlil remains active in his role as a social worker and resident Apple geek while Maria will volunteer part time to assist the residential program at Dar el Awlad.

Kahlil spent nearly 10 years working with at-risk children and families in Lynchburg, VA as he prepared to make the move to Lebanon. In his free time he enjoys traveling, rock climbing, photography, cooking, and graphic design…and sharing his interests with the children as opportunities arise. Maria has travelled throughout the Middle East, working and volunteering with local Christian ministries, conducting camps, teaching, and equipping children to be leaders, the "salt and light" of their communities . She enjoys playing the piano, drama, drawing, and making short movies on the computer. Kahlil and Maria were married April 2012.

"My first visit to Lebanon was a short-term mission trip that lasted two weeks during the summer of 2004, now 8 years later I am married to a wonderful woman and have been involved in ministry that truly changes lives and impacts families.” -- Kahlil Pfaff

"I trusted God with every step I made in my life and I surrendered to Him the good and bad events that happened to me and He was very generous in his blessings throughout the years. My hope is to live a modest life with my husband, and together be a light for those around us. My main goal is to teach the the children God’s miraculous word that can change their lives forever." -- Maria Pfaff



Support Mat and Suzanne Gregory
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


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 Advanced Education Fund, Lebanon
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


Advanced Education Fund, Lebanon

Kids Alive Lebanon is experiencing growth – and as the ministry grows and matures, so the children under our care do too! Therefore we have established an Advanced Education Fund to help transition the children under our care into well-trained, independent healthy adults that can make a positive impact in their society.

The Advanced Education Fund will help pay scholarships for qualified students attending high school, university and/or vocational training, as well as help cover some of their living expenses. Because every child in Kids Alive care has been rescued from a desperate living situation, these young people have little or no access to other sources of funding for their education.

Beneficiaries of the Advanced Education Fund will be studying to become doctors, teachers, lawyers, accountants, managers, engineers, information technology professionals, and other skilled professions. They may also be learning valuable vocational skills such as woodworking, sewing, mechanical repair, and construction.  



Support New Horizons Care Center
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


New Horizons Care Center

The New Horizons Center operates in an area called "Zahrani" in Southern Lebanon, providing vital education, health care, vocational training, assistance with developing micro-enterprise activities – and the love of Christ. The families that we are working with live in very basic tents, constructed of plastic, corrugated iron and wood. These "homes" have only limited access to basic utilities and often do not have running water, proper washing facilities, or electricity. Very few of these people have had any formal education, and many are illiterate. Now the younger generations have a strong desire to become more literate. To meet this need, a literacy program is being established for the children and teenagers. This program will help them develop their skills in Arabic, English and mathematics.

For the women of the community, vocational training workshops will be set up, teaching sewing and jewelry making. The products from these will be sold in the markets in Beirut, a portion of the profits returning back to the project (so that it becomes self-sustaining) as well as the women and their families.

A medical clinic is also being established to meet the needs of these communities. Nurses will provide basic care as well as health education and advice, and they will be supported by a doctor and dentist who will perform surgeries on a regular basis.

The foundation of these programs, which are run in partnership with two other local organizations, is our desire to be sharing the love of Christ with these families, showing them the love that He has for them, and encouraging them to come to know Him in their own lives.



Support Matt Voss
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


Matt Voss



After having helped refugees from the Middle East at a soup kitchen in Athen, and seeing the turmoil first hand in the Middle East, Matt felt a calling to try to  contribute to God's Kingdom in that region. Already with a background of working with youth, God led him to Kids Alive in 2010 to help at the Dar El Awlad school. Matt is being sponsored mainly by Federal Way Church of Christ, Federal Way, Washington.

 

Since growing up in the church and accepting Christ in 2001, God has molded Matt's heart to reach out to youth. Before discovering a desire to serve in Lebanon, Matt has helped on numerous mission trips that have worked with kids in Inner City Portland, New Orleans, and Stockton, CA. But it was seeing the conditions of how people live and treat each other in the Middle East that called Matt to help those who are in need of Christ's love. This will be his first extended stay in Lebanon, and will need many prayers as he journey's forth for God's Kingdom.

 

When Matt has free time, he loves to enjoy the outdoors and live an active lifestyle that includes basketball, hiking, floating rivers, and enjoying God's creation. And do not be afraid to teach Matt something new; he's ever learning.



Support Jeremy and Sara Boucher
$.00

Your first gift will be made immediately and subsequent gifts will be charged on or around the first business day of each month until canceled. If you wish to cancel or modify your gift at any time, please call us at 1-800-543-7330.


Jeremy and Sara Boucher

Jeremy and Sara come from Texas and will be serving in Lebanon for 3 years as a Teacher and Sponsorship Coordinator. They hope to see justice for the boys at Dar El Awlad through education and the love of Christ, and pray He would do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" [Eph. 3:20].

They love Dr. Pepper, ginger-spiced desserts, and playing outside! Their son, Thaddaeus, will turn 2 in October 2012.



Gift Catalog

giftbox2

Gifts for Needy Children

Give something special to a needy child today!

Learn More