According to statistics released by the ISF, the average number of suicide cases throughout the past ten years in Lebanon is 119, with the highest recorded number being 143 in 2017. This means that 1 person is dying from suicide every 2.5 days in the country yet awareness on mental healthy is still limited while suicide and emotional distress rates are on the rise.
There are several NGOs working tirelessly to make a difference, one of them is Embrace whose Lifeline (1564) helped over 1,700 individuals who were experiencing emotional crises or suicidal thoughts since February 2018. Moreover, the Embrace Lifeline was able to refer more than 400 persons to needed community services (including other NGOs and mental health professionals, hospitals, and primary health Care centers), and 93% of persons who call the helpline say they felt significantly better after talking to our operators.
Embrace is working hard to make the Lifeline a 24/7 reality and they’re raising funds to make this a reality by running the 10K Saradar Bank Women Race of the Beirut Marathon on March 31st 2019. Embrace’s Board Member, Marwa Khouzami Awad will be taking part in the race and we can all help spread the word by following one of these steps:
1) You can choose to run with Marwa by register for the marathon at www.beirutmarathon.org and choose Embrace as your cause
2) Help spread the word on the online crowdfunding campaign [Link].
3) Or help us raise awareness and simply through social media platforms [Insta] with the following hashtags #drawyourpathmarwa #anamaaki.
